10 Wednesday 8th July, 2009 The Island Features

lishing house published “The Motorcycle Amazon River. The journey took Guevara “imperialist gringo domination”. A meeting with Diaries” for the first time in 1993. through Argentina, Chile, Peru, , a homeless communist couple in search of min- Prior to his so called motorcycle expedition, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, ing work made a particularly strong impression Ernesto Guevara spent long periods traveling before returning to Argentina. on Guevara around Latin America during his studies of med- Their first stop was Miramar in Argentina, In Peru, Guevara was impressed by the icine, from 1948, at the University of Buenos a small resort where Guevara’s girlfriend, old Inca civilization, forced to ride in trucks with Aires. In January 1950, Guevara attempted his Chichina, was spending the summer with her Indians and animals after their motor bicycle first voyage. He traversed the northern provinces family. Two days stretched into eight, and upon broke down. In March 1952 they both arrived at of Argentina on a bicycle on which he installed a leaving, Chichina gave Guevara $15 (US) to buy the Peruvian Tacna, a region of poverty. In May small motor. He arrived at San Francisco del her a swimsuit if they made it to the U.S.. they arrived in Lima, Peru and during this time Chahar, near Córdoba, where his friend Alberto Guevara swore to her that he would starve rather Guevara met doctor Hugo Pesce, a Peruvian sci- Granado ran the dispensary of the leper-centre. than spend the money on anything else; however, entist, director of the national leprosy program, This experience allowed Guevara to have long he later gave it away to a poor peasant couple in and an important local Marxist. The discussions made during several nights until the early morn- ing between Che and doctor Hugo, were identi- fied by Che years later as being very important for his evolution in attitude towards life and soci- ety. In May, Guevara and Granado left for the leper-centre of San Pablo in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, arriving there in June. The Motorcycle During his stay Guevara complained about the miserable way the people and sick of that region have to live. Guevara also swam once from the side of the Amazon River where the doctors stayed, to the other side of the river where the leper patients lived, a considerable distance of Diaries of two and a half miles. He describes how there were no clothes, almost no food, and no medica- tion. After giving consultations and treating patients for a few weeks, Guevara and Granado left for Leticia, Colombia via the Amazon River. Later that month Guevara arrived in Caracas, Venezuela and from there decided to by Harsha Udayakantha Peiris, return back to Buenos Aires to finish his studies n Sunday the 14th of June this year in medical science. However, prior to his return, Bolivians and Cubans Paid tribute to he also traveled by cargo-plane to Miami, where OErnesto Che Guevara on his 81st birth- the airplane’s technical problems delayed him day. The celebrations were held at the same place, one month. To survive, he worked as a waiter he was murdered in October 1967. and washed dishes in a Miami bar. Che Guevara was captured by the Bolivian Aleida Guevara, son of Ernesto Che Army on October 08 in 1967. This ended his mis- Guevara, once expressing his heart-felt sincerity sion to make a liberation movement in South to his father said, “My father, “myself, the man I America. Although it was not known to many a used to be” as he identifies himself, shows us a local reader at present, Che was once much popu- Latin America that few of us know, describing its lar all over the world for his so called biography, ‘ The two men crossed landscapes with words that color each image and The Motorcycle Diaries’ in which he revealed reach into our senses, so that we can see what his

how the true rebellion was born in him. into Chile next. At one eyes took in.

The Motorcycle Diaries is a book that traces “point they introduced His awareness grows that what poor people the early travels of Ernesto Che Guevara, then a “ need is not so much his scientific knowledge as a

23-year-old medical student, and his friend themselves as doctor, but rather his strength and persistence in , a 29-year-old biochemist. trying to bring about the social change that

Guevara travelled 8,000 kilometres across South internationally would enable them to recover the dignity that America on an old motorcycle. During the jour- had been taken from them and trampled on for ney he was transformed by witnessing the social renowned leprosy centuries.” injustices of exploited miners, persecuted com- “ Witnessing the widespread endemic poverty, munists, ostracized lepers and the tattered experts to a local news- “ oppression and disenfranchisement throughout descendants of a once-great Incan civilization. Latin America, and influenced by his readings of The book ends with a declaration by Guevara, paper, which wrote a Marxist literature, Guevara later decided that originally born into an upper middle class family, glowing story about the only solution for the region’s structural displaying his willingness to fight and die for the inequalities was armed revolution. His travels cause of the poor, and his dream of seeing a unit- them. and readings throughout this journey also led ed Latin America. The book also became a New him to view Latin America not as a group of sep- York Times bestseller several times. arate nations, but as a single entity requiring a Che and Alberto desired to explore the South continent-wide strategy for liberation from what America that had been known to them only from he viewed as imperialist and neo-colonial domi- books. By the end of the journey first by motor- nation. His conception of a borderless, united, cycle and then by a steamship, raft, horse, bus, Hispanic-America sharing a common ‘mestizo’ and hitchhiking they traveled for a symbolic bond, was a theme that would prominently recur nine months, and covered more than 8,000 miles conversations with the patients about their dis- need of it. during his later activities and transformation across places like the Andes, Atacama Desert, ease. While he continued studying, he also The two men crossed into Chile next. At one from Ernesto the traveler, into Che Guevara the and the Amazon River Basin. In the book worked as a nurse on trading and petroleum point they introduced themselves as internation- iconic revolutionary. Guevara details his adventure, as well as his ships of the Argentine national shipping-compa- ally renowned leprosy experts to a local newspa- Later, Che’s ‘Motorcycle diaries’ the observations on the life of the impoverished ny. This allowed Guevara to travel from the south per, which wrote a glowing story about them. The biopic about the journey and written memoir of indigenous peasantry throughout Latin America. of Argentina to Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad. travelers later used the press clipping as a way to the then 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara, was also Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida Guevara in In January 1952 Guevara’s older friend, win meals and other favors with locals along the produced into a screenplay that became very an article in the year 2004, stated that through- Alberto Granado, a biochemist, and Guevara, way. much popular world wide through the years for out the book any reader could see how Guevara decided to take a year off from their medical Unable to get a boat to Easter Island as they the genuine picture of the Latin American iden- became aware that what poor people needed was studies to embark on a trip they had spoken of intended, they headed north, where Guevara’s tity it depicted. Directed by Brazilian director not his scientific knowledge as a doctor, but his making for years; traversing South America. political consciousness began to stir as he and Walter Salles and written by Puerto Rican play- strength and persistence to bring social change. Guevara and the 29-year-old Granado soon set off Granado moved into mining country. They visit- wright José Rivera, the film was also an interna- Aleida also explains in the same article that from their hometown of Alta Gracia astride a ed Chuquicamata copper mine, the world’s tional co-production and teamwork among pro- Che didn’t intend his diary to be published, and 1939 Norton 500 cc motorcycle they named La largest open-pit mine and the primary source of duction companies from Argentina, the United had remained as “a sheaf of typewritten pages”. Poderosa (“The Mighty One”) with the idea of Chile’s wealth. At the time it was run by U.S. States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Since the 1980s Che’s family had been working on spending a few weeks volunteering at the San mining monopolies of Anaconda and Kennecott Peru and France. his unpublished manuscripts, until a Cuban pub- Pablo Leper colony in Peru on the banks of the and thus was viewed by many as a symbol of !

“We knew ...from page 8 Majority think it is possible to NR: So you say they were the forces. After Kilinochchi, they LW: For example, there was most ruthless and most power- were saying: “No-Fire Zones, so not a single instance where the ful terrorist organisation in the go there.” So all of them [the Army was found to be wanting world. LTTE leaders and fighters] went in its conduct towards women. believe in God and Darwin there. These were not areas President: Yes, the most demarcated by the U.N. or some- President: That girl, when – than people elsewhere in the ruthless and richest terrorist body else; they were demarcat- she surrendered — they were organisation in the world. And ed by our armed forces. The deciding, there were six or country. well equipped, well trained. whole thing was planned by our seven [LTTE women fighters] — In total 23 per cent of the capi- forces to corner them. The she says in her statement: final- tal’s residents rejected evolution, LTTE’s final strategy? Army was advancing from ly, two or three ate cyanide and compared with 16 per cent nation- North to South, South to North, killed themselves; and then two wide. NR: What do you think was on all sides. So I would say they or three girls said, “all right, we Overall, 45 per cent of adults their final strategy? Prabakaran got cornered by our strategies. will see whether we will be said they had heard of the holed out with all the LTTE raped, whether we will kill our- leaders and their families in LW: Kilinochchi was cap- selves or be killed by rape, we Victorian naturalist and knew at that small space, that sliver of tured on the 1st of January will take this risk.” The school- least a little about his ideas. coastal land. It shocked the 2009. And the whole operation teacher, this educated girl, sur- Dr Fern Elsdon-Baker, head of world. But what were they was over on the 19th of May. So rendered. Nothing happened. the British Council’s Darwin Now expecting? D.B.S. Jeyaraj, who there was ample time [for them She can’t believe this. She was programme, said: “This survey has writes for us, has a theory that to get away]. paid by the government for thrown up some very interesting they wanted to do a daring fighting us! By the way, we are regional variations which shows counter-attack. Conduct of now going to get all the govern- armed forces ment servants [from the that there is significant need for President: I think what they President: Yes, I can’t under- Northern areas that used to be education and debate about the wanted was to escape. In the stand why they had to fight a controlled by the LTTE] and I Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution theory of evolution. final phase, they were waiting conventional war. Prabakaran am going to tell them: “Forget “The contribution that Darwin for somebody to come and take could have gone underground. your past. You work there in Most people feel it is possible to ago in his groundbreaking book, has made to evidence-based science them away. Otherwise, they If I was the leader of the LTTE, these organisations, you can’t believe in God and evolution, On the Origin of Species by Means fundamentally underpins modern wouldn’t have gone there. I would have gone underground just wait there. We are paying Because they had the Sea Tiger and I would have been in the you.” Now teachers must go and according to a survey. of Natural Selection. biology and is of huge importance, base: that was the only place jungles — fighting a guerrilla teach and others must go to The poll carried out by the The study, which surveyed the as is the need to address how his where they could bring a ship fight. They couldn’t do that now their posts and work. British Council found that 54 per opinions of more than 10,000 peo- ideas are communicated and debat- very close — even a submarine. because we, our Army, mastered And the money that they [the cent thought that science and reli- ple across 10 countries worldwide ed alongside other perspectives. They selected the best place for the jungles. They were much Tamil civilians fleeing the gion are compatible. including Great Britain, also “Ultimately, this survey high- them: on one side the sea, then better than the LTTE in this LTTE] deposited: on the first Only 19 per cent of those ques- uncovered wide regional varia- lights the role that science can play the lagoon, and there was a [mode of warfare]. Thanks to day it was 450 million [Sri tioned said it is impossible to tions in the acceptance of evolu- in society as a point of reference small strip. But then it was not the Special Forces, the Long- Lankan rupees] together in the they who actually selected the Range Forces, and the small two banks, People’s Bank and believe in a God while also holding tionary theory. for debate that should be respectful place: they ‘selected’ it but the groups, the group of eight. That the Bank of Ceylon. And con- the view that life on earth evolved Londoners were found to be of people’s views and beliefs.” armed forces made them go worked very well. And I salute siderable quantities of gold. as a result of natural selection. more likely to believe in creation- there. The No-Fire Zones were our forces for their discipline. The Army has become a very This is the theory proposed by ism – the idea that the earth was © The Telegraph all announced by the armed disciplined force. Charles Darwin exactly 150 years divinely created in its current form Group London 2009