Chapters 17 - 19 Summary and Analysis

"This Time, Disaster" confronts the reader with the drunk captain of the ship. After partying with the sailors, Alberto and Che get off the ship and leave for Chuquicamata, a copper mine. A small truck takes them to Baquedano and they make friends with a communist Chilean couple of workers. The couple had been persecuted for their beliefs; Che was upset by this and their poverty. To these people, communism merely meant "bread for the poor." The ideology filled them with hope. Alberto and Che travel to Chuquicamata and find that a miner's strike is imminent. Che is infuriated by the injustice the "Yankees" perpetrated on these poor workers and dreams of the day when the workers will revolt.

"Chuquicamata" has beauty without grace, according to Che. The town is mostly a large copper mountain surrounded by a mine...