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WASHINGTON (AP) – Paul Chavez had no idea where a sculpture of his father, Latin American civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez, would end up in the White House.
He agreed this week to loan the bronze bust to President Joe Biden and scrambled to get it wrapped and shipped across the country from California. It was a total surprise on Wednesday when he saw Biden at his desk in the Oval Office, with the bust of the late Cesar Chavez right behind the president.
“We are always smiling cheek to cheek,” Paul Chavez said in an interview Thursday.
Biden emphasized the themes of unity and inclusiveness and advocating for racial justice during the campaign, and Chavez said Biden appeared to be trying to convey it through a series of quick decorative changes he made. at the most powerful office in the world.
Chavez said the prominent placement of his father’s likeness in the White House sends the message that it is a “new day” after Donald Trump’s tenure and the anti-immigrant policies he and his advisers have pushed. Chavez, who is chairman and chairman of the board of the foundation named after his father, predicted that “the contributions of workers, immigrants, Latinos… will be taken into account” in the new administration.
Whenever Biden is seen at his office, Chavez, an advocate for farm workers, will also be there.
Biden revealed on Wednesday the retouching of his Oval Office as he signed a series of executive orders and other actions in his early days as the country’s 46th president.
The most visually striking change is Biden’s choice of a deep blue carpet, with the Presidential seal in the middle, which was last used by President Bill Clinton, to replace a light-colored carpet laid by Trump. Biden also uses Clinton’s deep gold draperies.
Busts of civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are also on display, along with a sculpture of President Harry Truman. Biden removed a bust of Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister.
On the wall opposite Biden’s office is a collage of portraits of predecessors George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with Alexander Hamilton, a founding father and former Secretary of the Treasury.
The portrait of President Andrew Jackson, a Trump favorite who signed the Indian Removal Act that forced tens of thousands of Native Americans out of their homelands, is no longer on display.
Biden retains the Resolute office, so named because it was built using oak from the British Arctic exploration vessel HMS Resolute. But he got rid of the red button Trump had on his desk and was pushing for a butler to bring him a diet coke, his drink of choice.
All presidents change the decor of the Oval Office at the start of their tenure to reflect their personal tastes or to telegraph broader messages to the public.
The White House maintains an extensive collection of furniture, paintings, and other artifacts to choose from. Presidents are also permitted to borrow items from the Smithsonian and other museums. The White House curator oversees everything and the makeover is done within hours of the outgoing president leaving the mansion and before the new president arrives.
Biden also replaced a row of military service flags that Trump used to decorate the desk with a single American flag and a flag with the presidential seal, both positioned behind his desk.
He also chose a dark brown leather upholstered chair instead of keeping the reddish brown office chair used by Trump.
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