Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui

Abstract

José Carlos Mariátegui was a Peruvian writer, journalist, editor, sociologist, philosopher and communist leader, who was a pioneer of American Marxism, who placed at the center of Marxist debates such issues as the communist organization of the Indian (indigenous) peoples of America and the necessary balance between realistic and romantic (utopian) elements in revolutionary construction. His affinity for Marxism was born out of the search for an explanation of the historical processes that had long existed in Peru, as well as under the influence of the revolutionary processes that were taking place, which would dialectically link local traditions and particularities with modern science and philosophy. Mariátegui devoted himself to the study of the autochthonous Andean civilization, destroyed and suppressed by colonization, and to thinking about the possibilities of breaking with this structure external to indigenous culture and society. His political practice was distinguished by his attention to Indian culture, to Indianism, which he perceived as a revolutionary element that gave rise to the atmosphere that had arisen throughout the world thanks to the Russian Revolution, which, in the environment, the system of political and existential alienation inherent in capitalism, was able to awaken those forces that strove to create a new man, a new society. The article offers an essay on Mariátegui's life and theoretical contribution to Marxist science, which was a kind of first manifestation of "Latino-Americanized" Marxism.

Keywords

• marxism
• indigenous peoples
• dialectics
• praxis
• romanti-cism-realism
• peru