Background
Luciano Castillo was born in La Huaca on 20 February 1896.
Luciano Castillo was born in La Huaca on 20 February 1896.
He studied law at the University of Trujillo until he was expelled for political activities. . He transferred to the National University of San Marcos, where he became president of the National Federation of Students. He graduated with a bachelor of laws degree in 1927.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the Peruvian Socialist Party founded by José Carlos Mariátegui in 1928, Castillo opposed its conversion into the Communist Party. When the conversion occurred in 1930, after Mariátegui’s death, he resigned and founded his own Socialist Party, which elected him to the Constituent Assemblies of 1931 and 1978, to the Chamber of Deputies in 1945, and to the Senate in 1956 and 1963.
Castillo was his party’s candidate for president in 1956, 1962, 1963, and 1980. While exiled in Mexico, he taught at the National University of Mexico, and upon his return to Lima taught political economy at San Marcos. He died shortly after losing the national elections of 1980.