Mariátegui, José Carlos [key], 1895–1930, Peruvian writer and political leader. Of a poor family, he was a tubercular from childhood but rose to prominence as a self-taught journalist. He studied in Europe and became a confirmed Marxist. Returning to Peru he joined other radicals, such as Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, in political agitation during the 1920s, and when Haya de la Torre founded the APRA party (see APRA) in exile, Mariátegui became its leading spokesman in Peru. He broke with the Apristas, as the members of the APRA party were known, in 1928. His Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality (1928, tr. 1988), is a masterpiece of social analysis.
See J. M. Baines, Revolution in Peru (1972).
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