East Wing demolition is a lasting scar of Trump's America

The loss will ensure we never forget the toll of these times we are living in

- ROSA LOWINGER GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

GREAT government houses are never still. They grow, age and change with their nations, each alteration leaving a trace of the ideals and anxieties of its time. Architecture is the archive that never stops recording. To tear down a part of it is to edit the story of who we are as a nation.

The recent demolition of the White House’s East Wing — the most consequential alteration to that building in more than a century — feels so profound, and so chilling precisely because it makes visible, in brick and dust, what happens when we lose reverence for continuity.

Every layer of paint, brick and marble holds certain truths about its makers and its era — about what was valued and what kind of future people thought they were creating.

Roman concrete, for example, is a technological advancement that made possible the aqueducts, fortresses and monuments that continue to project the empire's strength across time. Unmatched in resilience to this day, the material itself endures as a chronicle of imperial dominion.

In the same way, the buildings of my birthplace in Havana tell a story of ambition and decay intertwined. The seat of colonial rule, the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, was begun in 1776, embodying Spain’s tenacious hold on its colonies even as others fought for independence. Its coral-stone walls, once stuccoed over, convey domination and beauty in equal measure.