motorcycle diaries
"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine." - Che Guevara
Watched "The Motorcycle Diaries" last December 29, while reading his Guerrilla Warfare and selected writings on politics and revolution.
"This is not about heroic acts" - movie's opening line.
It wasn't THE great movie or anything, yet it shows us the context on Ernesto De la Serna's road to revolution. Latin America, 1952. Guevara's travel along the American continent. With his skirt-chasing buddy Alberto Granado, biochemist, scientist-traveller, Ernesto chugs on the "Mighty One," a Norton 500 cc motorcycle, cruising through Latin America's beautiful landscape. Only when they crash the bike do they really see Latin America, its people oppressed and downtrodden, especially by US multinationals. On the road with their youthful misadventures, Guevara and Granado finally reach a leper colony, where they volunteer. Here you can see Guevara's genuine feelings for the people (perhaps lacking in some of today's generation). Defining moment when he realizes that the Amazon river separates the ill from the healthy, a realization of the artificial barriers that the powerful set-up against the oppressed, or the artificiality of nations in what could be a pan-American revolution. Guevara emerges from that journey a changed man.
Won't delve into his biography; you have books for that. Some of Guevara's theories, though, like his foco theory, was lacking in political content, probably because he engaged straight away to fighting, without much attention to the social agitation and political work that comes with revolution. Yet he did contribute much, and should be regarded as a true internationalist, and had a real commitment to ending injustice.
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December 27 - Mig people celebrated Christmas and other commemorations at our place.
Watched "The Motorcycle Diaries" last December 29, while reading his Guerrilla Warfare and selected writings on politics and revolution.
"This is not about heroic acts" - movie's opening line.
It wasn't THE great movie or anything, yet it shows us the context on Ernesto De la Serna's road to revolution. Latin America, 1952. Guevara's travel along the American continent. With his skirt-chasing buddy Alberto Granado, biochemist, scientist-traveller, Ernesto chugs on the "Mighty One," a Norton 500 cc motorcycle, cruising through Latin America's beautiful landscape. Only when they crash the bike do they really see Latin America, its people oppressed and downtrodden, especially by US multinationals. On the road with their youthful misadventures, Guevara and Granado finally reach a leper colony, where they volunteer. Here you can see Guevara's genuine feelings for the people (perhaps lacking in some of today's generation). Defining moment when he realizes that the Amazon river separates the ill from the healthy, a realization of the artificial barriers that the powerful set-up against the oppressed, or the artificiality of nations in what could be a pan-American revolution. Guevara emerges from that journey a changed man.
Won't delve into his biography; you have books for that. Some of Guevara's theories, though, like his foco theory, was lacking in political content, probably because he engaged straight away to fighting, without much attention to the social agitation and political work that comes with revolution. Yet he did contribute much, and should be regarded as a true internationalist, and had a real commitment to ending injustice.
###
December 27 - Mig people celebrated Christmas and other commemorations at our place.
posted by www.newfreemedia.com @ 5:37 AM
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