Alberto Granado - "Che, Mi Mejor Amigo"

Alberto Granado died in Cuba yesterday, March 5, 2011, he was eighty-eight years old. In 1951 he accompanied Che Guevara on his motorcycle journey through the length of Latin America. At the time of their journey they both were medical students wanting to have an adventure during their break in classes. 

Alberto Granado was born on August 8, 1922 in Hernando, a province of Cordoba, Argentina. The family relocated to Villa Constitucion, province of Santa Fe, where his father was an active and militant trade unionist. In 1931 then a  young Alberto was sent to live with his grandparents back in Cordoba. He remained there and in 1940 began his studies in chemistry and bio chemistry at the University of Cordoba. Protests were not new to Granado and in 1943 he was arrested and jailed for a year for political protests again General Juan Peron.

Che Guevara

Alberto and Che met for the first time in 1945 in Cordoba when Che and his brother Tomas were on a visit of the police cells. For four years, 1947-1951, Alberto Granado studied at a clinical laboratory and at the San Francisco del Chanar Leprosarium. During that time he was visited often by Che Guevara. Alberto received his MSc in biochemistry and had won a scholarship to Instituto Malbran in Buenos Aires.

It was during this break from December 29, 1951 and July 1952 that Alberto and Che would embark upon their journey on Alberto's beloved bike the Poderosa II, a Norton 500cc motorcycle. Both men kept diaries which would later become the basis for the movie The Motorcycle Diaries which detailed the adventures of the two.

During this trip they would see first hand the poverty of the disenfranchised people and their lack of access to basic medical care, that experience for both men became the force that solidified their future vocations. Granado ended his journey in Caracas, Venezuela where he remained to work at the Cabo Blanco leprosarium. In 1955 he traveled to Europe and studied in Rome.

Che Guevara finished his trip in Miami and then returned home to Buenos Aires to complete his medical degree but revolutionary politics would end up the career choice for Che eventually making his way to Cuba.

In 1960 Che invited Alberto to Cuba to visit, a year later he moved there with his family and continued his career in the biological science field. Alberto and Che remains friends until Che's death in 1967. Alberto had this to say about his friend Che:

"Because he was a man who fought and died for what he thought was fair, so for young people, he is a man who needs to be followed. And as time goes by and countries are governed by increasingly corrupt people...Che's persona get bigger and greater, and he becomes a man to imitate. He is not a God who needs to be praised or anything like that, just a man whose example we can follow, in always giving our best in everything we do."