Flores Galindo, Alberto C. (1949–1990)

Alberto Flores Galindo was born in Lima on May 28, 1949. He was trained as a historian at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His early works on social and political movements of the early twentieth century established him as the leader of a generation whose writings would transform Peruvian intellectual life. Inspired by Antonio Gramsci, Eric Hobsbawm and Pierre Vilar, Flores promoted a nondogmatic brand of Marxism that, combined with the contributions of the Annales school, would provide the basis for an innovative historical perspective.

During the 1980s Flores Galindo laid the basis of his exploration of the Andean utopia as a longue durée (long-term) conceptual key to interpret the history of the Andean peoples under colonial and republican domination. His findings were first published in 1986 under the title of Buscando un Inca, his most important book aside from his La agonía de Mariátegui (1980). In Flores Galindo's view, an unresolved messianic hope acted as a catalyst for movements that confronted successive establishments aimed at excluding the Quechua and Aymara peoples from the life of "official" Peru.

Written in the midst of a profound national crisis, his work stirred debate and controversy. His unique literary style and his gift for journalistic writing allowed him to reach a broad audience. Besides his work as a university professor, by the time of his untimely death on March 29, 1990, Flores Galindo was a respected public intellectual whose influence has been compared with that of José Carlos Mariátegui in the 1920s.

See alsoAndes; Indigenous Peoples; Mariátequi, José Carlos.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Obituary, Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2 (May 1991), pp. 375-377.

                                        JosÉ Luis RÉnique