Rafael Squirru
In 1963, RS became Cultural Director of the Organization of American States (OAS) and moved to Washington D.C. with his wife and daughters.
OAS
From his new position, he supervised all literary, musical and atistic activities of that international institution with the collaboration of José Gómez Sicre in Visual Arts, Guillermo Espinosa in Music and Guillermo de Zéndegui as editor of bilingual monthly Americas. During the seven years of his mandate, he travelled extensively throught North, Central and South America visiting workshops, meeting poets and writers, lecturing in universities, museums and institutions. He organized exhibitions, international symposiums, literary meetings and concerts, supporting and stimulating artistic creation in the Americas. He established personal relationships with cultural and political celebrities such as Henry Miller, Thomas Merton, Edward Hopper, Huntington Hartford, Ernesto Cardenal, Benjamin Bradlee, the Kennedy family and Lyndon Johnson's vice-president, Hubert Humphrey. He returned to Buenos Aires in 1970.
RS, junto a los artistas Vidal, Brizzi, Mac Entyre y Polessello, en conferencia en la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)
The monthly Americas
The JFK monument in Quemú-Quemú
Crítica a Rayuela, de Cortázar
Carta de Cortázar, 26.08.64
La poesía de Colombia.Nadaismo
Tamayo, mexicano de pura cepa
On May 29th 1967, 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's birth, an impressive monument to his memory was inaugurated in the small village of Quemú Quemú (La Pampa province in Argentina) under the initiative of poet Fernando Demaría, whose family had donated the area upon which it was built. During the ceremony presenting this imposing work of art by Uruguayan artist Lincoln Presno in the presence of 2.500 people - including political, intellectual and artistic personalities such U.S. Ambassador Edwin Martin and his wife, Argentine Foreign minister Costa Méndez and his Uruguayan colleague Héctor Luisi, Ignacio Pirovano, Jorge Povarché, Demaría and many others - Squirru gave a speech as OAS representative which provoked enthusiastic applause from the audience and an indignant reaction on the part of the local and national authorities. The contrasting views on the speech gave rise to commotion and disorder at the event. The mayor of Quemú, Justo Kaminsky, declared Squirru persona non grata banning him from the province. The entire text of this famous speech is provided in this section in its unabridged version for the reader to decide whether it deserved the condemnation or the praise it received at the time.
Carta a Jackie Kennedy sobre el acto de inauguración del monumento y las repercusiones, 1967
Crónica del incidente, por Eloisa Squirru
Carta de J.C. Paz sobre los incidentes
Artículo en el diario La Nación sobre la inauguración
Opening and banning
of Bomarzo
Meeting with JFK
Artículo publicado en La Nación
¿Qué le dijo JFK a tres argentinos?
Photogallery OAS
RS guía a la Primera Dama durante una exposición en la OEA, 1962.
La traductora recibe una placa conmemorativa por su traducción al inglés del Martín Fierro de José Hernández.
Con JFK, 20 de noviembre 1963, 48 horas antes de su asesinato.
