This article by Arturo Sabroso, editor in chief of the newspaper La Tribuna, was written on the occasion of the exhibition of works by José Sabogal, the founder of Peruvian indigenist painting, at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima (1931).
In 1931, Sabogal exhibited twenty paintings at the Salón de Grados at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (the former location of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos). He had produced these paintings during the 1920s, and many of them were shown at his great exhibition in Buenos Aires in 1928, including several emblematic Indigenist canvases, such as El Varayoc de Chinchero, La procesión del Taytacha Temblores, and El gamonal.
This article appeared, on the occasion of Sabogal’s exhibition, in La Tribuna, the official journal of APRA (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana) [American Popular Revolutionary Alliance], the political party founded by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre (1895–1979). The article is from the organization’s most radical period (from 1930 to 1939), during its calls for an anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchic revolution that would take the government of Peru out of the hands of the bourgeoisie and, inspired by a socialist agenda, put the middle classes in charge of improving the lot of the working class. The author of this article, Arturo Sabroso, was an important leader of the APRA movement.