Rafael Squirru    

Rafael Squirru has been called a marathon runner of culture. True to his conviction that it is the key to human progress, he dedicated his life to its wider  diffusion. Untiring lecturer, organizer of events, writer and art critic, he promoted the  visual arts, literature and humanistic philosophy during seven decades. He created the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires in 1956 while teaching at the Jesuit high-school El Salvador, was named Director of Cultural Affairs of the Argentine Foreign Ministry in 1958 and Director of the Cultural Department of the OAS in 1963. He was  art critic of daily  La Nación from 1982 to 2005. 

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            "Culture" he wrote in an essay "is not a chocolate, a luxury, a commodity. People still think it valid to have to choose between culture or sheets for our hospitals. They do not seem to realize that  without culture there would be no sheets, medicines or hospitals...."