and artistic nuclei. He became friends with the writer Abraham Valdelomar with whom he formed a dilettante duo whose duels of wit were reproduced by themselves in their chronicles. Around that time (later called contemptuously by himself as his "stone age") he enthusiastically cultivated poetry but never published his announced collection of poems titled Sadness. In 1918 his interests turned to social problems. Together with the journalist César Falcón and Félix del Valle, he founded the magazine Nuestra Época, from which he criticized militarism and traditional politics but from which only two issues came out. In 1919, and also in collaboration with Falcón, he founded the newspaper La Razón, from where he supported the university reform and the workers' struggles. This newspaper did not have a long life either and was closed by the government of President Augusto B. Leguía, officially for having expressed contempt for the members of parliament, although it was most likely due to the growing popular demands that it encouraged from its pages. Trip to Europe and socialist training Together with César Falcón, they traveled to Europe thanks to a scholarship that was given to them by the Leguía government as a covert form of deportation. They passed through New York, coinciding with a strike of workers on the docks of the port, and in Germany with the Spartacist revolution, to later reach the port of Le Havre in November and from there, to Paris. On the other hand, the researcher Sylvers Malcolm has specified that both traveled as "overseas propagandists" of the then Leguía government; that both belonged to the Foreign Relations sector and that they were paid positions and on scholarships, as was believed for a time. Mariátegui was assigned to the Peruvian Consulate in Rome, and Falcón to the Peruvian Consulate in Madrid. All of this appears corroborated in a letter from Mariategui to Victoria Ferrer, dated January 24, 1920. During this trip, his eldest daughter, Gloria María Mariátegui Ferrer, was born from his relationship with Victoria Ferrer González. In Europe, as he said himself, was where he did the most of his learning. He linked up with leading writers, studied languages, inquired about new intellectual and artistic concerns, and attended international conferences and meetings. José Carlos Mariátegui together with his 4 children (1929). In Italy he married Anna Chiappe and was present during the occupation of the factories in Turin, as well