Recent global political trends are inevitably spurring reappraisals of classic twentieth-century Latin American “populist” politics and politicians—such as Peru's Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre (1895–1979) and his Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA) party. Long shrouded by partisan polemics, the enigmas of clandestine politics and exile, and a cultivated “cult of personality,” Haya is approached by Iñigo García-Bryce as a multiple historical personality in this well-conceived and clearly written political-intellectual biography. Instead of modern Peru's essentialized “hero” or “betrayer,” Haya assumes over time various shape-shifting personalities: the student revolutionary leader, the Marxist and transnational propagandist of the Mexican Revolution, the Peruvian party builder and compromiser politician, and the elder statesman, among other labels (p. 2).
After a lucid brief introduction, the book is organized into five topical chapters, which at times circle around the same chronology of Haya's long career. Chapter 1 explores the internationalist origins and ramifications of the...
