MODERNIZATION, DISLOCATION, AND APRISMO: ORIGINS OF THE PERUVIAN APRISTA PARTY, 1870-1932.
By Peter F. Klarén '60. Austin: The University of Texas. Latin American Monographs, No. 32. 189 pp. $8.50.
There are three good reasons for recommending this slender volume.
1. The subject matter. The Aprista Party is the oldest and most important mass-based ideological political party in Latin America. Founded in 1924 by Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, who is still its leader, APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) has been a major political force in Peru since 1930, and has inspired many democratic left political movements in other Latin nations. While others have written extensively on APRA, most notably Harry Kantor, Robert Alexander, Liisa North, and Grant Hilliker, Peter Klarén's effort is the first systematically to trace the movement's socio-economic origins. He finds that APRA emerged as a response by lower and middle classes on Peru's north coast to their progressive dislocation from small towns and small farms after 1890, resulting from the concentration of land and economic power that followed the modernization of the Peruvian sugar industry.
2. Prior publication of a Spanish language edition. Most American scholars publish their research on other countries in American journals and through American publishing houses. This work, however, appeared in an inexpensive paper edition of the Institute of Peruvian Studies, Lima, three years before the Texas Press publication. It was apparently important to the author that Peruvians themselves be the first beneficiaries of his research in their country.
3. Clarity of expression. Klarén writes well. The jargon of "academeze" is refreshingly absent.
A surprising number of Dartmouth graduates, perhaps more than 200, have specialized since college in Latin American affairs. For them the work of Peter Klarén is noteworthy and important.
Mr. Palmer teaches government and coachesfootball at Bowdoin. His most recent publishedarticles deal with contemporary Peruvianpolitics.
