The perspective of the book is that of its author, Ernesto "Che" Guevara. However, two Ches pervade the book. First, the young Che, the twenty-three and twenty-four year old Argentine medical student, who writes the diary, speaks. He is the primary voice in the book. The young Che is full of energy and has a strong appetite for adventure. He is rowdy and a risk-taker, but he is also a careful writer, observer and a lover of nature. Because of his interests in medicine, he begins to share Alberto's interest in lepers and describes the people in and conditions of the leper colonies they visit in detail. The young Che drew some of his political influences from Alberto, who was imprisoned for a year for protesting the Peronist government in the late forties.
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