June « 2009 « northparkchurch young adults

The Motorcycle Diaries

June 11, 2009

Ernesto “Che” Guevera was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, but before the violence and guerilla warfare he was simply a medical student with a longing to help the sick and oppressed. In his book “The Motorcycle Diaries” you see him before he was ever known as “Che”, on the back of a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado. The journey took Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, before returning to Argentina. Their main objective was to reach the leper colony of San Pablo in the Amazon, but along the way they witnessed first hand the poverty and oppression the people of south america were being forced to endure. All these things ignited a fire in “Che” that would change him forever. I truly believe that we are all given “Christ-like” gifts. Whether its the ability to see beauty in everything or to love everyone as Christ loved us, “Che” had a compassion for his people that can only be compared to the compassion Christ has for the poor. Now before you get up in arms and say “How dare you compare Jesus Christ to someone as violent as ‘Che’ Guevera” I am by no means condoning the violent acts he committed later in his life. Most people only know “Che” as he was along side Fidel Castro, angry and wanting change by ANY means necessary. He was not always like this. Sometimes when we dont have Christ in our lives we use the gifts he gave us in all the wrong ways. In “The Motorcycle Diaries” you see a young “Che” who loved and genuinly cared for his people. He treated the people of the leper colony not as outcasts but brothers. As you read the book or watch the movie you feel the pain he felt, you want to help the people just as badly as he did, as Christ would have wanted us to.

-Danielle Minassian

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

-Matthew 9:36