Guevara was born in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Argentina in 1928 and died by execution in La Higuera, Vallegrande, Bolivia in 1967. Guevara is best known as a key figure in the Cuban Revolution, a diplomat, and a guerilla strategist.

At the beginning of The Motorcycle Diaries, which chronicles the journey that radicalized him, Guevara is a restless 23-year-old medical student who dreams of something more romantic and fulfilling than medical studies, exams, and hospitals. He has a girlfriend, Chichina, whom he is reluctant to leave behind, but when she leaves him, instead, he realizes that his feelings for her were less significant than he thought.

Offhand talk and daydreaming lead to a real decision: along with his friend, Alberto Granado, Guevara undertakes a transformative motorcycle journey to North America. Their journey begins as a lighthearted and freewheeling one, characterized by good meals and happy times with new and old friends. Guevara, who suffers from asthma and is prone to a poetic, sometimes rather exalted and often very witty writing style, emerges as the more peaceful of the two friends and frequently keeps Granado from starting fights, though Guevara, too, occasionally starts some mischief by attempting to steal

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