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Villa Ocampo’s new programme: a contribution

to the Action Plan for the International Decade

for the Rapprochement of Cultures

Frédéric Vacheron, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Culture Programme Specialist for the South Cone and Director of the Villa Ocampo Programme;

and Ernesto Montequin, Curator and Academic Advisor for the Villa Ocampo Programme

ictoria Ocampo (1890-1979) is one of Latin

America’s foremost cultural figures, and

Sur

the magazine she founded in 1931 and directed

during 40 years, is widely recognized as the most

important Spanish-speaking cultural publication of the

twentieth century.

During her lifetime she made Villa Ocampo, her house in San

Isidro neighbourhood in the outskirts of Buenos Aires City, a

meeting point for the most distinguished Argentine and foreign

writers and thinkers. The house, which was first constructed

in 1890 as a vacation residence for the Ocampo family, became

Victoria Ocampo’s permanent home from the early 1940s. In

1973, she willed her possessions and property to the United

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO), considering that “my house is particularly suited

to host permanent workshops, research centres or programmes,

or projects related to film, television, theatre, music, literature,

translation, or new forms of expression or communication.”

Victoria Ocampo’s relationship with UNESCO goes back

to the origins of the Organization. In 1947, she hosted Julian

Huxley, UNESCO’s first Director General at Villa Ocampo to

introduce him to some of the representatives of the Argentine

academic, artistic, literary and scientific community. Years

later, Victoria wrote about this meeting: “Huxley spoke about

UNESCO, explaining its aims and operation. He was eloquent

without eloquence. His arguments won me over.” And, several

decades later, Huxley was one of the first people Victoria

consulted before donating Villa Ocampo to UNESCO: “The

last time I saw him I told him about my Project regarding the

donation of the property to UNESCO, of which he was aware.

He approved of it.”

Shared values prompted Victoria Ocampo (right) to bequeath her home, Villa Ocampo, to UNESCO

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