ARGUEDAS, JOS MARA

born Jan. 18, 1911, Andahuaylas, Peru died Nov. 28, 1969, Lima Peruvian novelist, short-story writer, and ethnologist whose writings capture the contrasts between the white and Indian cultures. Arguedas was the son of a white traveling judge and a Quechuan Indian. Though his mother died when he was only three years old, Arguedas learned to speak Quechua before he learned Spanish while accompanying his father on his journeys. As a youth he studied Quechua music and customs as well as familiarizing himself with the dominant Spanish culture. All his works reflect the tensions that underlie Peruvian society, in which the Indians, who constitute the majority of the population, are still often considered marginal beings. Arguedas attended the University of San Marcos in Lima, worked in the post office (193237), and taught at the National University in Sicuani (193941). After holding a series of administrative positions, he began teaching Peruvian regional cultures at the University of San Marcos in 1959. He also served as the director of the House of Culture (196364) and later of the National Museum of History (196469). Agua (1935; Water), a collection of three stories, depicts the violent injustices and disorder he saw in the white world as opposed to the peaceful and orderly existence he found in the lives of the exploited but passive Indians. Yawar fiesta (1941; Bloody Feast) treats in detail the ritual of a primitive bullfight symbolizing the social struggle of the Indians and the whites. Arguedas' masterpiece is the novel Los ros profundos (1958; Deep Rivers), an autobiographical work that reiterates themes previously treated. The novel El sexto (1961; The Sixth One) is based on Arguedas' imprisonment (193738) during Oscar Benavides' dictatorship. Todas las sangres (All the Races) appeared in 1964 and was followed by an unfinished novel, El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (1971; The Fox from Above and the Fox from Below), the writing of which was prescribed to him by his psychiatrist. It relates the agony of a man completely shattered and disillusioned by life. Arguedas methodically and passionately discusses the events leading to his final dayhe committed suicide in a deserted classroom in Lima.