In his memories of 1967, Víctor Andrés Belaunde observes that José de la Riva-Agüero's style preceded the "Novecentist" Peruvian generation. This paper argues that in addition to stylistic analogies, tacit ones can be identified between Ortega's thought and Riva-Agüero's writing, particularly the latter's book Paisajes peruanos and orteguian categories such as circumstance and foreshortening (escorzo) and themes such as Spain as a problem (and its Peruvian correlate).