René Zavaleta Mercado was born in 1937 in the city of Oruro (Bolivia) and died in 1984 in Mexico City. Sociologist, politician and militant, Zavaleta is one of the main theoreticians of Latin American Marxism of the 20th century. His evolution runs parallel to the most important political events on the continent. A witness to the coups d'état led by Hugo Banzer in 1971 and, while he was in Chile, by Augusto Pinochet in 1973, Zavaleta ended up going into exile in Mexico, where he developed the most interesting part of his work. In recognition of his work and his growing influence, he was director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Mexico between 1976 and 1984.