José Carlos Mariátegui was one of the most creative and original Marxist thinkers of his time. Although he died in 1930 at the age of just thirty-five, he reinterpreted Marxism for Latin America, helped build Peru’s first working-class organizations, and challenged both reformism and the sectarianism of the Communist International.

Surprisingly, Mariátegui’s contribution was not widely recognized in the socialist movement or beyond his native Peru for a generation. However, the growing popular resistance to neoliberalism in Latin America with the “pink tide” of the early-twenty-first century and the uprisings of the last five years has prompted a rediscovery of his political ideas.

Mariátegui’s relevance, both during his brief lifetime and as a reference point for the new social movements of our own era, arises partly from his insistence on the central role of Latin America’s indigenous communities in the class struggle. He was a key figure in the construction of the Peruvian labor movement and a Marxist thinker and writer whose influence extended beyond his native Peru. This was especially thanks to the impact of the extraordinary journal Amauta, which he founded and edited between 1926 and 1930.