Spanish Consulate San Francisco

Al Fin! Old Spanish Ambassador's Residence Gets Makeover

For years, it has sat on the corner of 16th and Fuller Streets NW, a mansion whose regal trappings have been hidden under layers of neglect. But now, the residence that was once used as a home and office for the Spanish ambassador is seeing new life.

Over the last two months, large signs advertising a Spanish photo exhibit at the Katzen Arts Center appeared along the residence's facade; this week, the long-ignored front lawn was mowed and new flowers planted. And on September 16, the folks at BYT are pairing with the Spanish embassy to launch the fall/winter Spanish cultural program . (Sorry, it's sold out.)

All recent movements show a complete renovation of the mansion, which was built in the 1920s and originally intended for use by the Vice-President of the United States. (Trivia:. The site of the present residence of the Ambassador of Switzerland was also once the home used for VP) The Spanish used it until 2004, when the ambassador moved that the Post Office called a "country house" along Foxhall Road.

In July 2009, architecture firm Karn Charuhas Chapman & Twohey won the contract to renovate the space, which promises to be quite the cultural center:

A-Infos (en) US, A protest/vigil in San Francisco on September 9th in ...

September 9. It will start at 4 p.m. in front of the Chilean consulate. ---- A POLICE KILLING IN CHILE… ---- While much of the world’s attention this year has been turned toward events in the Northern Hemisphere—the Arab Spring, the Spanish and Greek street assemblies, the riots in the UK, the violence in Libya—an equally interesting and potentially more radical movement has been taking place in Chile.Chilean students and the poor who were excluded from the "Chilean miracle of the" American-trained free market led to fierce battles with the cops, and now have paid a heavy price: a protester was killed in the streets. - - This has been accomplished in the throes of winter, with young people to go out into the icy streets, braving the elements, of course, and, more importantly, directly affected the Chilean state and its police, by show determination and resolve in the face of the military police. These cops are infamous for the carabinieri under Pinochet. Their vehicles include armored personnel carriers, and they shoot water cannons at demonstrators. They more resemble an occupying army than a riot squad.

We want to remember Manuel Guttíerrez Reinoso, the teenager shot down on the night of August 24 in a neighborhood of Santiago. And not simply because he was a victim, but because he was a rebel, and because we also see something in the Chilean protest movement that we identify with: it is a struggle that is ours as well. The Chilean struggle began as a student protest movement demanding the right to public education, and at no cost to the student, even at the university level. The protests began on a whimsical note, with mass “kiss ins” and other creative gestures. What made Chile different than California was that Chilean workers and the poor saw the students’ fight as one they should support as well.

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