<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div dir="ltr"><span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">Courtesy of the <i>Los Angeles Times </i>at:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-artist-makes-cheese-border-wall-20190327-story.html?fbclid=IwAR20VOMuVj6asItLB2xrZKUcdBw6qhDkZg29kWpekNtNRZRZHAB6orNd6ew">https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-los-angeles-artist-makes-cheese-border-wall-20190327-story.html?fbclid=IwAR20VOMuVj6asItLB2xrZKUcdBw6qhDkZg29kWpekNtNRZRZHAB6orNd6ew</a><br><div><br></div><div>———————————————</div><div><h1 class="spaced spaced-xl spaced-top spaced-bottom" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px; font-family: FBKisDisplay; font-weight: 400; line-height: 48px; font-size: 44px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Artist building a wall of cheese on Mexico border: ‘Make America Grate Again’</h1></div><div><div>A Los Angeles artist has answered President Trump’s call for a border wall with Mexico.</div><div><br></div><div>Vowing to “Make America Grate Again,” Cosimo Cavallaro is creating a wall of cheese next to the actual border in Tecate, Calif.</div><div><br></div><div>“The first thing that comes to your mind is that it’s absurd,” Cavallaro said by phone on his way to work on the wall, which is already 5 feet tall and 30 feet long.</div><div><br></div><div>It’s a ludicrous effort, he said, referring to both walls.</div><div><br></div><div>“To spend all this money to keep dividing the countries, I think is a waste,” he said. “You see the waste in my wall, but you can’t see the waste in [Trump’s] $10-billion wall, which in time will be removed?”</div><div><br></div><div>As he set down slabs of cotija — a hard, crumbly cow’s milk cheese from the Mexican state of Michoacán — a Border Patrol agent walked by the desert landscape. He gave Cavallaro a thumbs-up.</div><div>“Nice place for a picnic,” the agent said, chuckling.</div><div><br></div><div>Cavallaro said he works with perishable components such as cheese to demonstrate the fleeting and decadent nature of material objects and humankind.</div><div><br></div><div>Most famously, he created “My Sweet Lord,” a 200-pound sculpture of Jesus made of chocolate displayed in New York.</div><div><br></div><div>But one of his favorite materials to work with is cheese, inspired by his Italian roots. He has drenched a hotel room in melted mozzarella and even outfitted the supermodel Twiggy in the dairy product.</div><div><br></div><div>Cavallaro said he has long wanted to make a wall of cheese, but it wasn’t until November 2016 that Trump gave him the inspiration he needed. He set out to find a location along the U.S.-Mexico border and rented a 14-acre piece of land in southeastern San Diego County.</div><div><br></div><div>“This has been on my mind for many years, but when he became president, it became obvious that was the place to do it,” Cavallaro said.</div><div>The exhibit stands just a few feet away from a metal fence topped with barbed wire that divides the United States and Mexico.</div><div><br></div><div>It was pure coincidence that while Cavallaro was planning his cheese wall late last year and the government was preparing a shutdown in Trump’s fight over funding an actual wall at the border that House Republicans called an emergency meeting — to discuss cheese. Lawmakers wanted to address a bill called the Curd Act, a proposal to allow some cheeses to be advertised as “natural” despite having artificial ingredients.</div><div><br></div><div>At least one legislator was clearly cheesed at the interruption.</div><div><br></div><div>“This is an emergency meeting that we’re having here and I’ve seen some surreal things around this place, but this is really something,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “Vital parts of our government are about to shut down in just a few hours, and the Republicans have called an emergency meeting on cheese.”</div><div><br></div><div>In other cheesy news, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway mistakenly called Trump the “commander of cheese” in an interview in June with CNN.</div><div><br></div><div>“That’s what I’m talking about,” Cavallaro said, adding that he takes inspiration from life’s absurdities. “Our cheesy times,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>While Trump continues to fight with Congress over funding for his wall, more than $1,000 has been raised for Cavallaro’s. The artist is hosting a GoFundMe campaign and selling mugs and T-shirts with the slogan “Make America Grate Again” and “Make America Say Cheese.”</div><div><br></div><div>Each slab of cheese costs $100, and Cavallaro hopes to raise enough money to stretch the wall along 1,000 feet of the southern border.</div><div><br></div><div>Despite the obvious comparisons, Cavallaro insists his installation is not political. He simply wants to show that people are better off without walls dividing them and inciting fear.</div><div><br></div><div>“It sounds cheesy,” he said, “but just love one another.”</div></div><div><br></div><div>——————</div><div><br></div><div>Video . . .</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://youtu.be/PCep1va2HNI">https://youtu.be/PCep1va2HNI</a></div><div><br></div><div>Photos . . .</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Photos/LA_Times/LA_Times_Make_America_Grate_033119_01.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Photos/LA_Times/LA_Times_Make_America_Grate_033119_01.jpg</a></div><div>Cosimo Cavallaro’s cheese wall is just feet away from a barbed-wire-topped fence in Tecate, Mexico.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Photos/LA_Times/LA_Times_Make_America_Grate_033119_02.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Photos/LA_Times/LA_Times_Make_America_Grate_033119_02.jpg</a></div><div>Concertina wire tops the border wall behind Cavallaro’s blocks of cheese.</div><div><br></div><div>———————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>