Public Education, Youth Radicalism, and Modernization in the Andes, Peru, 1958–62

This paper explores the creation of a network of public universities in Peru in the late 1950 in a joint effort of the U.S., the Peruvian central government and regional elites to serve their independent yet intertwined interests during the Cold War.  In creating (or reopening) these universities the U.S. sought to stem youth radicalism (especially after the Cuban Revolution); the Peruvian central government hoped to contain rural migration to the cities; and regional elites yearned to bring development to the periphery.  In order to show this three level convergence of interests, I focus my research on the reopening of the University of Huamanga, located in the Southern Peruvian Highlands.

In just a few years, a combination of factors, like the adoption of the American university campus model, a special regime of salaries for faculty members, and an efficient administration, among others, transformed the University of Huamanga into the paradigm of public education in this part of the Andes.  Not only students, but professors too came from other parts of the country and even from abroad, attracted by the peculiar social experiment.  Amazed by this success, both government and regional elites did not hesitate to replicate the model in other areas.  In the end, twelve public and seven private universities were created between 1962 and 1965. Nonetheless, what started as the epitome of modernization and development turned into a hotbed for radical students.