Che's compañero

Javier Galeano/Associated Press - Alberto Granado Jiménez, during an interview in his Havana home with The Associated Press in October 2007.

Alberto Granado Jiménez, the Argentine biochemist who accompanied the young Che Guevara on his formative odyssey across South America, died here on Saturday. He was 88.  Mr. Granado, who settled in Cuba in 1961, died of natural causes, according to Cuban state television. His ashes were to be scattered in Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela, a state newscast said.

In December 1951, Mr. Granado and Che set out from Córdoba on Mr. Granado’s overloaded, beat-up motorbike, La Poderosa II, or the powerful one. Their eight-month journey, both a madcap coming-of-age road trip and a journey of political discovery, made a deep impression on both men and set Che on a course that transformed him into a revolutionary icon. The bike, which Mr. Granado said looked like a “huge prehistoric animal,” had endless mechanical problems and made it only as far as Chile. The companions, however, traveled thousands of miles together, scrounging rides and food, and finally parting in Caracas, Venezuela.

Mr. Granado moved to Cuba at Che’s invitation in 1961 and founded the faculty of medicine at the University of Santiago. He later moved to Havana, where he taught and carried out scientific research. Mr. Granado is survived by his wife, Delia María Duque Duque, three children and five grandchildren. He and Che remained friends, and though he openly disputed Che’s conviction that guerrilla warfare was the path to social reform in Latin America, Mr. Granado helped him scout for potential rebels in Argentina in the 1960s, according to a biography by Jon Lee Anderson, “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life.”

Before Che left Cuba in 1965 to pursue revolutions abroad, he left several books with inscriptions for close friends. They included one about the sugar industry for Mr. Granado. The inscription was prescient. “My dreams shall know no bounds, at least until bullets decide otherwise,” wrote Che, who was captured and killed in Bolivia in 1967. “I’ll be expecting you, sedentary gypsy, when the smell of gunpowder subsides. A hug for all of you. Che.”