Che and Travel

1. Childhood Travels
Che’s upbringing was also one of geographical and intellectual variety. As a result of his father’s work and often entrepreneurial endeavors, Che would never live in one region for very long. The reason for his place of birth was not one which his parents lived for long for his birth, rather it was due to his father’s entrepreneurial attempt at the economic revitalization of an agricultural business specializing in the yerba mate botanical species. These migratory adventures would impart two things on the young Che: a propensity towards travel and a chance to engage with a large variety of Argentinian households, as his family often resorted to cohabitation with others who had housing (Spicer-Escalante 394).

2. After Childhood
During his adolescence, Che continued his propensity towards traveling (Spicer-Escalante 394). Initially he was forced to engage in a form of travel by taking a bus to his high school and he also practiced a good deal of hitchhiking (Spicer-Escalante 394). Eventually as he entered into his twenties in the early 1950s, he engaged in an eventually famous motorcycle excursion. For more than seven months, he along with a friend, traveled across numerous countries with in the subcontinent, and would later pen down the journey in the book The Motorcycle Diaries, which was later made into a film (McCormick 341). In the years after this trip, Che would gain a medical education, and following this would start another multi-country journey throughout south America. He lived in Guatemala for a few months, where he developed a greater political consciousness while witnessing the 1954 US CIA initiated Coupe de ta. He would leave Guatemala to flee political persecution under the new government. He would find safety in Mexico and for the first time meet a young Fidel Castro. (McCormick 341)