From “The Motorcycle Diaries” to the Foco: How Che Guevara Became a Revolutionary
by Pon Chandran
"The Motorcycle Diaries" traces the journey that helped shape Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s political consciousness, from a young medical student travelling across South America to a revolutionary committed to transforming society. Pon Chandran examines Guevara’s encounters with poverty, Indigenous communities, exploited workers and social exclusion, and the development of his Pan-Latin American outlook. The article then follows the emergence of foco theory and its application during the Cuban Revolution, before examining its failures in the Congo and Bolivia. It considers the strategic limitations of relying on small guerrilla groups to generate revolutionary movements and places Che’s legacy within the wider history of Latin American revolutionary politics.