José María Arguedas, Peruvian anthropologist, author, and poet (d. 1969)
José María Arguedas Altamirano (18 January 1911 – 2 December 1969) was a Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist. Arguedas was an author of Spanish descent, fluent in the Native Quechua language, gained by living in two Quechua households from the age of 7 to 11 - first in the Indigenous servant quarters of his step-mother's home, then, escaping her "perverse and cruel" son, with an Indigenous family approved by his father - who wrote novels, short stories, and poems in both Spanish and Quechua.

Generally remembered as one of the most notable figures of 20th-century Peruvian literature, Arguedas is especially recognized for his intimate portrayals of Indigenous Andean culture. Key in his desire to depict Indigenous expression and perspective more authentically was his creation of a new language that blended Spanish and Quechua and premiered in his debut novel Yawar Fiesta.

Despite a dearth of translations into English, the critic Martin Seymour-Smith has dubbed Arguedas "the greatest novelist of our time," who wrote "some of the most powerful prose that the world has known.",