The Motorcycle Diaries

First of all, holy shit Gael Garcia Bernal is a B A B E ! That man can be my doctor any day! Check him out! OK, I should calm down now and get onto my actual point.





(P.S. Dev, I have noticed that my page views have gone up quite a bit. Thanks for checking in and caring about what I write!)

So given that I am starting Spanish at uni next year, and have never learnt it before I thought I should spend the summer reading and watching things do to with the Spanish language. I bought Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude (bonus as they appear in Rory's reading list). I have been scanning the Lonely Planet website and found the 10 best fiction novels written about Latin American states. I got the Motorcycle Diaries and Volver out from United Video! And I will learn to make Mohitos as soon as my pay come through for the rum! So basically a nice, although highly trivial Spanish basis.

So tonight was Motorcycle Diaries night. And what a night it was. If you are reading this, go. Go and get this movie out from the DVD store. It is amazing. I was always quite fond of Che, though in all honesty I didn't know much about him. Prior to the movie this is what I knew:

1. He was Argentinian
2. He was a doctor
3. He was good friends with Fidel Castro and was a leader in the Cuban revolution
4. America didn't like him and therefore shot him

That's about the limit of my knowledge. And also that thousands of people wear tops with his face on them, or have bags or posters without know what the man really did. The movie enlightened me and I learnt a few new things about this sweetheart of a man:

1. He was an asthmatic
2. He wasn't very lucky with the ladies - or his girlfriend at least
3. His bestie was Alberto

So I didn't really seem to learn that much more about the man, yet I did. I knew he was a man of and for the people and this really came out in the movie. He and his friend Alberto traveled South America, starting in Argentina and ending in Venezuela. It is through this traveling, meeting new people, having new experiences that Che develops his political standings. He connects with the people of Latin America and their hardships. He sees injustices all over the continent, particulary with the native people and this fires him up to believe that there is more to life, that people should not be treated inhumanly, that all people are worthy of a decent life.

Now I will just have to read the book the movie to further my Che knowledge. And I think i will have to call my child Ernesto. Yes. Sounds like a plan.