Lucia Alvarez de Toledo

Che Guevara is something of a symbol in the West, a representative of Sixties counterculture and the face adorning the T-shirts of a million student radicals. But in the rest of the world he is something else: a charismatic revolutionary who redrew the political map of Latin America and gave hope to those resisting colonialism everywhere. Lucia Alvarez de Toledo comes from the same social milieu as Che Guevara; born and raised in Buenos Aires, she was at school while he attended university, and then as a journalist she closely followed his meteoric political rise. As a result she is able to put him into context like few others among his biographers, dispelling numerous popular misconceptions and revealing aspects to his life which have been missed before. Based on interviews with Che's family and those who knew him intimately, this is an accessible biography that concentrates on the man rather than the icon. With the political developments in Latin America in the twenty-first century, Guevara's influence can be seen to be even greater than it was during his lifetime.

The Story of Che Guevara

Alberto Granado

Published for the first time in the U.S.—one of the two diaries on which the movie The Motorcycle Diaries is based—the moving and at times hilarious account of Che Guevara and Alberto Granado's eight-month tour of South America in 1952. In 1952 Alberto Granado, a young doctor, and his friend Ernesto Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student from a distinguished Buenos Aires family, decided to explore their continent. They set off from Cordoba in Argentina on a Norton 500cc motorbike and traveled through Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. The duo's adventures vary from the suspenseful (stowing away on a cargo ship, exploring Incan ruins) to the comedic (falling in love, drinking, fighting...) to the serious (volunteering as firemen and at a leper colony). They worked as day laborers along the way—as soccer coaches, medical assistants, and furniture movers. The poverty and exploitation of the native population started the process that was to turn Ernesto—the debonair, fun-loving student—into Che, the revolutionary who had a profound impact on the history of several nations. Originally published in Spanish in Cuba in 1978, the first English translation was published by Random House UK in 2003. The movie, based on Granado's and Che's diaries, directed by Walter Salles (Central Station, Behind the Sun), was produced by Robert Redford and others. Shown at the Sundance Film Festival, it generated great reviews and a frenzied auction for distribution rights, which was won by Focus Features. Granado, now 82, was a consultant to Salles during the production. 10 b/w photos.

Lucia Alvarez de Toledo

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