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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The Peruvian educational reform law of 1972, promulgated by the military regime of General Juan Velasco Alvarado, was considered at the time one of the best to date in the history of Latin America. With the dismantling of many of the reform laws of the “First Phase” (1968-75) of the revolution during the “Second Phase” (1975-80), and the nearly total repudiation of the entire military period by the democratically elected government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1980-85), there was no change more regretted than the undoing of the educational reform. One of the main reasons for the reform's setback was the intense opposition it aroused among private upper-class schools which resented the social aspects of the law. Half of these schools were church-run. But contrary to what has happened in other Latin American countries, the battle in Peru was not between an authoritarian laicist state and the Roman Catholic Church. The real forces that lined up against each other in Peru were, on the one hand, the government, the official church and progressive groups within the church, which in the wake of Vatican II and the bishop's conference of Medellín not only came out in support of the law but even participated directly in composing it, and on the other hand, the powerful cluster of upper-class religious and lay schools which represented the traditional and rightest groups in the church. The educational reform, therefore, was the occasion for a clash among Catholics themselves. At the same time it forced the church to make a fundamental choice: between continuing its uncritical support for upper-class religious education or openly siding with the many state-supported church schools for the middle and lower classes, especially in cases of conflict between the two systems.
1 For an overview of the military’s education reform law, see the chapter by Drysdale, Robert S. and Meyers, Robert G. “Continuity and Change: Peruvian Education”, in Lowenthal, Abraham F. (ed.), The Peruvian Experiment: Continuity and Change under Military Rule (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1975): 254–301.Google Scholar
2 Florez, Bishop Ricardo Durand S.J., Informe de la Comisión Episcopal de Educación a la Asamblea Episcopal, January 18, 1976, p. 2.Google Scholar This and other special reports on Catholic education in Peru are to be found at the National Office of Catholic Education (ONDEC), Lima. For an overview of Peru’s educational system before the reform, see Paulston, Roland G. Society, Schools and Progress in Peru (New York: Pergamon Press, 1972).Google Scholar
3 Federación de Centros Educativos Católicos, Memoria de la Junta Directiva, 27 de diciembre de 1974 a 11 de junio de 1977, pp. 4–5.
4 El Amigo del Clero, March, 1956, pp. 74–75.
5 General Mendoza, Juan Nuevo potencial para la educación peruana (Lima, 1956), p. 102.Google Scholar General Mendoza was Minister of Education under Odría and especially responsible for sponsoring aid to church schools.
6 Oficina Nacional de Educación Católica (ONDEC), Informe sobre el estudio estadístico de los centros educativos de la Iglesia, 1982, p. 2.
7 El Amigo del Clero, March, 1963, pp. 154–155.
8 Mendoza, , Nuevo potencial para la educación peruana, p. 229.Google Scholar
9 ONDEC, “Centros educacionales dirigidos por religiosos: Estudio de su distribución por diócesis”, 1971, p. 11.
10 Ministerio de Educación, Reglamento de centros educativos parroquiales (Lima, 1977), p. 1.
11 ONDEC, “Centros educacionales dirigidos por religiosos &”, 1971, pp. 1–2.
12 El Comercio (Lima), December 20, 1975, p. 2.
13 El Expreso, (Lima), December 13, 1975,
14 Many of these observations were gathered in conversations with Father Ricardo Morales, S.J., Lima, in 1976 and 1985.
15 For a fuller analysis of the church’s relations with the Velasco regime, see the doctoral thesis by Maloney, Thomas J. “The Catholic Church and the Peruvian Revolution: Resource Exchange in an Authoritarian Setting” (Austin: University of Texas, 1978), especially the section on the educational reform, pp. 272–291.Google Scholar
16 Secretariado General del Episcopado Peruano, Documentos del episcopado, 1968–1977 (Lima, 1977), pp. 91–102.
17 “Conclusiones de la primera asamblea episcopal zonal de la II zona”, Trujillo, September 4–8, 1972, p. 3. This and other episcopal documents may be found at the Office of the National Bishop’s Conference in Lima.
18 La Crónica (Lima), December 19, 1971, p. 3.
19 Maloney, , “The Catholic Church and the Peruvian Revolution …”, pp. 276–278.Google Scholar
20 El comercio. May 24, 1973, p. 11.
21 For a summary of the Consortium’s position, see the Memoria of the Federation of Catholic Educational Centers dated June 11, 1977, pp. 25–26. Also, private interview with Brother Eduardo Palomino, president of the Federation between 1975 and 1980, Lima, December 4, 1982.
22 Boletín del Consorcio de los Centros Educacionales de la Iglesia, October, 1975, p. 6.
23 Informe de la comisión mixta: Ministerio de Educatión y Comisión Episcopal de Educación. In file entitled “Comisión mixta”, ONDEC.
24 Memoria of the Federation of Catholic Educational Centers, June 11, 1977, p. 20.
25 El Comercio, December 20, 1975, p. 2.
26 El Comercio, December 21, 1975, p. 17.
27 El Comercio, December 25, 1975, p. 2.
28 Letter of Bishop Durand to Brother Palomino, December 22, 1975, in file 816/75, “Consorcio de CCEE de la Iglesia”, ONDEC.
29 Elorz, Victorino Imforme sobre las publicaciones de la Oficina Nacional de Educación Católica, June 11, 1975, p. 6.Google Scholar
30 María F. de Benavides, petition addressed to Bishop Gregorio Olazar Murgana, Vice-President of the Episcopal Commission on Faith, June 17, 1975. In private collection of Father Eduardo Bastos, S.J., Lima.
31 In private collection of Eduardo Bastos, S.J., Lima.
32 Letter of Brother Eduardo Palomino to Cardinal Landázuri, Lima, August 3, 1975. In private collection of Eduardo Bastos, S.J.
33 Letter of Sister Esther Capestany to Cardinal Landázuri, Lima, August 25, 1975. In private collection of Eduardo Bastos, S.J.
34 Letter of Sister Margarita María Hamann to Cardinal Landázuri, Lima, August 1, 1975. Collection Bastos.
35 El Comercio, January 11, 1976, p. 2.
36 Elorz, Victorino Informe &, June 11, 1975, p. 6 Google Scholar
37 Tabarés, Margarita (secretary of the Consortium), Informe sobre los textos-cuadernos, August 4, 1975, p. 4.Google Scholar Collection Bastos. Also, in the Consortium’s bulletin for October, 1975, p. 2.
38 Luciano Metzinger (Secretary General of the Peruvian Episcopate), “Comunicado: XLVI Asamblea de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana, segunda etapa”, (no date)
39 An example of the right’s attack on the textbooks may be found in the article by Salomón Bolo Hidalgo in ¡Expresión! (Lima), March 31, 1976, p. 6; an attack on the right’s anti-textbook campaign may be found in La Crónica (Lima), March 11, 1976, p. 7.
40 Memoria of the Federation of Catholic Educational Centers, June 11, 1977, pp. 25–26.
41 For a critical overview of the military’s relations with the teachers and SUTEP, see Gall, Norman S. La Reforma educativa peruana (Lima: Mosca Azul, 1976).Google Scholar
42 “Informe balance de la huelga del SUTEP en el sexto sector de Lima, agosto de 1978,” in César Pezo del Pino, Eduardo Ballón Echegaray and Falconí, Luis Peirano El Magisterio y sus luchas, 1885–1978 (Lima: Desco, 1978), pp. 242–243.Google Scholar
43 Open letters of the Federation to the President of the Republic, June 15 and 19, 1978, in Boletín de la Federación de Centros Educativos Católicos, May-September, 1978.
44 Ibid. See also Henry Pease Garcia and Alfredo Filomeno, Perú 1978: Conología política, vol. VII (Lima: Desco, 1980), p. 3153.
45 Letter of the Minister of Education, General José Guabloche Rodríguez, to Father Oscar Alzamora Revoredo, S.M., June II, 1979. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
46 Letter of Horacio Zevallos and others to Cardinal Landázuri, Lima, June 12, 1979. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
47 Letter of the Episcopal Commission on Education to Cardinal Landázuri, Lima, June 25, 1979. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
48 Informe de la Comisión Episcopal de Educación sobre la actual huelga magisterial, Lima, July 10, 1979. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
49 Marka (Lima), July 12, 1979, p. 26.
50 In file “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
51 Letter of Sister Elizabeth Hanfland to ONDEC, Lima, September 7, 1979. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
52 These incidents are all reported in letters to ONDEC during the strike. File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
53 Boletín de la Federación de Centros Educativos Católicos, August-September, 1979, pp. 8–10.
54 Ibid, p. 10.
55 Casas, Sor María Luiza Directora del Centro Educativo Particular María Auxiliadora, “Relación de los hechos ocurridos en la toma del colegio particular María Auxiliadora por un grupo de profesores del SUTEP de Ayacucho”, Ayacucho, September 14, 1979.Google Scholar File “Huelga Magisterial 1979”, ONDEC.
56 Boletín de la Federación de Centros Educativos Católicos, July-September, 1980, pp. 11–12; 16–30.
