José Carlos Mariátegui was a Peruvian writer, journalist, politician and Marxist philosopher, born in Moquegua on June 14, 1894 and died in Lima in 1930 at the age of 35.
He was self-taught because he was unable to complete his schooling due to his early illness (referring to the ankylosis of his left leg, which he suffered as a child following an accident at school). At just 14, he joined the newspaper La Prensa as a laborer, but his intellectual prowess soon led him to become one of the country's most important journalists.
In the 1910s, class struggle convulsed Peru. These struggles, including the general strike for the 8-hour day in 1911, a series of indigenous uprisings in the countryside, and the development of a fervent student movement, all had a great influence on the young Mariátegui. This experience of struggle forged his resolute commitment to socialism in 1918. The following year, he launched La Razón, a socialist newspaper that gained authority within an increasingly militant Peruvian working class when the masses took to the streets in 1919 in response to a severe economic and social crisis.
In 1919, he was expelled from the country because he had been standing out as a leader of workers' struggles. He was forced by the Peruvian government to move to Europe, where he gained a deep understanding of Marxism and identified with socialist thought. Mariátegui arrived in a Europe devastated by the First World War, but also with the beacon of inspiration that the development of the proletarian revolution in Russia represented for the exploited and oppressed of the world. This left a profound impression on Mariátegui, who became convinced of the ideas of Marxism and the correct conclusion that a Leninist revolutionary party was an essential condition for the working class and its allies to seize power.
He returned to Peru in 1923 and established a close relationship with the burgeoning worker-artisan movement. He edited the Manuel González Prada Popular University and its magazine Claridad. Mariátegui was imprisoned several times and suffered political persecution due to his revolutionary commitment, but he never lost his passion for the emancipation of workers, Indigenous people, and peasants.
Among his works is The Contemporary Scene, his first book published in 1925. In 1926, he published the renowned magazine Amauta; in 1928, he published Seven Essays on the Interpretation of Peruvian Reality , considered his masterpiece, as it offers a Marxist analysis of Peru's social, economic, and cultural reality. In other works, such as Defense of Marxism, Art and Revolution, The Contemporary Scene, and The History of the World Crisis , among others, Mariátegui defended the need for a socialist revolution to transform the region's political and economic structures.
Mariátegui founded the Peruvian Socialist Party in 1928, which later became known as the Peruvian Communist Party. Mariátegui's thinking had a notable influence on Abimael Guzmán—Comrade Chairman Gonzalo—who founded the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path) in 1970. Mariátegui's phrase, "Marxism-Leninism is the shining path of the future," was adopted as part of the party's name: "Peruvian Communist Party: for the Shining Path of Mariátegui."
On the birthday of the great José Carlos Mariátegui, we recall his validity and in particular one of his most accurate theses and invite our readers to study this great Peruvian Marxist: "In conclusion, we are anti-imperialists because we are socialists, because we are revolutionaries, because we oppose capitalism with socialism as an antagonistic system, called to succeed it, because in the struggle against foreign imperialisms we fulfill our duties of solidarity with the revolutionary masses of the world."
Those interested can consult his complete digitalized work at:
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