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The communion of interests between Victoria Ocampo and

UNESCO on the importance of intercultural dialogue and the

culture of peace was long and productive. It started with her

attending the Nuremberg Trials as an audience member and with

a shared position regarding Nazi crimes and the need for the

international community’s intervention to avoid their repetition.

“For me, what took place at Belsen, at Mathausen, at Auschwitz,

at any concentration camp, is as if it had taken place here. I am

Argentine, but my homeland is the world.” The struggle for

gender equality – she was a founding member of the Unión

Argentina de Mujeres (Women’s Union of Argentina) during the

1930s and the first woman to join the Argentine Academy of

Arts in 1977 – was another of the principles they shared. But

the most important ideal upheld by Victoria Ocampo throughout

her life was the need to promote a dialogue between cultures as a

key factor for the development of societies. “Interaction between

cultures is fruitful provided the characteristics of each cultural

group are respected,” she wrote in 1976, “and I believe this is one

of UNESCO’s creeds, as it is mine.”

The first activity organized by UNESCO at Villa Ocampo in

1977 had enormous significance: it was the Colloquium on

the Dialogue among Cultures, an intercultural meeting lasting

five days, attended by eminent representatives from the intel-

lectual communities of several Latin American, European,

Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries. The colloquium

report was published in a special issue of

Sur

magazine in

1978. The ‘dialogue among cultures’ was – in the words of

Victoria Ocampo, “the dream of my life”.

The fortieth anniversary of the donation of Villa Ocampo

to UNESCO was commemorated on 10 December 2013. This

donation arose from the many coincidences between Victoria

Ocampo’s values and those of the organization: the role of

culture as a determinant for development and inclusion;

promotion of cultural diversity and women’s rights; tolerance

and openness to others’ ideas. In fact, it was a donation with

responsibilities: for promoting these shared values, for contin-

uing the active cultural life that the property had enjoyed for

over half a century, and for the property “to serve, in a living

and creative spirit, for the promotion, study, experimentation

and development of activities spanning culture, literature, the

arts, social communication and peace among peoples.”

Under its management, UNESCO carried out innumerable

activities at Villa Ocampo, such as the Regional Seminar on

Cultural Management Policies in the MERCOSUR; the work-

shop on Places of Memory on the Slave Route in Argentina,

Paraguay and Uruguay; the meeting of 42Ministers of Education

from the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean; and the

workshop on the declaration of Outstanding Universal Value of

Latin American and Caribbean sites on the World Heritage List.

During the first stage of the 2003-2013 project, UNESCO

concentrated on the renovation and conservation of Victoria

Ocampo’s house, garden, library, archives, furniture and works

of art with highly satisfactory results. Restoration works were

possible thanks to the contribution of the Argentine state.

In addition to the state, the Municipality of San Isidro, a wide

range of national and municipal museums, the Friends of Villa

Ocampo Association, the Fundación Sur, which holds Victoria

Ocampo’s copyright, the private sector and various embassies

have generously collaborated with us over the years.

Following this stage of the restoration and apprecia-

tion through a wide-ranging artistic programme involving

concerts, theatre, conferences, literary presentations, chil-

dren’s programmes, art shows, contemporary dance, movie

screenings and filming in the house, Villa Ocampo’s manage-

ment now needs to adjust itself to meet the organization’s

programmatic priorities. As Victoria Ocampo wrote in her

donation: the property must be used in order to contribute

to “UNESCO’s aims, in accordance with its constitution and

to programme activities adopted by the General Conference.”

Villa Ocampo, faithful to its owner’s intellectual and ethical

legacy, must fulfil the role of cultural rapprochement and

contribute to forging “a new humanism,” understood as a

new way of being together in the mutual respect of cultural

diversity and universal ethics. This was the essential principle

that guided Victoria Ocampo’s role as editor of

Sur

magazine:

to build bridges across different cultures and languages and to

give space to the most diverse cultural expressions. The only

criterion was literary quality and humanistic values.

On 20-21 November 2014, UNESCO and Villa Ocampo organ-

ized a series of important activities in Buenos Aires to launch a

new phase of the Villa Ocampo Programme. These activities all

had a common theme: that of Victoria Ocampo’s legacy and her

close connection with UNESCO’s mandate within the interna-

tional system. The activities were supported by the Ministry of

Culture of the Argentine Nation, organized civil society institu-

tions, the United Nations and the academic community.

The last issue of

Sur

magazine, entirely dedicated to women

gree

iffer