In the Red Corner: The Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui

by Mike Gonzalez

The first English-language biography of one of Latin America’s most important, innovative, and enduringly relevant, Marxist thinkers.
José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) is widely recognized across Latin America as one of the most important and innovative Marxist thinkers of the twentieth century. Yet his life and work are largely unknown to the English-speaking world. In this gripping political biography—the first written in English—Mike Gonzalez introduces readers to the inspiring life and thought of the Peruvian socialist. As one of the first modern thinkers to discuss what Marxism has to offer, and to learn from, the struggles of Indigenous peoples, his ideas have an immediate relevance in the context of Standing Rock and other native-led fights challenging pipelines across North America.

Genres: Theory, Philosophy, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics, History

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2019

Reviews

[Soph Nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me want to read more of Mariategui’s work, which is very good and I would recommend it for that reason. Also gave some very good material analysis of Peru, which was also useful as I have continued to dive more into Latin American history and political economy. However, the author is kind of all over the place throughout the book - the chapters are more organized by “theme” than chronologically, but it’s not entirely clear what the theme is sometimes, information is repeated, and paragraphs will sometimes span 5 years of time unnecessarily. It’s quite distracting at times and maybe someone with more knowledge of Comintern politics or Latin American/Peruvian history would find that less distracting, but then they might not need to read this because it’s obviously billed as an “introduction” to a specific thinker/organizer from that time.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview of Mariátegui's life, but unfortunately the author's Trotskyism overshadows much of his analysis. Going to go direct to the source and read Seven Interpretive Essays on Peru to judge his work for myself.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mariátegui is a figure I want to know more about and I still want to know more after this book. I would have liked more on how Gonzalo interpreted Mariátegui and how Mariátegui's legacy has been seen among Marxists in Latin America. Alas, neither of those were touchstones of what ended up a good, albeit very disjointed and repetitive, primer on a Marxist who generally flies under the radar.

[Martin Empson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recent radical "pink" governments in Latin America are part of a long history of revolutionary politics in that region. However discussion of that history in Europe usually neglects, or ignores, the rich and important revolutionary ideas that have developed there. So I was very pleased to see that Mike Gonzalez has published the first English language biography of one of Latin America's most important and original activists and thinkers, José Carlos Mariátegui.

Full review on the blog: https://resolutereader.blogspot.com/2...

[Justin Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthy project on an exciting topic, but not exactly well carried out. Even leaving aside the unreconstructedness ('Lenin loved the peasantry! What or who were the SRs, anyway?'), Gonzalez isn't exactly winning anyone's trust as an author. Try this on for size:

"revolution... is above all an action born of consciousness, but consciousness itself is not a mere reflection of the material world." Thus, Gonzalez. Here's the end of the quote from Mariategui that he holds up as evidence of this claim: "the ideal is nothing other than the material world reflected by the human mind" (198). Gonzalez might be right that Mariategui didn't hold to Lenin's 'copy theory,' but you can't prove something by quoting something that at least implies the opposite.

[José Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Marxist and a philosopher who specializes in Latin American philosophy, I found this book to be incredibly helpful. I really enjoyed how it got into the weeds of some of these early twentieth century debates and it gave me a deeper understanding of Mariátegui's contributions to both Marxism and Latin American politics more generally. I'm not sure, however, how interesting this book will be for non-Marxists or non-specialists in Latin America. As I said, it gets really into the weeds.

[Constance Siobhán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grateful for the introduction to Mariátegui’s work, but feeling more inspired to learn Spanish than deeply informed. I don’t mean to downplay Mike Gonzalez’s contribution here, I just wish the book had been twice again as long with more lengthy quotes to help the reader see Mariátegui’s thoughts on praxis and his concept of El Mito.

[Brant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure how else to put this, but an old Trotskyist take on Mariátegui. No serious analysis of the agrarian question, nor the national question, which were both key for Mariátegui. And a disappointing analysis overall. It can be an interesting secondary source for any essays on Mariátegui, but nothing more.

[Comrade Zupa Ogórkowa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interested to read what mariategui actually wrote- this was interesting in its covering of his life and the historical context of Peru while he was active. Written through garbage Trotskyist lens unfortunately

[Oscar Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A succinct and well constructed review and history of Mariategui's life, work in advocacy and his Marxist grounding and philosophy.

[Left_coast_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Red Corner: The Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui (JCM) details the life and thought of one of Latin America's most important thinkers. JCM was born in Moquegua, Peru in 1894. As a child he suffered a serious injury which would lead to chronic health problems and eventually his death in 1930, aged just 35. Despite this, he lived an extraordinary life as one of the most influential activists, journalists, and political theorists in Peru's history.

JCM spent several years in Europe, most notably in Italy where he was present at the founding of the Italian Communist Party. He participated in numerous study groups and debates, becoming a convinced Marxist. He returned to Peru, having acquired as he put it, "a wife and some ideas." (LOL) He would go on to found the Socialist Party of Peru and the General Confederation of Workers.

One notable and controversial aspect of his work is the idea of myth. He thought that a unified social class needs some sort of myth which motivates and sustains its members. The myth of the bourgeoisie is progress. The myth of the proletariat is revolution. These myths are aspirational, while also being grounded in local cultural and historical touchstones. This idea was inspired by Georges Sorel, a French philosopher who was a favorite of many radical thinkers including Antonio Gramsci and numerous fascists.

JCM called for a united front of the small industrial working class and large indigenous population. Since the Peruvian bourgeoisie was weak and subservient to foreign capital, it could not lead a national transformation that would eliminate the semi-feudal working conditions the indigenous were trapped in. The united front would have to lead a development program to achieve what the local capitalists could not.This is strikingly similar to Trotsky's idea of the permanent revolution.

I like the book, but I'm a bit underwhelmed considering the rich source of content that is JCM's life. The book feels repetitive at times (it even reuses quotes and statistics in several instances). The analysis of JCM's disagreements with the Comintern feels disjointed. Overall? Decent book about an amazing person.

[Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10