Meanwhile: On the motorcycle behind my father, Che Guevara
Aleida Guevara NYT Tuesday, October 12, 2004
HAVANA When I read "The Motorcycle Diaries" for the first time, it was just a sheaf of
typewritten pages. Still, I identified immediately with this man who narrated his
adventures in such a spontaneous way.
.
As I continued reading, I began to realize that the writer was my father.
.
There were moments when I took his traveling companion's place on the motorbike and
clung to my dad's back, journeying with him over the mountains and around the lakes. I
admit there were some points at which I stopped reading, especially when he describes
so graphically things I would never talk about myself.
.
When he does, however, he reveals yet again just how honest and unconventional he
could be. To tell you the truth, the more I read, the more in love I was with the boy
my father had been.
.
I got to know the young Ernesto Che Guevara better: the 23-year-old who left Argentina
with a yearning for adventure and dreams of the great deeds he would perform, and who,
as he discovered the reality of our continent, continued to mature as a human being
and to develop as a social being. Slowly we see how his dreams and ambitions changed.
.
The young man who makes us smile at the beginning with his absurdities and craziness
becomes increasingly sensitive as he tells us about the complex indigenous world of
Latin America, the poverty of its people and the exploitation to which they are
submitted.
.
My father, "�se, el que fue" ("myself, the man I used to be") as he identifies
himself, shows us a Latin America that few of us know, describing its landscapes with
words that color each image and reach into our senses, so that we can see what his
eyes took in.
.
His awareness grows that what poor people need is not so much his scientific knowledge
as a doctor, but rather his strength and persistence in trying to bring about the
social change that would enable them to recover the dignity that had been taken from
them and trampled on for centuries. I was only 6 when my father died, 37 years ago
this month, so I have few memories. I got to know my father only as I grew up. My
mother, Aleida March, loved him very deeply, and shared his ideals, which she passed
on to her children. What I remember most is my father's great capacity for love.
.
I often describe myself as a genetic accident; I had the honor and privilege of being
the daughter of a man and a woman who are very special people. And I am also a product
of the Cuban revolution. I am a pediatrician, specializing in allergies, in Havana.
When I was young, my father's image did influence me, but I later chose medicine as a
way to be closer to my people. I've also worked as a doctor in Nicaragua, Angola and
Ecuador.
.
We are happy as a family when my father's image inspires people to learn more about
him and his thinking, but often the commercialization seems to us like a lack of
respect for who he was and what he stood for.
.
Since the 1980s, we - Che's family and others - have been working on his unpublished
manuscripts. To publish anything written by him that he himself did not intend for
publication - as is the case with the notes that became "The Motorcycle Diaries" -
serious editing work is required. We can't omit text, but at the same time we can't be
completely sure he would have given his permission for the text to be published as it
was originally written. That is why we have a commitment to edit what he wrote without
changing what he meant - a very difficult task.
.
A Cuban publishing house published "The Motorcycle Diaries" for the first time in
1993. Of the many books that my father wrote, it is one of my favorites, because this
book brings the young Ernesto closer to other young people in the world today - which
is the most important thing - showing how people can be changed if they are sensitive
to their surroundings.
.
Unfortunately, the conditions in Latin America that provoked a profound change in the
young Che Guevara still exist in many parts of our continent and the world, and with
an increasingly brutal impact.
.
Has the book become so popular because his strength and tenderness are a model for the
people we need in these times? I believe this is the case, and I am proud to live
among people who not only love him, but who put into practice his desire to create a
world that is far more just.
.
Aleida Guevara is the author of the forthcoming "Ch�vez, Venezuela and the New Latin
America." This article was translated by Pilar Aguilera from the Spanish.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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