Jose Pepe Luciano

José Carlos “Pepe” Luciano Huapaya was an Afro-Peruvian sociologist, academic, scholar, intellectual, and activist who fought for the recognition of Human Rights for Afro-Peruvian communities. His academic work was also tied to his political and cultural organizing in the Afro-Peruvian movements. His work was important because it analyzed the structural inequalities that shaped Blackness in the nation's history.

In 1980, he started working at the Instituto de Investigaciones Afroperuanas (INAPE), or in English, the Afro-Peruvian Research Institute, with another scholar named Jose "Cheche" Campos Davila. In this space, both scholars contributed to research, discussion, and political engagement around Afro-Peruvian life. Luciano’s involvement helped shape this space as one committed to producing knowledge from within Afro-Peruvian experiences and struggles.

His book Los afroperuanos: Racismo, discriminación e identidad, or in English "The Afro-Peruvians: Racism, discrimination and identity," is a foundational text for understanding how racism has been historically produced and sustained in Peru, as well as how Afro-Peruvians have constructed identity under those conditions. Combining sociological analysis with historical reflection and lived experience, the book shows that racism is not an individual issue but a structural system embedded in Peruvian society.