Embassy residences in Washington, D.C.

• Author: Moreno, Luis Alberto

Washington is a city of timeless ideals embodied and expressed in the nearly timeless stone and marble of world-famous monuments. The White House, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, the majestic dome of the Capitol--they are as familiar to us as the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London, St. Peter's, or the Taj Mahal. But the great buildings of Washington speak as few others anywhere else do of the history and the hope that has summoned this nation and the world to the dream of "liberty and justice for all." At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the Pilgrim promise of three centuries ago unfolds in this "shining city, the eyes of all people upon it." Because it is the center of the world's preeminent political and economic power, decisions made here, along the banks of the Potomac River, are felt in the most remote villages of every country and continent, shaping a new world and a new future for generations to come. All who look to the United States pray that it may be guided now and always by the noble words inscribed in those monuments, and by the spirit that raised them up against the sky.

But the Washington that is in so many ways at the center of the nation and the world also expresses its living heart and soul in countless places beyond these great public sites. To truly know this marvelous city, you have to explore its winding foot paths, its open green parkland, its ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants, its stunning art galleries and increasingly rich cultural life--and often less noticed, but powerfully revealing and important, its diplomatic life. Yet unlike almost, everything else in Washington, the embassy residences are closed to the public. Behind the closed doors are found not just the comings and goings of negotiations and the grit of policy making, but the artistic and architectural expression of the heritage and culture of a hundred other nations. For example, in countless details, large and small, the Colombian Embassy expresses the...