The arrival of Roger Caillois in Argentina was of central importance to Latin America literature. He came to Buenos Aires in 1939, invited by Sur to present a course on mythological themes. Responding to the image of Caillois disembarking, Victoria acutely recalls: “I do not believe he had the least idea of what he would find here as he descended the gangplank, but he brought with him an enormous appetite for… anything.”

At just twenty-five Caillois had, with Georges Vatailles, founded the Collège de Sociologie in Paris. The three weeks he had planned to stay in Buenos Aires became five years, four of which he lived at the Villa Ocampo. He worked in the French Institute and on Lettres Françaises, a publication for writers, printed between 1941 and 1944 and launched by English aviators in Nazi-occupied France. During these years Caillois also dedicated himself to the translations of many Latin America writers into French. He headed the UNESCO-supported publication of a series of historical works, and created the famous collection La Croix du Sud de Gallimard, which for the first time issued in French the writing of authors such as Eduardo Mallea, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, Miguel Ángel Asturias, and Borges.