Chasing Che

In 1952, a young Argentine doctor named Ernesto Guevara, along with his friend Alberto Granado (recently deceased; more on Granado can be found here), embarked on a motorcycle journey across South America. This trip would plant some of the seeds in Ernesto's transformation to El Che, a figure known around the world for both good and evil. In his book Chasing Che: A Freewheeling Adventure Through the Wide Open Spaces of South America on the Trail of Che Guevara, author and journalist Patrick Symmes retraces the journey on a motorcycle of his own, attempting to follow as closely as possible the trail that these two men took. Symmes leaves Buenos Aires and heads south, traveling across the pampas of Argentina into Chile, then up to Peru and ends his travels in Vallegrande, Bolivia, where El Che was buried following his death in La Higuera (some of Guevara's bones have since been removed and reburied in Cuba). This is an incredibly fascinating travel account, and also lends some understanding into a complex figure. Che is arguably one of the most mythic figures in modern history, and Symmes seeks to distinguish the myth from the reality, although that seems to be a difficult prospect, as he follows this route 44 years after Ernesto. Many of the people that came into contact with him are gone, and what remains are mainly stories and legends that may or may not be true. For me personally, the most interesting parts of the book are Symmes' travels through Peru, a country where I spent two years of my life. His views of the Peruvian capital Lima are less than favorable:

"The Scorch. I had always called Lima by that bitter, blackened name. It was a foul metropolis of dusty brown buildings and clogged streets and cold hills that had chilled my heart since the first day I had seen it. It was my least favorite place in the hemisphere, a burden of sorrow on the ground, and when the desert began to give way to the edges of the city, to its ring of hills and its outer badges of poverty, I rode Kooky(his motorcycle) with slow care and felt an emotional paralysis overwhelm me."

That is a fair description. Lima is a city where dirt is ingrained in everything, even the plant life. There is a distinct smell as well, one that can be detected miles from the city. That being said, my views of the city differ greatly from his. Through all the filth, noise, and squalor is a city with a hidden charm and some wonderful people. Perhaps because I lived there and came to know many of the people is why I feel that way, but it is a city I learned to love despite its many faults. Chasing Che is a wonderful read, particularly for anyone interested in travelogues. It is not overtly political; the author realizes the faults of Che as much as the good about the man. It is an attempt to better understand what Guevara and Granado experienced during their journey (which has been portrayed in the movie The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Che's personal diaries and memoirs). It is also an attempt to understand a complex continent, which is continually undergoing changes and has been through some very dark times. It certainly helped me to reflect on some of my own experiences in Peru and understand it a little bit better.