Che Guevara begins his journey to go across South America as a type of release from the confines of his medical career pursuits. He invites his friend, Alberto Granado, to embark on a journey that would be filled with the standard list of ideological conquests for the average purpose-seeking young man. These include mainly attempting to pick up women, getting into all types of trouble, and a sprinkling of some type of philanthropy to justify the otherwise free-flowing trip. Guevara grew up in a Spanish and Irish immigrant family in which there were many opportunities to meet people who had leftist-leaning thoughts. Examples include his father hosting veterans of the Spanish Civil War and the immense amounts of books that were available at his home and of which he read, such as Karl Marx all the way to Sigmund Freud. The depth of his interests in some of the greatest researchers and figures in history point to why Guevara is positioned to become one of the strongest visionaries for the revolution of Latin American communities the world had ever seen.
His travels begin with Alberto and, almost immediately, their flimsy motorcycle breaks down and the delusions of traversing through the Western countries of South America begin to shift to a much slower and immersive pace. The purpose was in order to work with a leper colony in San Pablo, but along the way, be it through encounters with a couple that had been dislocated because of their communist beliefs, or seeing the intense income inequality, the cognitive dissonance begins to occur for Che Guevara. We see that his upbringing, readings, and travels serve as a foundation and upon which he builds the need for change in Latin America. He sees the entire continent as suffering from injustice and the oppression of capitalism. It is important to note that because he had come from a background in which social and economic change had been something he had been tested on intellectually and now realized that his experiences created and confirmed the idea of revolution being a necessity for all of the Latin American countries. His demeanor, as portrayed in the movie and as recounted in the biographies, describe the aura of someone who has a vision and passion to change the entire capitalist system notion and to integrate, if not entirely replace them with communist beliefs. We see the politicization of Che build throughout the movie, but the manifestation arises at the leper colony as he remarks about the need to view Latin America not as a collection of countries, but as a single people that needed liberation and to free themselves from the oppression of the capitalist system the perpetuated intense poverty and income inequality. This toast would be the first of his political ideology that would lead him to want to personally oversee a revolution particularly a violent one. He realized that the best he could do for society was not to be a doctor, but to be a leader and to work to free people from tyranny.

His role in the Cuban revolution began with a botched attempt to invade Cuba, with many of the soldiers captured or killed. He survived and continued to work with the campesinos and rebels to create everything from grenades to bread. He took note of the immense poverty and illiteracy that consumed the country and this drove him further to strive to overthrow the Batista government. He became the virtual brain of Fidel Castro and one of the leaders of the rebel army, in which his ruthlessness as a leader was shown in his disattachment to emotion from violence. After successfully overthrowing the Batista government and placement of Fidel Castro as the new leader of Cuba, Guevara continued to be influential in the creation of laws and policies to govern Cuba.  There is much controversy over the number of executions he oversaw and the new rule of law he enacted. This eventually would lead to his demise as the CIA would tune in on his role as a revolutionary figure that was disrupting the capitalist structure of Latin America and its relationship with the USA. Guevara aimed to solve the plight of all the peoples of Latin America and apply it to the world, including Africa and Asia. With this in mind he set about to try and create “many little Vietnams”, essentially calling for other countries to join the Communist movement and to separate from the capitalist and dictatorships that embodied much of the developing world. He was disheartened by how the Soviet Union had changed course and seemed to have forgotten Marx’s writings. He finally was captured in Bolivia by the CIA helped Bolivian Special Forces, allegedly with the help of Felix Rodriguez and a former Nazi soldier, Klaus Barbie. He was wounded and captured and later executed. His memory as an a counter-figure to the capitalist ideology so prevalent in society is something that remains alive and strong in the hearts of many in Latin America and whose face is a brand of its own.