In August, Barbara Brodman will retrace the journey through South America embarked upon in 1951 by a young, Argentine medical student, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and his friend Alberto Granado. On that journey, Guevara discovered human destitution and his own destiny. His diaries have been recently published. They reveal the process by which a young tourist/observer became the revolutionary of his generation.

Guevara and his companion made their way from Argentina to Chile on a Norton 500 motorcyle, which, as Che described it, "gave up the ghost" outside Santiago. From there, they stowed away on freighters, hitchhiked, rafted on the upper Amazon, and eventually made their way to Venezuela. In his diaries, Che recorded the harsh and deficient conditions of mining towns, leper colonies, and indigenous communities that typified life in the region for the majority. The psychological changes the trip wrought in Che form the subtext of his writings.

Through her own diaries and multimedia production, Barbara Brodman will examine the revolutionary legacy left by Guevara and the evolutionary path upon which Latin America moves today. First by motorcycle, then hitchhiking on land and water, Brodman and Ugav will make their way from Argentina to Caracas, deviating as little as possible from the original route and sites visited by the young Argentines some forty-five years ago.

The one planned deviation from the original route will put them in Bolivia for the thirtieth anniversary of Guevara's death in early October, 1967. This will require that the novice riders depart Cordoba, Argentina not in December, as did their predecessors, but in mid-August, traversing the Andes and travelling through Chile, by motorcycle, in mid-winter. A challenging deviation, indeed!

For Brodman this unprecedented journey represents a logical progression in their lives and careers. Brodman is Professor of Latin American & Caribbean Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is an experienced international election and human rights observer and author of a variety of texts on Latin American history and culture. Presently, she serves on the Board of Directors of The Inter-American Center for Human Rights and The Global Awareness Institute, non-profit public charities that work closely with universities, law firms and other organizations to strengthen public commitment to furthering the civil and human rights of diverse peoples of the Americas.

"I am not interested in marketing the myth of Che Guevara," states Brodman, "I seek the essence of the man who may have best expressed the frustrated aspirations of the Latin American masses, impatient for the better life they hoped for.

"Che spoke of erasing old social and philosophical concepts and going instead 'with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.' That is what we plan to do, but within a new framework. The end of the Cold War cleared the revolutionary playing field of ideological debris and paved the way for evolutionary change that would have been impossible in Che's time. Yesterday's subversives have become the cult heroes of today's upwardly mobile set. Now is the ideal time to assess change and continuity in Latin America and to discover their implications for the future. That we use Che's original journey of discovery as our roadmap, seems both timely and appropriate.

As to the adventurous nature of my quest... I ask you, what's so adventurous about a women with little motorcyle experience riding across the Andes in mid-winter; trekking through deserts, mountains, jungles and plains; while, at every turn, confronting physical danger and financial uncertainty? To me, it sounds like the perfect vacation!"