José Aricó and the history of Marxism in Latin America The intellectual history and perspective of reception

Abstract

This study focuses on the historiographic perspective adopted by José Aricó to think about the reception and diffusion of Marxism in Latin America. It starts from the European studies of the history of Marxism elaborated in the 1970s, offers a comparison between the historiographic models of Michael Löwy and José Aricó, and finally presents the role of the latter in the renewal of Mariateguian studies. The article argues that the conceptual tools that Aricó was forging to account for Marxism in Latin America took him from theory to history, from theoretical production to the processes of historical reception and, finally, from the history of ideas to that years later it would be called intellectual history.