This is the preliminary version of the American Boundary. I am beginning to thin it in places so that it can interlace with the Cuban boundary. It's just form at the moment, the real info is forthcoming.
Weaving is the textile art in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads, are interlaced with each other to form a fabric.
“The beginning of building coincides with the beginning of textiles…the wall is the structural element that formally represents and makes visible the enclosed space as such, absolutely, as it were, without reference to secondary concepts. We might recognize the pen, bound together from sticks and branches, and the interwoven fence as the earliest vertical spatial enclosure that man invented…weaving the fence lead to weaving movable walls…Using wickerwork to set apart ones property and for floor mats and protection against heat and cold far preceded making even the roughest masonry. Wickerwork was the original motif of the wall. It retained the primary significance, actually or ideally, when the light hurdles and mattings were transformed into brick or stonewalls. The essence of the wall was wickerwork."
Gottfried Semper
The United States Interests Section in Havana
The United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana, Cuba or USINT Havana (the State Department telegraphic address) represents America in Cuba. It is staffed by United States Foreign Service personnel and local staff employed by the US Department of State. USINT Havana and its counterpart, the Interests Section of the Republic of Cuba in Washington, are formally sections of the respective Embassies of Switzerland and Czechoslovak Republic, although they operate independently of the Swiss in virtually all but protocol respects. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, but their respective Interests Sections function as de facto embassies.
The US Interests Section in Havana built by Harrison & Abramovitz in 1953.
Propaganda Battles with the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza
The USINT site has long been a propagandistic battleground between Cuba and the US. During the Elián González case, the area to the east of USINT was paved and a stage was built. It is known as the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Plaza. While originally used for rallies and protest meeting, particularly those protesting against actions by the US government, this stage has also been used for concerts. In January 2006, USINT began displaying messages on a scrolling electronic billboard in the windows of their top floor. Messages include the George Burns quotation, “How sad that all the people who would know how to run this country are driving taxis or cutting hair.” Following a protest march, the Cuban government erected a large number of poles, carrying black flags with single white stars, obscuring the messages. Also during 2006, the Cuban billboards began carrying images of President Bush and Luis Posada Carriles as vampires and axe-murderers.
A billboard seen facing the US Interests Section in Feb. 2007, showing George W. Bush as "The Assassin".
