El Maíz

Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), located in Washington, D.C., is the first art museum in the United States primarily devoted to exhibiting works of modern and contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean. The museum was formally established in 1976 by the Organization of American States (OAS) as the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America. Artists represented in the AMA's permanent collection include Carlos Cruz-Diez, Candido Portinari, Pedro Figari, Fernando de Szyszlo, Amelia Peláez, and Alejandro Obregón. The art collection of the OAS was initiated under the organization's Visual Arts Unit, beginning with the first donated artwork by the Brazilian neo-realist artist Portinari, in 1949. In the following decade the Permanent Council of the OAS determined to establish an acquisitions fund, in order to build up a permanent collection of artworks by significant contemporary artists from the member states of the OAS. A number of works were also purchased from or donated directly by artists, after the temporary exhibitions periodically held at the OAS gallery. The Art Museum of the Americas itself was established in 1976 by OAS Permanent Council resolution, on the occasion of the United States Bicentennial. The museum opened in what was formerly the official residence of the OAS Secretary General, a Spanish Colonial-style structure designed in 1912 by the architect Paul Cret. Initially the permanent collection held some 250 artworks, expanding over the next quarter-century to over 2000 items of painting, sculpture, installations, photography, and drawing, from the early 20th century and onwards. In addition to its permanent collection of mainly Caribbean and Latin American art, AMA hosts temporary and special exhibitions from across the region, and provides educational seminars and lectures from invited speakers. The Art Museum of the Americas has also expanded its programs to include evening events, such as Art After Dark, with cutting edge music, video, performance, and installation art.

DAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall located at 1776 D Street NW, near the White House in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to house its annual convention when membership delegations outgrew Memorial Continental Hall. Later, the two buildings were connected by a third structure housing the DAR Museum, administrative offices, and genealogical library. DAR Constitution Hall is still owned and operated by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It has been a major cultural center of the city since its construction, and houses its largest auditorium.

General Jose Gervasio Artigas is a bronze statue, in Washington, DC, capital of the United States, at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and Virginia Avenue, at 18th Street. It is one of a set called the Statues of the Liberators. José Artigas was a 19th-century general, sometimes called "the father of Uruguayan independence", "Protector de los Pueblos Libres" or "Jefe de los Orientales".The Washington, DC, statue was created before 1948 by Juan Manuel Blanes. At its base are engraved the words "Liberty of America is my dream and its attainment my only hope." Although this statue was delivered before the identical one in Montevideo, Minnesota, Montevideo erected theirs in 1949 and the Washington, DC, Parks Department did not erect its until a year later on 19 June 1950. Both statues were gifts from the people of Uruguay and are replicas of an original in San José de Mayo, Uruguay, created by Italian sculptor Dante Costa. The Uruguayan officer Edgardo Ubaldo Genta had conceived the idea in 1940 as a good-will gesture.

An equestrian statue of Venezuelan military and political leader Simón Bolívar by the American artist Felix de Weldon is located in Washington, D.C., at Virginia Avenue NW, 18th Street NW, and C Street NW, near the United States Department of Interior and the Pan American Union Building of the Organization of American States. It was surveyed as part of the Smithsonian Institution's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1993.

Columbus Memorial Library is located in the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C.The library offers extensive collection of books and periodicals that date back to 1535.

The Organization of American States (OAS; Spanish: Organización de los Estados Americanos, Portuguese: Organização dos Estados Americanos, French: Organisation des États américains; OEA) is an international organization that was founded on 30 April 1948 for the purposes of solidarity and co-operation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in the US capital, Washington, D.C., the OAS has 34 members, which are independent states in the Americas. Since the 1990s, the organization has focused on election monitoring. The head of the OAS is the Secretary General; the incumbent is Uruguayan Luis Almagro.

The Pan American Union Building is the headquarters for the Organization of American States. It is located at 17th Street N.W. between C Street N.W. and Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C.

The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, territorial affairs, and insular areas of the United States, as well as programs related to historic preservation. About 75% of federal public land is managed by the department, with most of the remainder managed by the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. The department was created on March 3, 1849. The department is headed by the secretary of the interior, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet. The current secretary is Deb Haaland. As of mid-2004, the department managed 507 million acres (2,050,000 km2) of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the United States. It manages 476 dams and 348 reservoirs through the Bureau of Reclamation, 424 national parks, monuments, historical sites, etc. through the National Park Service, and 544 national wildlife refuges through the Fish and Wildlife Service. Despite its name, the Department of the Interior has a different role from that of the interior ministries of other nations, which are usually responsible for police matters and internal security. In the United States, national security and immigration functions are performed by the Department of Homeland Security primarily and the Department of Justice secondarily. The Department of the Interior has often been humorously called "the Department of Everything Else" because of its broad range of responsibilities.

The Interior Museum is a museum operated by the United States Department of the Interior and housed at the Department's headquarters at the Stewart Lee Udall Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., on the first floor.When the Interior Museum opened in the U.S. Department of the Interior's newly-constructed headquarters in the nation's capital on March 8, 1938, a museum was considered a novel element to include in a federal office building. However, the Secretary of the Interior at that time—Harold Ickes (1874-1952)—was a proponent of the arts and also strongly believed in the importance of having the American people understand the work of the Department. To this day, the Interior Museum's mission remains to actively educate and inspire employees and the public about the ongoing stewardship of the nation's public lands, natural resources, and cultural heritage. The Interior Museum's collection contains more than 8,000 objects of historical, cultural, and scientific importance relating directly to the activities of the Department. In addition to developing exhibitions and public programs, Interior Museum staff also conduct public tours highlighting the elements that made the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building a "symbol of a new day" during the Great Depression. The headquarters building contains more New Deal-era murals than any other government building, featuring such artists as John Steuart Curry, Maynard Dixon, William Gropper, Allan Houser, Velino Herrera, and Millard Sheets, plus a series of photomurals by Ansel Adams.

The Main Interior Building, officially known as the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building, located in Washington, D.C., is the headquarters of the United States Department of the Interior. Located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, it is bounded by 19th Street NW on the west, 18th Street NW on the east, E Street NW on the north, C Street NW on the south, and Virginia Avenue on the southwest. Although the building takes up the entire block, the address is "1849 C Street, NW" to commemorate the founding of the Department of Interior in 1849. To the east is DAR Constitution Hall, the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, as well as the World Resources Institute and the American Red Cross National Headquarters. To the west is the Office of Personnel Management headquarters. To the north is Rawlins Park, which includes at its eastern end a statue of Major General John A. Rawlins. To the south is Triangle Park. The Building includes offices of the Secretary of the Interior and major bureaus with their employees. It includes the Interior Museum and Interior Library.

The Van Ness Mansion was completed for John Peter Van Ness and Marcia Van Ness in 1816 by Benjamin Henry Latrobe on 17th Street, Washington, D.C. They entertained the Madisons, James Monroe, George Washington Parke Custis and John Tayloe III at their mansion. The mansion was described as the "finest house in America". It was built on land that had been owned by Marcia's father, David Burnes, who left 500 acres along the Potomac River to Van Ness. It was one of the most expensive houses in the country, fit with hot and cold running water, a modern feature at the time, and the mansion was the first residence in the city to have that luxury. Latrobe added a feature designed to maintain a sense of privacy when food was conveyed to dining rooms. Servants accessed rotating servers from a hallway that allowed them to deliver food without entering the room. He installed them previously at the Adena Mansion in Chillicothe, Ohio. It had the country's largest and coolest wine vault. Latrop said that the Van Ness Mansion was "the best house I ever designed". It overlaid his "American rational-configuration on the kind of English residential model that impressed him during his work for and study with S. P. Cockerell."Latrobe also worked with John Peter Van Ness on the reconstruction of Washington, D.C. public buildings. Van Ness was a commissioner of the Capitol reconstruction commission, along with Richard B. Lee and Tench Ringgold. The mansion degraded over time. In 1907, the mansion was razed and the Pan American Union Building was built on the site. The stables, also designed by Latrobe, were not demolished at that time. The stuccoed building existed was located at 18th and C Streets.

The Founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a sculpture located beside Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., United States. Dedicated in 1929, the sculpture was created by artist and socialite Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in honor of the four founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR): Mary Desha, Mary Smith Lockwood, Ellen Hardin Walworth, and Eugenia Washington. The sculpture is one of three outdoor artworks in Washington, D.C. by Whitney, the other two being the Titanic Memorial and the Aztec Fountain at the Pan American Union Building.