José Carlos Mariátegui

Who is José Carlos Mariátegui?

José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira was born in Moquegua, Peru, in 1894 and became one of the most influential Marxist thinkers in Latin American history. Largely self-taught and in fragile health from childhood, he began his career as a journalist in Lima, writing under the pen name 'Juan Croniqueur'. Between 1919 and 1923 he lived in Europe, chiefly Italy, where he married and absorbed Marxist thought while witnessing revolutionary upheaval. Returning to Peru, he founded and edited the influential cultural and political magazine 'Amauta' in 1926, which became a platform for indigenous, artistic and socialist ideas. In 1928 he published his central work, 'Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana' (Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality), analysing the nation's economy, the land question, the situation of indigenous peoples and its culture from a Marxist perspective. That same year he founded the Peruvian Socialist Party. He died in Lima in 1930 at the age of thirty-five, leaving a lasting intellectual and political legacy across Latin America.

Sources: José Carlos Mariátegui, 'Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana' (1928) · José Carlos Mariátegui, 'Amauta' magazine (founded 1926)