Blackwell Reference Online

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Without doubt, one of the most discussed political characters in twentieth-century Peruvian history is Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre. During his long political career, which took him from exile to the underground and finally to the presidency of the 1978 Constituent Congress, Haya de la Torre was an active participant in the central affairs of Peruvian politics. Distinguished and praised by his supporters, wronged by his enemies, no one remained indifferent to his proposals.Born to a middle-class family in the northern coastal city of Trujillo, Haya de la Torre attended private schools and studied at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. In 1919, as president of Peru's Student Federation, he carried forward the struggle for university reform. In 1920, invited by the Textile Workers' Federation, he founded the People's University, Manuel Gonzales Prada, in Lima and Vitarte. In 1923 he led a movement against Peru's consecration to the Heart of Jesus, promoted by the government of Augusto B. Leguía in order to legitimize his second presidential term. That same year, Haya de la Torre was deported because of an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government.In 1924, while in Mexico, Haya de la Torre established the programmatic and organizational bases of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), which became Peru's strongest party and for years the most serious ... log in or subscribe to read full text