Efraín Morote Best (8 July 1921 7 April 1989) was a

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian lawyer,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, and academic administrator. From 1962 to 1968 he served as the Rector (i.e., chief administrator) of

San Cristóbal of Huamanga University The San Cristóbal of Huamanga National University (in Spanish, ''Universidad Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga'') is a public university located in the city of Ayacucho (formerly known as Huamanga) in southern Peru. The university was estab ...

Ayacucho Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru. During the Inca Empire and Viceroyalty of Peru periods the city was known by the name of Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga), and it c ...

, Perú. He and three of his children became members of

Shining Path The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the gro ...

Biography

Morote was born in Ayacucho into a wealthy and established family that owned land in Ayacucho, Abancay, and

Cuzco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...

, in southern Perú. During the 1940s and 1950s, he studied at various Peruvian universities and obtained degrees in

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Morote then became a specialist in the folklore of the

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

-speaking native population of the Peruvian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and taught at the University of Cuzco. When the Peruvian government decided to reopen an old

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

seminary in Ayacucho and make it into a modern university dedicated to improving the condition of the region's impoverished native population, Morote joined the new institution as professor of anthropology and vice-rector. The university began to operate in 1959. In 1962, Morote was chosen to succeed naval historian Fernando Romero Pintado as the university's leader. Following a pattern which was not uncommon among

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n intellectuals from upper and upper-middle-class backgrounds at the time, Morote embraced first religion (becoming the pastor of an evangelical Christian church) and later

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. At the beginning of his tenure as rector, Morote recruited

Abimael Guzmán Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso (; 3 December 1934 − 11 September 2021), also known by his '' nom de guerre'' Chairman Gonzalo ( es, Presidente Gonzalo), was a Peruvian Maoist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, considered a terrorist ...

as a professor of philosophy at the university. Guzmán went on to become the leader of a terrorist group, the

, which sought to bring about a pro-Communist uprising in Perú modeled after

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

's revolution in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The Shining Path waged a 13-year-long conflict with both the Peruvian government and rival leftist militants. Osmán Morote Barrionuevo, one of Efraín Morote's sons, became the Shining Path's second-in-command. Efraín Morote's other two children also became members of the Shining Path. Some observers, such as

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

writer

Nicholas Shakespeare Nicholas William Richmond Shakespeare FRSL (born 3 March 1957) is a British novelist and biographer, described by the ''Wall Street Journal'' as "one of the best English novelists of our time". Biography Born in Worcester, England to diplomat ...

(who fictionalized the capture of Abimael Guzmán in his novel ''

The Dancer Upstairs ''The Dancer Upstairs'' is a 1995 novel by Nicholas Shakespeare. It is based on the Maoist insurgency of the 1980s in Peru, and tells the story of Agustin Rejas, a police Lieutenant (later promoted to Captain), hunting a terrorist based on Abimae ...

''), have argued that Efraín Morote was probably the true intellectual leader of the Shining Path. Shakespeare described Abimael Guzmán as a man "absolutely without character" while he claimed that Morote was "incredibly intelligent and without emotion," a truly "evil" man. Publicly, Morote remained until his death a respected social scientist of leftist political leanings.

Works

* ''Elementos de folklore'' ("Elements of Folklore"), 1950 * ''Aldeas sumergidas'' ("Submerged Villages"), 1988 * ''Pueblo y universidad'' ("People and University"), 1990

External links

* Michael L. Smith
"San Cristóbal de Huamanga University"
''Peruvian Graffiti'' * , interview by Uki Goñi with author Nicholas Shakespeare {{DEFAULTSORT:Morote, Efrain 1921 births 1989 deaths People from Ayacucho Rectors of universities in Peru Peruvian anthropologists Peruvian evangelicals Peruvian communists Members of the Shining Path