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follow-up of the Victoria Ocampo legacy. A pioneer in the

struggle for gender equality, Victoria Ocampo fought since

her youth against the cultural and social barriers that held

women within the roles of housewife or social ornament. She

was raised to submit to masculine authority, but her need

for independence and her literary vocation drove her “against

wind and tide” towards a new identity that didn’t have any

antecedent nor role model in Hispanic communities. Thus she

opened a path to personal and creative fulfilment for women

in Argentina and other Latin American countries.

The presentation of these new working hubs was made

during a press conference and an important event on

Gender and Culture covering various proceedings. The

opening of the event was attended by high-ranking authori-

ties: the Minister of Culture of the Argentine Nation,

Teresa Parodi; the United Nations Resident Coordinator in

Argentina, René Mauricio Valdés; and the Director of the

UNESCO Montevideo Office and UNESCO Representative

in Argentina, Lidia Brito. During this event, the above

mentioned new outline of the Villa Ocampo Project was

presented, the report on ‘Gender equality, heritage and

creativity’ was publicly launched, the inscription of the

Villa Ocampo Documentation Centre on the UNESCO

Memory of the World Register for Latin America and the

Caribbean was celebrated, and a homage was made to the

Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa for her exceptional track

record promoting folklore music and for enhancing the role

of women in the knowledge societies, with the participation

of the artist Victor Heredia. To close the event, an exhibi-

tion on ‘A room of one’s own: Victoria Ocampo and gender

equality’ was inaugurated, showing photos, manuscripts,

original documents and speeches accompanied by her own

bibliography and those of others on the feminine condition

from her archives and her personal library.

The following day, 21 November, a colloquium on Gender

and Culture was also held at Villa Ocampo. With the partici-

pation of distinguished specialists from Argentina, Chile,

Paraguay and Uruguay an analysis was made of the report’s

contribution to the present debates on gender, using it as

a tool to reflect with greater depth and step up action on a

world and regional level on the role of culture as a close ally

to equality between sexes. Furthermore, each of the experts

submitted a report regarding their respective countries, based

on the guidelines set out in the report.

Thanks to this initiative, awareness was raised directly

among over 100 people, together with innumerable other

members of the general public in an indirect way thanks to

the mass media. Support by government authorities from

the four countries, organized civil society and the academic

community reflected the interest in these issues and their

introduction into working agendas.

In this respect, information presented on opportunities

and challenges for gender equality in the field of creative

industries and heritage in their respective countries will be

essential to fine-tune objectives and design action strategies

for future projects framed in the new working hubs for Villa

Ocampo as an exceptional intercultural cultural platform for

UNESCO and its partners.

The first stage of the 2003-2013 project focused on restoring and conserving

Victoria Ocampo’s house, garden, library, archives, furniture and works of art

Argentina’s Minister of Culture, Teresa Parodi, and Lidia Brito of UNESCO

attended the Gender and Culture event at Villa Ocampo in 2014

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