JOSÉ MARÍA ARGUEDAS: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

José María Arguedas (1911 - 1969) ¹ was a Peruvian writer, poet, university professor, translator, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is famous for being one of the most prominent figures in twentieth-century Peruvian literature, following an indigenous narrative style. ^two

He proposed a new vision in the genre by showing in his texts a country with great cultural gaps that, like himself, had to learn to live in peace with its two faces: the first was the indigenous aboriginal culture and the second the Spanish. that had been superimposed thanks to the colony and the miscegenation. ³

By Not precise (History of Peru- Republican Peru, Volume VIII.), Via Wikimedia Commons

His life was difficult because from childhood he had to deal with depression and anxiety attacks that haunted him until the day of his death. Loaded with trauma, he pursued a literary career in which he dumped much of his own experiences and frustrations.

Arguedas learned the Quechua language and the customs of this group by living with indigenous servants during his childhood in the home of his stepmother. He saw these Indians as a family and suffered their pain alongside them, which gave him an internal experience of Quechua society. ⁴

In his work as a translator, he reviewed texts from ancient and modern Quechua literature, in which he took an interest from a young age. In his novel Yawar Fiesta he created a mix between this indigenous language and Spanish. ⁵

His work as an anthropologist was not highly appreciated during his life, but it influenced his literary work and contributed great knowledge about Peruvian folklore, especially popular music, which was one of his main interests. ⁶

In addition to his work as a writer, translator and anthropologist, José María Arguedas also served in public positions for several years, in which he was part of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Peru.

Biography

Early years

José María Arguedas was born on January 18, 1911 in Andahuaylas, Apurimac. He was the second son of Víctor Manuel Arguedas Arellano and Victoria Altamirano Navarro. ⁷ His father was a lawyer and was serving as a justice of the peace in San Miguel - La Mar, in Ayacucho.

Arguedas's suffering began in 1914, the year his mother died of liver colic. He always carried the pain of not having kept any memory of his mother, since he was 3 years old at the time of his death.

Since José María was so young, his father decided to send him to live with his grandmother, Teresa Arellano. While he stayed with the eldest, named Aristides, who would accompany him on his constant travels throughout the country. ⁸

Pedro, who was the youngest of his siblings, was adopted by his aunt Amalia along with her husband Manuel María Guillén, who gave the boy his surname.

In the following years, several paternal half-siblings of José María Arguedas were born. The first two, Carlos and Félix, were the children of their late mother's sister, Eudocia Atamirano.

Later, Víctor Arguedas had a daughter named Nelly with Demetria Ramírez. This girl was adopted by her uncle, her father's half brother, named José Manuel Perea Arellano along with his wife.

Childhood

José María Arguedas's father was promoted to a trial judge in Lucanas. In 1917, Víctor Arguedas married Grimaresa Arangoitia, a millionaire widow who was the mother of three young people named Rosa, Pablo and Ercilia Pacheco.

It was then that the young Arguedas, 6, had to move to his stepmother's house and a painful period began that forged the character and inspiration of many of the Peruvian writer's works. ⁹

Arguedas claimed that his stepmother despised both the indigenous servants, as well as himself, so she made him live in the kitchen where they also lived. This is how he learned the Quechua language, its customs and created a bond with them, even stronger than the one he had with his family.

These memories were at variance with what Arístides recalled, that his tough stepmother came to feel sympathy for José María thanks to his calm and shy temperament.

But one of the darkest chapters in Arguedas' life was the return home of his stepbrother Pablo, who was a cruel and evil boy. He mistreated the Indians, despite having indigenous features on his face, and out of envy he also extended this treatment to Arguedas.

One day Pablo poured a plate of soup over José María, assuring that it was worth less than what he ate. ¹⁰ Then he forced him to watch him rape his own aunt. These experiences haunted Arguedas throughout his life.

Training and travel

In 1919 Víctor Arguedas was relieved of his position as a judge of first instance when Augusto Bernardino Legía came to the government, who overthrew José Pardo. This year José María visited Cusco with his father and began attending 4th grade in Abancay.

Arístides and José María Arguedas decided to escape together from their stepmother's house in 1921 and went to the nearby ranch of their uncle Manuel Perea Arellanos.

Between 1923 and 1924 the two young people traveled with their father, who finally enrolled them in the Miguel de Grau School as boarding students. In 1925 Arguedas suffered an accident in which he lost two fingers on his right hand. ^eleven

In 1928 he began to study 3rd year of high school in Huancayo. Between the ages of 15 and 19 he was constantly traveling through Ica, Lima and Yauyos, but in 1929 he settled permanently in Lima, where he entered the School of Merchants.

At age 20, in 1931, José María Arguedas enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru.

In 1932 his father died, which left all the children, including José María, without financial support. For this reason, that same year, Arguedas got a post in the Post Office, which he would hold until 1937. That year he was imprisoned in El Sexto for 8 months, for protesting with other students against the visit of an Italian fascist to Peru.

Race

José María Arguedas published his first short story Warma Kuyay in 1933. That same year he began to study singing. Two years later his first book Agua appeared and in 1938, when he was released from prison, he published Canto Kechwa. ¹²

In 1939 he married Celia Bustamante Vernal. Two years later Arguedas published Yawar Fiesta, in which he made a new language by mixing Quechua with Spanish.

Between 1943 and 1945 he worked as a teacher at the Colegio Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Arguedas was appointed general conservator of folklore in the Ministry of Education between 1947 and 1950, this year he was promoted to head of the Section of Folklore, Fine Arts and Office of the Ministry of Education for two more years. ¹³

His longest term position was that of head of the Institute of Ethnological Studies of the Museum of Culture between 1953 and 1963. That year he was appointed as director of the House of Culture of Peru until 1964. From then until 1966, Arguedas was director of the National Museum of History.

He was a professor at his alma mater between 1958 and 1968, as well as at the La Molina Agrarian University from 1962 until the day of his death.

Arguedas received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958 with his thesis The evolution of indigenous communities. And in 1963 he obtained his doctorate with the degree work he entitled The Communities of Spain and Peru.

Suicide attempt

In 1964 he received the Palmas Magistrales with the position of Commander, for his services rendered in favor of the culture of Peru.

In 1965 his long-term relationship with Celia Bustamante ended, after 26 years of marriage. For some time, Arguedas had started a relationship with Sybila Arredondo Ladrón de Guevara, whom he married in 1967. ¹⁴

On April 11, 1966, José María Arguedas tried to commit suicide at the National Museum of History. He was found by Sybila, Alberto Escobar and Alfredo Torero, who immediately transferred him to a hospital where they managed to save his life. ^fifteen

Depression

From a young age he had depressive symptoms. He even confessed that before the age of 10 he had wanted to die, after receiving mistreatment and humiliation from his stepmother's family, especially from his stepbrother Pablo Pacheco.

In fact, the trauma that Pablo created in Arguedas accompanied him throughout his life, manifesting itself both in his literature and in his sexual problems.

Arguedas felt a rejection of sexual relations when he did not consider that he was worthy of those encounters, so married life was extremely difficult with his two wives.

Between 1943 and 1945 he had a long depressive episode, which even made him unable to work for some periods of time. ¹⁶

In his letters to his brother, he refers to the childhood nightmares he suffered constantly and the anxiety attacks he had at school, however, he assures that what he lived in his adulthood was much worse.

José María Arguedas had tried different drugs and none of them had managed to reverse his depressive problem.

Similarly, he had visited the offices of different psychiatrists, including Pedro León Montalbán, Javier Mariátegui, Marcelo Viñar and Lola Hofmann, but no one achieved the results he expected.

In the 1969 diaries that Arguedas kept, he wrote that he did not fear death but rather the form he would use to successfully commit suicide.

Death

On November 28, 1969, José María Arguedas shot himself in the head in his office at the La Molina Agrarian University.

The Peruvian author died four days later, on December 2, 1969, in the city of Lima, Peru.

He left written part of his posthumous work El zorro de arriba y el zorro debajo (1971) in which he captured the suffering, depression and doubts about suicide that assailed him during the time prior to his death.

Plays

Novels

- Yawar party (1941).

- Diamonds and flints (1954).

- The deep rivers (1958).

- The Sixth (1961).

- All the bloods (1964).

- The fox above and the fox below (1971).

Stories

- Water. Collection of stories (1935).

- The death of the Arango (1955).

- The agony of Rasu Ñiti (1962).

- The dream of the pongo (1965).

- Love world. Collection of four stories with an erotic theme, (1967).

Poetry

- Túpac Amaru Kamaq taytanchisman. To our creative father Túpac Amaru. Hymn-song, (1962).

- Ode to the jet (1966).

- Qollana Vietnam Llaqtaman / To the exalted people of Vietnam (1969).

- Katatay and other poems. Huc jayllikunapas. Published posthumously (1972).

Ethnological, anthropological and folklore studies

- Canto kechwa (1938).

- Peruvian myths, legends and stories (1947). Edited in collaboration with Francisco Izquierdo Ríos.

- Songs and stories of the Quechua people (1949).

- Magical-realistic tales and songs of traditional festivals: Folklore from the Mantaro Valley (1953).

- Puquio, a culture in process of change (1956).

- Ethnographic study of the Huancayo fair (1957).

- Evolution of indigenous communities (1957).

- Religious popular art and mestizo culture (1958).

- Quechua magic-religious tales of Lucanamarca (1961).

- Quechua poetry (1966).

- Gods and Men of Huarochirí (1966).

- The communities of Spain and Peru (1968).

Posthumous compilations

- The stranger and other stories (1972), Montevideo, Sandino.

- Selected pages (1972), Lima, Universo.

- Forgotten Tales (1973), Lima, Images and Letters.

- Complete stories (1974), Buenos Aires, Losada.

- Lords and Indians: About Quechua Culture (1975).

- Formation of a national Indo-American culture (1976).

The Horizonte publishing house published the complete works of José María Arguedas in 1983. In 2012 the anthropological and cultural work of Arguedas was added to this collection, leaving a total of 12 volumes, compiled by the Peruvian's widow, Sybila Arredondo de Arguedas.

Awards

1935 - Water, 2nd prize in the International Contest promoted by the American Magazine of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1955 - The death of the Arango, 1st prize of the Latin American Short Story Contest in Mexico.

1958 - Evolution of indigenous communities, Javier Prado National Culture Promotion Award, Peru.

1959 - The deep rivers, Ricardo Palma National Prize for the Promotion of Culture, Peru.

1962 - El Sexto, Ricardo Palma National Prize for the Promotion of Culture, Peru.

References

1. Well, M. (2007). The Little Larousse Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary 2007. 13th ed. Bogotá (Colombia): Printer Colombiana, p.1122.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). José María Arguedas - Peruvian author. Available at: britannica.com.
3. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). José María Arguedas. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
4. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
5. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). José María Arguedas. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
6. Zevallos Aguilar, U. (2015). José María Arguedas and New Andean music. His cultural legacy in the XXI century. Notebooks of Literature, 20 (39), pp. 254 - 269.
7. Siemens, W. (1980). Chronology: José María Arguedas. Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 14 (25-26), pp. 12-15.
8. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
9. Siemens, W. (1980). Chronology: José María Arguedas. Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 14 (25-26), pp. 12-15
10. Siemens, W. (1980). Chronology: José María Arguedas. Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 14 (25-26), pp. 12-15
11. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
12. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). José María Arguedas. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
13. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
14. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
15. Torero, A. (2011). Picking up the steps of José María Arguedas. Lima, Peru: Gutemberg, pp. 14 -16.
16. Stucchi P, S. (2003). The depression of José María Arguedas. Journal of Neuro-Psychiatry, 66, pp. 171 -184.
17. En.wikipedia.org. (2018). José María Arguedas. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.