José del Carmen Marín Arista

José del Carmen Marín Arista was born on March 2, 1899 in the department of Amazonas. He went to the Military academy in 1917 and on the following year, he went to the top division (today Officer Candidate School) from which he graduated with honours in 1922.

In 1927, he graduates as Bachelor in Mathematical Sciences in the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and as a military engineer in the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles, France. He graduates here with honours too and with the second place of honour of his class. When he returns, he founds the School and the Service of Transmissions.

The soldier

From 1929 to 1933, he was successively an instructing captain, the studies principal and commander of the Officer Candidate School.

In 1934 he is promoted to major. He goes into the Escuela Superior de Guerra and he graduates obtaining the espada de España (Spain's sword), always being the first place of honour in his class. In the above mentioned School, he was a teacher and a pupil at the same time.

In 1937, he was sent to France to the Escuela Superior de Guerra in Paris (Top School of War in Paris), where he graduated with an honorable mention and the highest grades. When he returned to Peru, he was appointed as commander-in-chief of the general army staff, post in which he remained during the conflict with Ecuador in 1941.

In December, 1952 he is promoted to colonel and with this grade he runs the Escuela de Aplicación de Ingeniería (School of Engineering Application), he founds the Leoncio Prado Military School and then he is appointed as director of the Military Academy, post in which he was promoted as a sergeant major. In 1947 he took an oath to fulfil the post of Secretary of War during the government of José Luis Bustamante y Rivero.

In 1948, as a member of the Top Council of the Army, he presided the commission of the armed institutes that were in charge of proposing the new projects of fundamental laws to prepare the national defense and the Peruvian armed forces. Due to one of these laws, the Centro de Altos Estudios Militares (CAEM) - (Center of High Military Studies) was created. Its organization and direction were entrusted to him in 1950.

In December, 1956, he is promoted to General of Division. It was when he was in this rank that he decided to retire in 1957, but he continues as an academic adviser for the CAEM, for three years more.

He was the principal professor in the Univeridad Nacional de Ingenieria (National University of Engineering). He taught here for 32 years. He was an Emeritus professor of this university and an honorary professor Universidad San Luis Gonzaga (San Luis Gonzaga University) in Ica, on request of the pupils. He has been a professor of the Escuela de Alto Mando (High Command School) of the FAP, since its foundation, and also of the Academia Diplomatica del Peru (Peruvian Diplomatic Academy). He was a member of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Matemáticas y Físicas (National Academy of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) and president of the Instituto de Lenguas Aborigenes (Instituto de Lenguas Aborigenes|Institute of Natives Language).

He died on December 6, 1980.

A state school located in the facilities of the ex-barracks of Santa Catalina, in Lima, is named after him.