"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good.

Oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood."

***

We visited Victoria Ocampo's estate today. Once upon a time she was an anomalous woman, speaking her opinions, wearing trousers, divorcing her husband and carrying on fickle love affairs. She published Sur magazine, the first platform for great writers of her time, like Borges, Neruda, and Woolf.

On display in her spacious mansion were her 60's style white-rimmed cat-eye sunglasses, and a collection of Camus' writings and commentaries. I couldn't help but feel a certain closeness to Victoria, with my white rims resting in my hair, and a copy of Camus' "The Plague" tucked into my purse.

Whether in jest or seriousness, a cynical soul whose company I quite enjoy poked fun at me on several occasions today. Most of the comments bruised my ego and I felt mocked for my input on the scientific reasoning behind rising bubbles in beer, and for wanting to take pictures of vintage Fords in Argentina. It seems I emanate an air of arrogance in the eyes of this boy, but all I can do is hope I'm not misunderstood because my urges and contributions stem purely from my interests and my desire to further conversation. I guess I'm not sorry if certain people take this the wrong way.

These elves were on display on an artisan's table, alongside other booths with little gadgets at a little outdoor artsy market. We took the train out of Buenos Aires and walked around the suburbs. Yet another beautiful day in good company.

***

I?ve been speaking Spanish my whole life and I?d never heard the word ?polemica? until I got to Buenos Aires. The word means controversial. It seems fitting in this city that now I hear the word on a daily basis. Everything here is controversial, from historical events and figures to government and literature.
The deceased lady whose house we visited on Saturday had some ?polemica? views. At first, I was all about Victoria Ocampo. Based on the minimal biographical information I knew about her, she seemed like a progressive, intellectual woman. I didn?t have much to hold against her. I loved her private library in her beautiful mansion, and I was impressed with the friends she kept like Borges and Woolf.
Then, it turns out she was an aristocratic elitist completely unconcerned with the rights and lives of the lower classes. As progressive of a feminist as she was, she opposed the Peron government?s move to grant women suffrage. It seems she was greedy with what she had and didn?t revel in the idea of sacrificing anything for those who had less.
But I?m reminded of Tiger Woods and T.S. Eliot. Tiger Woods is an adulterer, but he?s still the best golf player around. And T.S. Eliot wrote some of my favorite modern poetry, but he might very well have been a Nazi sympathizer. So maybe Ocampo was a greedy elitist, but her contributions to the literary world, especially in Latin America, are indisputable. The translations that she and her upper class literate friends spread about the continent in her magazine Sur brought international literature from writers like Kafka to audiences that might never have been given access to such works. Some of today?s most well respected Latin American authors might never have found the stage for publication that Sur provided for them.
So I appreciate Ocampo in a tangible sense. In the sense that she gave South America a literary opportunity. And I give her kudos for doing it when women weren?t supposed to be playing that kind of role. She wasn?t my friend and what with her being dead, she never will be, so I?ll choose to keep in mind what kind of person she might have been, but I?ll not let it get in the way of her accomplishments.