Two women behind the scenes: Soledad Ortega and Victoria Ocampo at the reopening of Revista de Occidente (1963). Dialogues and concerns about the American and Spanish past and present

Abstract

“La Gioconda de las Pampas”, Ortega y Gasset's nickname for Victoria Ocampo, was a privileged interlocutor for Soledad Ortega for the launch of the second period of Revista de Occidente, as evidenced in her still unpublished and soon-to-be-published epistolary. In the midst of the censorship of the Franco regime, both women exchanged ideas and Soledad Ortega aspired to give “the best of Spanish thought and the most representative of outside Spain”. Indeed, in this second stage, Revista de Occidente gave great space to intellectuals from the American continent. This work will investigate and analyze this presence and that of its peninsular peers with the study of those articles that immersed themselves in the controversies of identity, origins, name, language, culture, philosophy and also social challenges, among them the problem of liberation and feminine expression, particularly in the context of the turbulent sixties and early seventies. Behind the scenes, the opinion and support of the experienced director of the Argentine magazine Sur was valued by Soledad Ortega.