Agree to Differ

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Image: © UNESCO Villa Ocampo

Participants in the Colloquium on the Dialogue among Cultures in 1977, the first activity organized by UNESCO at Villa Ocampo

The basic outline of the new Villa Ocampo Programme

will be carried out by relating UNESCO’s own specializations

and the broad-ranging intellectual and cultural legacy left by

Victoria Ocampo. Within the framework of this new scenario,

projects are being planned to promote support, exchange and

training aimed at governments and civil society in the coun-

tries of the sub-region.

Among the above-mentioned proposals, Colmenar is an

exchange and reflection project geared to converting Villa

Ocampo into a laboratory for ideas that will anticipate

emerging trends with the ability to formulate forecasts and

recommendations in the field of culture. “I see Villa Ocampo

as a place of our own and of those who come with valuable

contributions,” wrote Victoria Ocampo.

For its part, Ombú will be aimed at strengthening capaci-

ties and work with reference indicators in the field of culture

and intercultural dialogue. Through the promotion of train-

ing courses, the preparation of new approaches to complex

regional challenges regarding heritage and cultural diversity

will be encouraged. “I believe in education and that all must

be given equal opportunities,” wrote Victoria Ocampo. “There

are those who will take advantage of them and those who

won’t (this is another matter). In this way all that will be

left among men will be real and insurmountable differences.

Because men are different and have different aptitudes. Even

leaves on the same branch are different.”

Finally, one of Victoria Ocampo’s essential features was her

capacity to stimulate the development of a creative vocation

among those around her and to promote dialogue and inter-

action between cultures. This dual purpose was one of the

reasons that encouraged her to found

Sur

magazine in 1931

and, as she herself said, “our magazine and our publishing

house have made known a great number of writers from all

the countries… But

Sur

has attempted not only to introduce

in South America the best of the world’s liberal arts. It has

attempted to take a reverse path. That is to say, to take our

culture to the world… With perseverance, it has contributed

to making known what is outstanding in Argentina.”

Through the Pilares project and inspired by the work of Victoria

Ocampo, access by underprivileged groups to cultural produc-

tion will be supported. Pilares may include a series of incentives

(grants and competitions) towards this goal, thus increasing these

groups or people’s creative and management capacities, seeking

to propitiate a culture of peace and non-violence.

All these projects will integrate gender issues as a cross-

cutting theme for intercultural dialogue and as a concrete

gree

iffer