Federico Brito Figueroa ( La Victoria, 2 November 1921 –

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, 28 April 2000) was a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

. Brito's ideas and writings played an important role in the ideological formation of

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, former president of Venezuela. Born in La Victoria in Venezuela, Brito was a member of Venezuela's National Democratic Party ('' Partido Democrático Nacional'' – PDN, which later renamed

Acción Democrática Democratic Action (, AD) is a Venezuelan social democratic and centre-left political party established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government during Venezuela's first democ ...

) in 1936. Brito, after profound schisms appeared in the Venezuelan left, joined the

Communist Party of Venezuela The Communist Party of Venezuela (, PCV) is a communist party in Venezuela. Founded in 1931, it is the oldest active political party in Venezuela, and was the country's main leftist party until it fractured into rival factions in 1971. The P ...

, together with Domingo Maza Zavala and

Luis Miquilena Luis Manuel Miquilena Hernández (July 29, 1919 – November 24, 2016) was a Venezuelan politician. He was involved in politics in the 1940s, and again after the 1958 restoration of democracy, but retired from politics in 1964 until the early ...

. In 1946, Brito entered the Instituto Pedagógico Nacional (National Teaching Institute) to obtain the title of professor of social sciences. Brito later travelled to

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. There, he studied in the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National School of Anthropology and History). Along with Wenceslao Roces and François Chavalier, Brito graduated with a degree in

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

. Brito returned to Venezuela in 1959, after

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military officer and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1950 to 1952 and as president from 1952 t ...

's toppling, and began studies at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and was licensed as a historian and obtained his doctorate in anthropology. Brito's doctoral thesis was the renowned and influential work ''La estructura económica de Venezuela colonial'' (The Economic Structure of Colonial Venezuela), which he wrote in 1963 and published in 1978. Key points of his works included the elucidation of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, the study of

Federal War The Federal War () — also known as the Great War or the 5 Year War — was a civil war in Venezuela between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party over the monopoly the Conservatives held over government positions and land ownership, an ...

general

Ezequiel Zamora Ezequiel Zamora (; 1 February 1817 – 10 January 1860) was a Venezuelan soldier and leader of the Federalists in the Federal War ''(Guerra Federal)'' of 1859–1863. He participated in the 1846 Venezuelan peasant insurrection against the con ...

, and a critical and probing analysis of the socioeconomic underpinnings of both

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

and

neocolonialism Neocolonialism is the control by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony) through indirect means. The term ''neocolonialism'' was first used after World War II to refer to ...

Works

* ''Ezequiel Zamora. Un capitulo de la historia nacional'', Caracas, 1951 * ''Liberacion de los esclavos'', Caracas, 1951 * ''Venezuela, siglo XX'', 1967 * ''La estructura económica de Venezuela colonial'', Caracas, 1978 * ''Tiempo de Ezequiel Zamora'', Caracas, 1981 * ''El problema tierra y esclavos en la historia de Venezuela'', Caracas, 1982 * ''Historia económica y social de Venezuela: Una estructura para su estudio'', Caracas, 1979/1987

References

* ''Federico Brito Figueroa (1922–2000)'', Tomás Straba, semanario ''Otra Opinión'', 1 September 2000, p. 28. Digital version available at
base de datos
at the Biblioteca Nacional de Venezuela. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brito Figueroa, Federico 1921 births 2000 deaths People from Aragua Marxist historians 20th-century Venezuelan historians Venezuelan male writers Central University of Venezuela alumni Democratic Action (Venezuela) politicians Communist Party of Venezuela politicians