The directory «Plots»

Arguedas José María
(1911—1969)

José María Arguedas was a Peruvian novelist (writing in Spanish) although he also wrote poetry in Quechua. Generally considered one of the greats of 20th century Peruvian letters, Arguedas was born in the province of Andahuaylas in the southern Peruvian Andes. He was brought up in poverty amongst the Quechua Indians, and learned Quechua before he learned Spanish. Eventually he ended up going to the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos where he studied anthropology. He worked as an anthropologist for the rest of his life.

Arguedas began by writing short stories about the Indian environment he was brought up in, in a Spanish highly influenced by Quechua syntax and vocabulary. By the time of his first novel, Yawar Fiesta, he had begun to explore the theme that would obsess him for the rest of his career: the clash between (white) 'civilised' civilisation, and the Indian, 'traditional' way of life. In this he was part of the Indianista movement in South American literature. He continued to explore this theme in his next two books Los Ríos Profundos (trans. "Deep Rivers") (1961) and Todas las Sangres (1964). Despite the continued influence of Indian grammar on his ) (1969) he abandoned realism for a more postmodern approach. This novel expressed his despair that the 'primitive' ways of the Indians could survive against the onslaught of modern technology and capitalism. In a deep depression, Arguedas committed suicide in 1969 while he was writting "El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo".

Peru, 1987, José María Arguedas

Peru, 2011, Jose Maria Arguedas