In Memoriam: Edelberto Torres Rivas (1930–2018)

• Date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Marjorie Bray
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19864315
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19864315

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 228, Vol. 46 No. 5, September 2019, 210

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19864315

© 2019 Latin American Perspectives

210

In Memoriam

Edelberto Torres Rivas (1930–2018)

We note with sadness the passing of honorary editor Edelberto Torres Rivas,

who served for many years as a participating editor of and contributor to Latin

American Perspectives. A renowned Guatemalan historian and sociologist and

the recipient in 2011 of the Latin American Studies Association Kalman Silvert

Lifetime Achievement Award, he was a youthful opponent of the dictatorship

of Ubico and after the 1954 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz went to Chile, where

every Thursday afternoon he engaged in the intellectual ferment of Marxism

and dependency theory led by his professor Fernando Henrique Cardoso with

Theotônio dos Santos, Vania Bambirra, Aníbal Quijano, Enzo Faletto, and oth-

ers, and then to Costa Rica and other parts of the globe before returning to

Guatemala at the time of the peace accords in 1996. His educational formation

included the influence of his parents, a Sandinista Nicaraguan exile and a

Guatemalan mother who together wrote a biography of Rubén Darío; a degree

in law (a profession he did not want to pursue) from the University of San

Carlos in 1962, the award of which was initially refused because of his thesis on

social class; a Master’s degree in sociology from the Facultad Latinoamericana

de Ciencias Sociales under Cardoso; and a 1970 doctorate in development stud-

ies from the University of Essex. The evolution of his thought he discussed at

length with Jorge Rovira Mas, Marcia Rivera, Emir Sader, and Marco A.

Gandásegui Jr. in Crítica y Emancipación (no. 2 [2009]). His early career included

working in Chile under Cardoso for the Instituto de Planificación Económico y

Social. He was a member of the directive committee of the Consejo

Latinamericano de Ciencias Sociales from 1972 to 1978 and part of the Instituto

Centroamericano de Administración Pública in Costa Rica from 1979 to 1984.

He served from 1985 to 1993 as secretary general of FLACSO in Santiago. In

1993 he was a senior consultant to the United Nations Program for Development.

His numerous books include Interpretación del desarrollo social centroamericano

(1969), History and Society in Central America (1969), La piel de Centroamérica: Una

visión epidérmica de setenta y cinco años de su historia (2007), and Revoluciones sin

cambios revolucionarios: Ensayos sobre la crisis en Centroamérica (2011) and the six-

volume collection Historia general de Centroamérica (2011). He was the mentor of

many, beloved for his generosity, sense of humor, and enjoyment of food and

fine red wine with friends.

—Marjorie Bray

864315LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X19864315Latin American Perspectives

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