Alberto Granado

Topics: Argentine physicians, Argentine writers

Alberto Granado is an Argentine-Cuban doctor, writer, and scientist. He was the travelling companion of Che Guevara during their trip around Latin America, and founder of the Santiago School of Medicine in Cuba. He has written at least one book, Travelling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary. The book also served as reference for the 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries, in which he was played by Rodrigo de la Serna, while Che Guevara was played by Gael Garcia Bernal. An elderly Alberto Granado makes a short appearance at the end of the film.

Granado was born on August 8, 1922, in Hernando, province of Corboba, Argentina to Dionisio T. Granado (a Spanish clerical employee of an Argentine railway company) and Adelina Jimenez Romero. In 1930, after Jose Felix Uriburu toppled the nationalist government of Hipolito Irigoyen, Granados family relocated to Villa Constitucion, province of Santa Fe, due to Dionisio T. Granado's position as a militant trade unionist. In 1931, Granado was sent to live with his grandparents in Cordoba and in 1940, he attended the University of Cordoba, where he studied chemistry and biochemistry.

He met Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna for the first time in 1941 after the latter's family moved to Cordoba. They first met after Granado had been briefly held by the police for his part in a high-school revolt. Che had accompanied Granados brother, Tomas, on a visit to the police cells.David Sandison, Che Guevara .