Del Prado, Jorge (1910–1999)

Jorge del Prado (b. 15 August 1910; d. 1999), leader of the Peruvian Communist Party for much of the twentieth century. Del Prado was born in Arequipa, where in 1928 he helped form the "Revolution Group" that united radical writers, artists, and union leaders. The group maintained close ties to the "Amauta Group" in Lima led by José Carlos Mariátegui. In 1929 he traveled to Lima, where he collaborated closely with Mariátegui during the rupture with Víctor Haya De La Torre and the APRA party and the creation of the Socialist Party that would soon become the Peruvian Communist Party (PCP). In the early 1930s, he worked in the mines of Morococha as a union organizer. In the following decades, he held many positions in the Communist Party. He was repeatedly imprisoned and exiled.

From 1961 to 1991, Del Prado was the secretary-general of the Communist Party (referred to as the PCP-Unidad since the withdrawal of pro-China factions in 1964). In 1978 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly. In 1980 he was a candidate for vice president for the United Left (IU). He served three terms in the Peruvian Senate (1980–1985, 1985–1990, and 1990–1992). He wrote almost a dozen books on the Peruvian left and on Mariátegui.

See alsoAmauta; Mariátegui, José Carlos; Peru: Peru Since Independence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jorge Del Prado, 40 años de lucha: Partido comunista del Perú, 1928–1968 (1968).

Carlos Milla Batres, Diccionario histórico y biográfico del Peru, siglos XV-XX (1986), pp. 186-187.

Alberto Tauro, Enciclopedia ilustrada del Perú (1987), vol 5, pp. 1678-1679.

Additional Bibliography

Drinot De Echave, Paulo. "Workers, the State, and Radical Politics in Peru in the Early 1930s." Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford, 2000.

Herrera Montesinos, Guillermo. Izquierda Unida y el Partido Comunista. Lima: s.n., 2002.

Villanueva del Campo, Armando et al. Jorge del Prado: Una figura de leyenda: Homenaje del Congreso de la República. Lima: Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Perú, 2002.

                                     Charles F. Walker