José Carlos Mariátegui was intensely involved in political and labor union activities in his country, but that does not mean that the Peruvian Marxist neglected the central role of culture in the Marxist project of global transformation. The central goal of this short article is to demonstrate that Mariátegui’s writings in this area have an explicitly romantic and revolutionary tone, the most radical and subversive cultural expression of which is the surrealist movement, which “is not merely a literary phenomenon but a complex spiritual phenomenon.”

Keywords: José Carlos Mariátegui, revolutionary culture, surrealism, romanticism.