Abel Barroso's wooden hobby horses and map of Cuba are core elements of The Rush for theFreedom Land, a large-scale installation he made in 1997. In an interview at that time with curator Holly Block, Barroso described The Rush for the Freedom Land as "an environment which includes sculpture, printmaking, and installation." Although originally conceived with a strongly political message, "more fully developed, leaving nothing open to interpretation," in the course of creating the piece Barroso "decided to alter some of the political content slightly. I allowed it to become more based on one’s own conclusion, as opposed to specific information." Even so, the work is politically pointed; as Barroso told Block, it "has to do with foreign capital and its relationship to Cuba," with the carved horses representing foreign countries "leaving with all the riches and leaving Cuba with nothing."