Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

History

Advisor/Mentor

Austin, Shawn

Committee Member

Woods, Randall

Second Committee Member

Almenara, Erika

Third Committee Member

Phillips, Jared

Abstract

The main focus of José Carlos Mariátegui’s (1894-1930) abundant literature was the adaptation of Marxist theory to the particular needs of Latin America. He is often considered the first major Latin American Marxist and played a key role in the history of leftism in the region. Among his most significant contributions to Marxism in Latin America is his incorporation of indigenous populations into a Marxist framework. He believed that, due to their history of communal ownership under the Inca, a “communist spirit” was retained in Peru’s indigenous population. In his writing about Peru’s potentially communist future, Mariátegui often touched on a discourse occurring in Latin America during the early 20th century: national modernization. Due to the culmination of a process of socioeconomic reorganization, Peru’s defeat in the War of the Pacific, and the growing intellectual industry, there were widespread debates over the proper course of Peruvian modernization. One key element of these debates was the question of the role of the indigenous population in a modernized society. Some advocated for their political, social, and economic inclusion, while others thought that complete modernization required the rectification of indigenous “backwardness.” In Peru, such debates played out in the written productions of urban intellectuals and did not generally involve indigenous people themselves; as a result, these arguments made use of particular imaginaries of indigeneity. This thesis argues that, though much of Mariátegui’s writing was focused on improving the lives of indigenous people through tangible reforms, his work also creates an imaginary of the Indian.

Keywords

Peru; Indigenous History; Indigeneity; Marxism; Modernization

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