Pedro Zulen


Pedro Salvino Zulen Aymar was a Peruvian philosopher and librarian of Chinese descent, who dedicated the most part of his short life to the fight for decentralised politics and the defense of indigenous rights.

Biography

Son of Pedro Francisco Zulen and Petronila Aymar, on leaving the school directed by notable educator Pedro A. Labarthe, he entered the Faculty of Sciences of the National University of San Marcos in 1906 where he specialised in Natural Sciences and Mathematics. In 1909 he decided to transfer to the Faculty of Arts, focusing particularly on the study of philosophy. In 1912 he enrolled in the Faculty of Law. He was the promoter and one of the founders of the Pro-Indigenous Association in 1909, and held the role of general secretary until 1915, although his resignation from the institution was not made public until the following year. In 1916 he travelled to the United States in order to undertake post-graduate studies in Philosophy at Harvard University, but his ill health lead to his abandoning the attempt soon after classes began. He decided to return to Peru and settle in the city of Jauja, Junín Region, with two aims: to improve his health and, most of all, to leave Lima because of the harassment of Dora Mayer, an old Pro-Indigenous Association colleague. In 1919 he decided to run as a substitute delegate for Jauja province, but was arrested just before the election and sent to the regional capital, Cerro de Pasco, accused of anarchism and instigating rebellion amongst the peasantry. This all took place thanks to the conspiring of his political enemies, who thus prevented his candidacy.
With his studies completed and having graduated with a BA that same year, he travelled to the United States for the second time in 1920 with the aim of restarting his previous university course at Harvard. As well as his academic studies in Philosophy, he also studied what would later become known as library sciences on his own account. He returned to Peru towards the end of 1923, having been appointed cataloger of the Library of the University of San Marcos the year before, and soon after becoming its acting director. Here he worked full-time on cataloguing the Library's collection of bibliographies, editing the "Boletín Bibliográfico" and completely reorganising the institution. Because of this work he is considered to be one of the pioneers or founders of Peruvian library science, and since 2002 the Central Library of the University of San Marcos has been named after him in a well-deserved tribute. In 1924 he graduated as a Doctor of Arts and was named, by request of his students, as assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts, teaching a course on Psychology and Logic which he completely rewrote based on his studies and academic experiences in North America. After his death, a letter from the amazed and intrigued British philosopher Bertrand Russell reached Lima, congratulating him on the contents of his doctoral thesis and asking him if the Peruvian philosophical movement was at the same level.
Zulen only published two works during his lifetime, his university theses, while two further texts were published posthumously by his mother and Dora Mayer. Apart from these books there were also innumerable newspaper articles on indigenous rights, decentralisation and university reform - Zulen himself had tried on two occasions to publish a selection of these in Spain, but without success.

Works