WASHINGTON (AP) – Paul Chavez had no idea where a sculpture of his father, Latino-American civil rights and union leader Cesar Chavez, would end up in the White House.
This week, he agreed to lend the bronze bust to President Joe Biden and rushed to pack it up and ship it across the country from California. It was a big surprise on Wednesday to see Biden sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, with the bust of the late Cesar Chavez right behind the president.
“We still smile cheek to cheek,” said Paul Chavez in an interview on Thursday.
Biden pushed for themes of unity and inclusivity and advocacy for racial justice throughout the campaign, and Chavez said Biden seemed to be trying to convey this through a series of rapid decorative changes he has made to the world’s most powerful office.
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 been pushing. Chavez, who chairs and chairs 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 desk, Chavez, an agricultural worker advocate, will be there too.
Biden revealed his Oval Office touch-up on Wednesday when he signed a series of executive orders and other actions in his early hours 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 center, last used by President Bill Clinton, replacing a light-colored carpet laid out by Trump. Biden also uses Clinton’s deep gold curtains.
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 desk is a portrait collage 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.
No longer on display is a portrait of President Andrew Jackson, a Trump favorite who signed the Indian Removal Act that forced tens of thousands of Indians out of their homelands.
Biden retains the Resolute desk, so named because it was built with oak from the British polar research vessel HMS Resolute. But he deleted the red button Trump had on the desk and would press it to have a butler bring him a Diet Coke, his drink of choice.
All presidents adjust the Oval Office decor at the start of their semester to reflect their personal tastes or to wire broader messages to the public.
The White House has an extensive collection of furniture, paintings and other artifacts from which to choose. Presidents may also borrow items from the Smithsonian and other museums. The White House trustee oversees everything, and the makeover is performed in the hours after the outgoing president leaves the mansion and before the new president arrives.
Biden also replaced a row of military service flags that Trump used to decorate the office with a single American flag and a flag with the presidential seal, both behind his desk.
He also opted for a tufted, dark-brown leather chair instead of the reddish-brown desk chair Trump used.