Conrad Traverso

Conrado Timoteo Traverso was born in Buenos Aires in 1892 and trained as a lawyer before entering Argentina’s foreign service in 1923. His early career centered on the United States: he served as an embassy secretary through 1928, spent several years in London, and returned to Washington as minister-counsellor in 1931–32. He subsequently spent more than a decade as consul general in New York. ¹

Traverso’s postwar work extended to international cultural cooperation. On 16 November 1945 he signed, for Argentina, the final act of the London conference that established UNESCO. The conference adopted the organization’s constitution, created a preparatory commission, and selected Paris as its seat. ²

After appointments to Denmark and Mexico, he became ambassador to the Holy See. Pius XII received his credentials on 12 January 1947. In the accompanying address, the pope discussed Argentina’s assistance to European war victims and its plans to receive emigrants from the devastated continent. Traverso resigned that April, returned briefly to ambassadorial service in Venezuela in 1958, and died in Buenos Aires in May 1963. ^{1, 3}