Week Eight: Che, Part 1: The Argentine

In the film Che, Part 1: The Argentine, the audience gets a glimpse into the physical struggle for the rise to power gained by Castro and his followers in Cuba. It is interesting to see, especially in the scenes where Che, or Guevara, is addressing the other countries of the United Nations, how he feels about the support of the Cuban government and the actions taken by other nations. However, one gets a more in depth and direct approach into how Guevara feels about worldwide action taken by the United States to combat communism in his “Message to the Tricontinental Congress.” Guevara does not accept the United States excuse that it is stopping communism but feels that the US government is power-hungry and materialistic. These leaders, according to Che, will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even exploiting the innocent, like the South Koreans. One could inquire if Che was using the United States’ actions to make the revolution, which he played a major role in, appear more successful to countries around the world. Guevara is aware that the United States is one if Cuba’s largest threats and most likely would want as many allies as possible if it came to a war. 

            Guevara knows that if he makes the United States look like their only goal is the occupation and successive material gains from occupying countries like Vietnam and Korea, and not the concern for the citizens of this country, that less people will be likely to support the war effort made by the United States. Although Guevara obviously is not alive at this time to comment on it, his same argument could be seen in the US fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the Middle East being a prime source of oil. Guevara also makes a very profound statement about the United States involvement in other countries in his speech, “Guerrilla Warfare: A method.” Most of the recent wars that the United States has been involved in have been mainly carried out through guerrilla war style, including in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq. As history and current events show, the United States has not been completely successful in any of these wars, which makes one stop and think when Guevara states that guerrilla type wars can only be won with support from the people.

Another nation, like the US, cannot come in and win a war of this type unless the home nation is backing it. One can see how easy it now is to figure out why the US has not been successful, concluding that these particular wars may not be in the nest interest of the people of these countries. This does not mean, however, that the United States does not think that it is doing these countries a favor or that they entered these conflicts solely for material gains.  Guevara is obviously showing that a successful revolution, like that of the one in Cuba is only possible if the citizens of that country are unhappy and willing to fight for the type of government that they believe in.

Week Seven: Motorcycle Diaries

 

Although the film Motorcycle Diaries does not explicitly state that Ernesto Guevara began to form his revolutionary ideas from the cross-continental motorcycle trip that is the focus of the movie, one can interpret that this is an underlying theme, given Guevara’s role in the Cuban revolution. It is interesting to see, however, that Guevara did not initially have much interest in the politics of other countries as Paulo Drinot points out in his article “Awaiting the Blood of a Truly Emancipating Revolution: Che Guevara in 1950s Peru.” Guevara did not make many references to the political situations in his diary about the other countries during his ride across South America. These diaries are the basis for the film and therefore show that although some incidents during his travels could have set in motion the mindset that caused him to become a great revolutionary, that was not the time for an extreme change.

            Traveling was also not a new adventure for Guevara, who, as shown in Eduardo Elena’s essay “Point of Departure: Travel and Nationalism in Ernesto Guevara’s Argentina,” is a very well traveled youth before the events of the film. This exposure to different cultures and areas is possibly an important factor in his extreme political views. Although his motorcycle trip was most likely more expansive than his other travels, all of these experiences combined, not just the one in Motorcycle Diaries, could have been responsible for changing his worldviews on politics. Elena also points out that Guevara already considered his travels more than just a leisurely vacation, which he may not have been doing outright research, but he was paying attention to culture and politics of other places and forming his own views in the process. Another impact that most likely was an important factor for Guevara was his contact with the indigenous people of different countries. We see his empathy in the film for the mining couple and the lepers at the settlement, however the living conditions and lifestyles of these people seems to have a greater impact on Guevara than the film emphasizes. Drinot shows in his essay how Guevara felt that the government or those of the upper classes did not treat natives equally.  Guevara is touched and unhappy with how defeated the Indians seem to see themselves compared to the people who had more than them.

            As Elena profoundly points out in his essay, the audience of the Motorcycle Diaries gets no exposure to the real political environments in each of the countries that Guevara visits. One has no idea how the social and political structures and happenings throughout South America had an impact on the man that he became. This film does make an interesting story about Guevara’s travels, however it does not show the raw situations that each of the countries he travels though is experiencing, therefore shaping the future life of Ernesto Guevara. Although one cannot say that this particular trip had a significant impact on Guevara, it is still important to see the situations of the different areas that he visited.