Alberto Granado

Alberto Granado Jiménez (; August 8, 1922 – March 5, 2011) was an Argentine–Cuban biochemist, author, and scientist. A youthful friend and traveling companion of Che Guevara during their 1952 motorcycle tour in Latin America, Granado later founded the University of Santiago de Cuba School of Medicine. He authored the memoir Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, which served as a reference for the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, in which he was played by Rodrigo de la Serna. An elderly Alberto Granado makes a short appearance at the end of the film.

Early years Granado was born on August 8, 1922, in Hernando, Córdoba to Dionisio T. Granado (a Spanish clerical employee of an Argentine railway company) and Adelina Jiménez Romero. In 1930, after José Félix Uriburu toppled the progressive government of Hipólito Yrigoyen, Granado's family relocated to Villa Constitución, province of Santa Fé, due to his father's position as a militant trade unionist. In 1931, Granado was sent to live with his grandparents in Córdoba and in 1940, he attended the University of Córdoba, where he studied chemistry, pharmacy and biochemistry.

In his best-selling biography entitled Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson describes Granado at this time as "barely five feet tall and had a huge beaked nose, but he sported a barrel chest and a footballer's sturdy bowed legs; he also possessed a good sense of humor and a taste for wine, girls, literature and rugby." The two first met when Guevara accompanied Granado's brother Tomás (whom he went to school with) on a visit to the police cells to see Granado. Guevara soon joined a rugby team that Granado had organized once released. Asked in an interview many years later about his friendship and time on the road with Guevara, Granado reminisced that "we hit it off well, when there was talk about politics, disease and what not, we almost always shared a similar view."

In 1946, having graduated with an MSc in biochemistry, Granado became a medical assistant to the head of the University of Córdoba's Hygiene and Epidemiology department.

Alberto Granado (left) with Guevara (right) aboard their "Mambo-Tango" wooden raft on the Amazon River in June 1952. The raft was a gift from the lepers whom they had treated.

At the age of 29 and with full-time work as a biochemist, Granado sought one final thrill before settling into a life of middle-class comfort.

Granado's journey ended in Caracas, Venezuela, where he remained to work at the Cabo Blanco leprosarium in Maiquetía. Guevara, however, continued on to Miami before returning home to Buenos Aires to complete his medical degree. The two men did not meet again for eight years, by which time Guevara was a hero of Fidel Castro's 1959 Cuban Revolution and head of the Central Bank of Cuba.

In her film "My Best Friend", producer Clare Lewins asks Granado what he believes to be the reason for Che Guevara's continuing attraction, his response was:

Before Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to pursue revolutions abroad, he left several books with inscriptions for close friends. Included with these was one book about the sugar industry for his old friend Granado. The book, written by Rosa María Fernández Sofía, is based on a series of interviews conducted with Granado. According to Cuban television, Granado requested that his body be cremated and his ashes spread in Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela. One of his sons, also named Alberto Granado, is head of Cuba's Africa House, a center in Havana that celebrates African culture.

Filmography and popular culture Granado was featured in the 2006 documentary film Che: Rise & Fall. He is portrayed by Rodrigo de la Serna in the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries based on his and Guevara's trip around South America. Granado has a brief cameo following the epilogue of the film.