Carlos Atencio

A Uruguayan anarchist leader who founded a groundbreaking communal living experiment that challenged traditional social structures.

Carlos Atencio: Pioneering Communal Living in Latin America

Carlos Atencio (1898-1972) was a visionary anarchist organizer whose work in Uruguay during the 1920s-1940s profoundly influenced social movements across Latin America. Born in Montevideo to working-class parents, he became deeply involved in anarchist circles while studying engineering at the University of the Republic. His most notable achievement was the establishment of the Comunidad de Punta del Este in 1927, a radical communal living experiment that redefined cooperative living principles.

Atencio's commune, located in the coastal town of Punta del Este, became a beacon for anti-authoritarian ideals. Over 200 members lived and worked together using a decentralized decision-making process, producing everything from textiles to organic produce. This model directly inspired later movements like the Inti Pereira collective in Argentina and the Mexican anarchist collectives during the 1930s. His writings, including La Comunidad como Alternativa (1935), argued that communal living could address social inequities without government intervention.

Though suppressed during Uruguay's authoritarian regimes, Atencio's ideas resurfaced during the 1960s student movements. His legacy lives on in modern intentional communities like the Global Ecovillage Network. The commune's original site is now a museum (Comunidad de Punta), preserving his vision of cooperative living.