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companero che .com - the truth about Ernesto Che Guevara
Argentina South America Mexico Cuba Soviet Union Africa Bolivia
- childhood            
- adolescence            

- adulthood



In January 1950 he began his journey through several provinces in northern Argentina on a bicycle to which he had adapted a small engine. He toured over 4500 kilometers. El Grafico, a sports magazine in Argentina, published a picture of Ernesto on the motorbike he used for the journey. The company that manufactured the engine Ernesto adapted to his bicycle, tried to use it for advertising claiming it was very strong since Ernesto had gone on such a long tour using its power. On 29th December 1950 he started out on a long tour of several countries in Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado. They departed from the city of Cordoba on a motorbike they christened ?Powerful II?. In Chile, the motorcycle broke down and they had to leave it in Santiago and carried on their journey using other means of transportation. They both traveled and visited towns of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. They covered a distance of 9000 kilometers. During this long trip, they visited the leper communities of Huambo and San Pablo and worked there, sharing the life with the sick ones.


In July 1951 they arrived in Venezuela. Granado decided to stay in Caracas and work as a doctor. Ernesto returned to Argentina to finish his studies and promised to meet with Granad later in Venezuelan capital. His meeting with the miners in Chuquicamata influenced greatly his political views. he witnessed how the US companies exploited the miners and the miserable life they lived. On 6th January 1952 Ernesto and Granado arrived at Villa Gesel to the North of Mar del Plata city. In his travel notes he described what his friend felt when he saw the ocean for the first time, as well as his thought about the sea.


"The fool moon rests over the sea and covers the waves with silver reflections. Seated on a dune, we watched the continuous sway of the waves with different moods. For me, the sea was always a confidant, a friend who absorbs everything that you tell him without ever revealing the secret confided to him and who gives the best of advice; a noise whose significance each one of us interprets as we can. For Alberto, it is a new spectacle that causes a strange disturbance in him whose reflections are perceived in the attentive look with which he follows the development of each of the waves that come to die on the beach. Approaching thirty years Alberto discovers the Atlantic Ocean and feels at that moment the importance of the discovery, which opens a myriad of roads for him leading to all the points of the globe."

On 14th June 1952 Che turned 24 together with the sick and the medical staff of the San Pablo leper community in Peru. During his stay in that centre both Ernesto and Alberto shared and exchanged their views with the patients with whom they also played sports. With respect to his time in the leper community, Ernesto wrote:


"All the love and caring just consist on coming to them without gloves and medical attire, shaking their hands as any other neighbor and sitting together for a chat about anything or playing football with them?."


On 31st Aug 1952, after staying more than a month in North American territory and due to the breakage of the plane he was flying on, he returns to Buenos Aires. In Argentina he rewrites his travel notes in which he details the experiences lived during the journey with Granado through several Latin American countries.


"The personage who wrote this notes died when he again stepped on Argentine soil. The one ordering and polishing them, I, I am not me; at least I am not the same inner me. That wandering without course through our Monumental America has changed me more than I thought."


Between September 1952 and April 1953, he made a great effort to be able to graduate as a doctor. The course curriculum included 30 subjects. After he returned from the trip with Granado he had to pass almost half of the subjects. On April 11th, 1953 he took his last exam (Clinical Neurology) before graduating from Medical School. On June 12th, 1953 Ernesto got his medical degree. Although he could get a certain placement in a Buenos Aires clinic, he was still interested in going to Venezuela to meet up with his friend Alberto Granado.

<- Che's adolescence Che in Bolivia ->

A detailed chronology of Che's life you can find
in this book "A Brave Man" on Cuba Directo website


©2008 Nigel Hunt - All Rights Reserved.

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