José María Arguedas and the Guatemalan Revolutionary Indigenism (1951-1961)

• Autor: Palencia Frener, Sergio
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/29404
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/29404
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Indigenism; Folklore; Revolution; Peru; Guatemala; Indigenismo; Revolución; Perú; Arte popular

This paper explores José María Arguedas’ thoughts about the Indigenista policies during the October Revolution (1944-1954) in Guatemala. After listening to the Guatemalan anthropologist Antonio Goubaud Carrera in 1951, Arguedas and other Latin American intellectuals discussed the Indigenista research and policies in Guatemala. Drawing from two publications by Arguedas in 1953 and 1959, and archival research at the Guatemalan National Indigenista Institute and the International Labour Organization (ILO), this essay studies José María Arguedas’ interest and reflections about Goubaud and the Indigenista policies led by Guatemalan anthropologist Joaquín Noval. This article examines Arguedas research on “folk art” and “popular art” in Peru in relation to the Guatemalan revolutionary Indigenismo and his later critique of the commodification and technification of folk creation. By reconstructing biographical, political, and academic aspects in Arguedas’ life, this essay ultimately analyzes his decision to carry on ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala in 1961. Overall, this paper discusses the little-known relationship between Arguedas and Guatemala, a standpoint that decentralizes the history of anthropology and Latin American intellectual networks.