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Civic Imagination

Practice what you preach

Victoria Ocampo was an argentinian feminist writer and patron of the arts. She lived in the first half of the 20th century.Her family was vastly rich and extremely conservative. She wrote and fought for women and liberal rights even during General Peron's government, which restricted freedom of speech. She actually went to jail for oposing such administration. She founded the Sur magazine who promoted controvertial (at that time) writers such as Virginia Wolf and Federico Garcia Lorca in Argentina. She also defended the idea that women could get married and still have an active career but she actually got a legal separation in 1922, many years before divorced was actually aproved in argentina and mantained a long, non-marital relationship with another partner. She was the first argentinian lady to obtain a drivers license and founded the Womens argentinian union to fight for femenine rights such as sufragge and responsable motherhood.

The story of Victoria Ocampo inspires me. She came from a privileged background in where what she thought was considered radical and improper for a lady of her status. She defended female by living accordingly, setting an example for other women at that complicated time. She did act but in a cultural way, using the tools available to her. She inherited a big fortune and a huge villa where she would invite some of the most important cultural personalities from her era, even when they were not considered “proper” by argentinian high class. She founded Sur magazine in which she promoted writers such as Federico Garcia Lorca, discriminated (and actually asesinated by Franco’s government in Spain) for being homosexual. I found out about her story in highschool. I had a literature professor who wanted us to read her short stories and told us about her life. At that time I felt immediately attracted to her story because of the way of “cultural” batteling injustice, not only to women, but to anyone who was in an underprivileged position. She opposed General Peron’s government, which she considered antidemocratic and actually went to jail for 26 days but international pressure from Indias Prime Minister and chilenean Nobel Prize in Literature awarded, Gabriela Mistral, among others, got her out. Even then, as she was watched and controlled by the government, she did not live the country and continue to fight for what se believed in.
I still feel identified with her story. I am not as rich as she is or even as powerfull as she was back then but I have means to fight injustice. I have received an education and I have acces to technologies that can work towards a more fair world for women.
She is well known in Arentina but although she is considered one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century in my country, she is often ignored and diminished in comparison to other male writers of her time.

This story can be a source of inspiration for women rights advocates in Argentina. Actually, for the past years there has been a huge movement in defense of women suffering domestic violence but her figure has not been brought up as a role model. She lived accordingly to what she preached, she practice feminism in her life and devoted her time to this cause not antagonizyng but looking for common grounds in which women could work along with men. It is relevant to argentinian society because womens rights are once again in the spotlight and the #NiUnaMenos (#NotOneLess) movement has gained a lot popularity in the past few years. (This movement is against gender violence). I have not shared this story but i believed is known in my country and her story can be a source of inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R44Vi2fgeQ

#Feminism #Freedom #WomenRights #HumanRights

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6. Chef "Chef is a film released in 2014 that was written and directed by Jon Favreau who was inspired by his own career in film and love of the culinary arts to create a movie about a popular chef who needs to find his creative spark and fall in love with cooking once more. The film begins in California where Chef Carl Casper lives and works. After receiving a brutally negative review from a well regarded food critic, Carl reevaluates his job at a fancy restaurant in California. He realized that sticking to a strict menu has taken away a lot of joy from the profession he used to love. After he quits his job, Carl heads to Miami, Florida with his family because his ex-wife, Inez, needs him to watch their son, Percy, while she works.
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11. Sanjay's Super Team This is an animated short film from Pixar directed and written by Sanjay Patel who based it off his experiences as a child. The story revolves around a young boy, Sanjay, and his father, an Indian-American migrant. Sanjay is watching his favourite superheroes on TV while his father is praying by the shrine in the same room. His father urges him to join in the ritual but Sanjay refuses so he switches off the TV and takes his toy in order to force him into it.
12. Freedom Writers: Bridging Racial Divides Through Writing Freedom Writers (the movie) is based on a true story of a school in Long Beach, California. The main character, Erin Gruwell, is a new teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School and placed with the students who are considered at-risk and unteachable. These students were almost entirely comprised of minorities, with the exception of one student. With such a diverse class and a group of students who had no apparent desire to learn, the film explores the real-world challenges that Gruwell faced trying to get her students to come to class wanting to learn, if they would even want to come to their classes at all. The class divides itself based on race, and fights and arguments breakout regularly. The class later finds common ground on their feelings and discussions around The Holocaust. Her students become inspired to break free from the things that originally divided them, most notably with one character speaking out against someone who she was being forced to lie for during a trial. She tasked her students with writing in a diary and then compiled those journals and writings into a collection of them all in “The Freedom Writers Diary.”
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2. Maus: A Survivor's Tale
4. How the tortoise got cracks in his shell
11. My Dad
12. Sanjay's Super Team This is an animated short film from Pixar directed and written by Sanjay Patel who based it off his experiences as a child. The story revolves around a young boy, Sanjay, and his father, an Indian-American migrant. Sanjay is watching his favourite superheroes on TV while his father is praying by the shrine in the same room. His father urges him to join in the ritual but Sanjay refuses so he switches off the TV and takes his toy in order to force him into it.
13. Freedom Writers: Bridging Racial Divides Through Writing Freedom Writers (the movie) is based on a true story of a school in Long Beach, California. The main character, Erin Gruwell, is a new teacher at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School and placed with the students who are considered at-risk and unteachable. These students were almost entirely comprised of minorities, with the exception of one student. With such a diverse class and a group of students who had no apparent desire to learn, the film explores the real-world challenges that Gruwell faced trying to get her students to come to class wanting to learn, if they would even want to come to their classes at all. The class divides itself based on race, and fights and arguments breakout regularly. The class later finds common ground on their feelings and discussions around The Holocaust. Her students become inspired to break free from the things that originally divided them, most notably with one character speaking out against someone who she was being forced to lie for during a trial. She tasked her students with writing in a diary and then compiled those journals and writings into a collection of them all in “The Freedom Writers Diary.”
16. The Light at the end of a Dark Tunnel
18. Train of Hope
20. Emmeline the Suffragist
22. The Diary of Anne Frank
23. A Leader
30. The Help
33. How I "Eat, Pray, and Love"
34. The doctors' team of the Aegean sea
37. We are all Martín Fierro
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