Educational Media Reviews Online

Alberto Granados, Ché’s long-time friend and companion on Ché’s motorcycle ride out of Argentina, is one of the main characters of this documentary that together with the three surviving members of Guevara’s personal guard in Cuba bring an honest and personal testimony. Shot in Cuba during the time the remains of Ché were being transported from Bolivia to his final resting place in Santa Clara: the Mausoleo Ché Guevara, which houses his remains and sixteen of his fellow combatants in Bolivia; Granados gives a portray of young Ché and their long trip through South America. Ché diaries related to the trip, as well as Alberto Granado’s own memoir served as story for the Motorcycle Dairies film. The three surviving guards unveil Ché’s strong contribution for the Cuban Revolution, his experience and example as Industry Minister after the revolution, his intimate relationship with Fidel Castro, and his frustrations with bureaucracy and bourgeois life. “No nací para ser ministro, ni abuelito.”--I was not born to be a minister or a grandfather, he said once to Granados.

For the first time a documentary brings Ché’s frustrated experience for the period spent in Congo fighting a Revolutionary War as well as his sense of failure. This sense of failure was probably the cause for his rushing to organize a guerrilla movement in Bolivia in spite of being counseled to the contrary. This documentary includes extraordinary archival footage as well as original photographs taken by Ché himself. So far it is the only documentary that brings the ceremony of the returning of Ché’s remains to Santa Clara, the government ceremony as well as the pouring of people that gave homage to this twentieth century heroic figure. This documentary is a must see for all those who are interested in labor studies, history and cultural studies of Latin America. Highly recommended for high school, college, university and public libraries.