Monument to Christopher Columbus (Charles Cordier)

Coordinates: 19°25′59″N 99°09′17″W / 19.43306°N 99.15472°W / 19.43306; -99.15472
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Not to be confused with Monument to Christopher Columbus (Buenavista, Mexico City).
Monument to Christopher Columbus
Spanish: Monumento a Colón
The monument in its former location in 2013.
Map
ArtistCharles Cordier
Year1877 (1877)
SubjectChristopher Columbus
LocationMexico City, Mexico
Coordinates19°25′59″N 99°09′17″W / 19.43306°N 99.15472°W / 19.43306; -99.15472

The Monument to Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Monumento a Colón) is a statue by French sculptor Charles Cordier first dedicated in 1877.[1] It was originally located on a major traffic roundabout along Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma, and was removed on 10 October 2020 in advance of protests.

Following months of discussion, the city government announced that Glorieta de las mujeres que luchan and The Young Woman of Amajac monuments would coexist on the roundabout, while the Columbus sculpture would be relocated to the National Museum of the Viceroyalty in Tepotzotlán.[2]


Description[edit]

Sculpture of a man in European clothes. He holds one hand to the sky and, with the other, takes a veil off of the globe.
Detail showing Columbus lifting a veil from the globe

On the monument's pedestal were two bas-reliefs, one depicting Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World and the other, the construction of a church. On the corners of the pedestal were statues of friars, depicted in a seated position, said to be those who were important to the early history of Mexico including Franciscan Pedro de Gante, the first to evangelize Mexico's indigenous population, and Dominican Bartolomé de las Casas; and Antonio de Marchena and Diego de Deza, who aided Columbus in Spain.

As with "almost all the [Columbus] monuments, the gift or inspiration of Europeans or Europeans of mixed descent, include some reference to religion."[3] In Mexico, where anticlericalism and suppression of the power of the Catholic Church had embroiled Mexico in a civil war and a foreign intervention during the nineteenth-century liberal Reform, the Columbus statue's combination of religious iconography and symbolic embodiment of European conquest and domination, has made the statue a target of protesters.[4] One scholar suggests that Columbus "is portrayed as a conqueror, or even a conjurer, for he plucks a veil from the globe he holds."[5]

History[edit]

Black and white photo of statue of Columbus, Mexico.
Early photo of monument.

The statue was part of a plan to embellish the major thoroughfare with statues of persons of historical significance to Mexico. The work was a gift to the capital of the entrepreneur, Antonio Escandón, a member of a wealthy, conservative Mexican family and who had supported Emperor Maximilian, built the Mexico City-Veracruz railway with the help of French investments and British engineers.[6] The railway linked the inland capital with its main east coast port. Escandón "decided to commemorate the era of the railroad in Mexico with a monument to an equally epochal event, the Discovery of the New World."[7]

In 1873, Escandón commissioned French sculptor Charles Cordier to design and execute the statue, which was shipped to Mexico for installation. The statue was inaugurated almost immediately after liberal General Porfirio Díaz seized the presidency in 1876. The Cordier sculpture has been described as the construction of a monument "manipulated by a Mexican industrialist for greater economic ties with foreign investors."[8] It was originally to be placed in front of the Buenavista train station in Mexico City.[9] The statue had already been commissioned and sculpted in France, arriving in Veracruz in 1875. It was installed in 1877 under the supervision of Mexican engineer, Eleuterio Méndes.[10]

On October 12, 1992, on the occasion of the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' voyage of discovery to America, a series of protests were held in different cities of Mexico. In Mexico City the monument was defaced after a protest led by indigenous groups, unions and punk collectives. The protesters tried toppling the Columbus sculpture by attaching ropes to a Ruta 100 public transport bus but the attempt was frustrated by the Mexico City Police Grenadier Corps. In later demonstrations, the monument was protected in different ways to prevent the toppling of Columbus sculpture.[11]

Removal and relocation[edit]

The Glorieta de las mujeres que luchan antimonumenta on September 29, 2021

Before and during the George Floyd protests, anti-racist protestors began to target and remove statues of figures linked to colonialism and slavery. Christopher Columbus' controversial historical reputation led to protestors to topple numerous statues of him installed throughout the Americas.[12] In Mexico City, a demonstration was called on October 12, 2020, to topple the Columbus sculpture. On October 10, 2020, Government of Mexico City removed the Reforma sculpture from the monument due to a previously scheduled restoration by the National Institute of Anthropology and History.[13] The demonstration moved instead to the monument located in Buenavista.[14]

The government of Mexico City announced that the repositioning or the removal of the sculptures of the monument would be defined after a round of debates that were expected to be held in 2021, in the context of the commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the Fall of Tenochtitlan.[15] On September 5, 2021, the city announced that the monument would not be returned to Reforma Avenue and it would be relocated to Parque América, in Polanco.[16] Instead, Tlalli, a statue of a woman from the Olmec civilization by sculptor Pedro Reyes, was announced to be set at the site.[17] By September 14, after a petition signed by "more than 350 people from the world of culture... was sent to the mayor, against Reyes' participation in the project", Reyes was deemed "inadmissible" as the artist. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that a committee would decide on a replacement artist.[18]

On September 25, 2021, different feminist collectives and families of victims installed an antimonumenta, and symbolically renamed it as the Glorieta de las mujeres que luchan, mainly decorated by the Antimonumenta Vivas Nos Queremos sculpture.[19] On 12 October, Sheinbaum proposed an enlarged copy of The Young Woman of Amajac to replace the statue of Columbus.[20] The statue of Columbus was expected to be relocated during the second half of 2022.[21]

Due to the lack of agreement as to which sculpture would replace Columbus, discussions were held during 2022. By 2023, the city government announced that the statue of Columbus would be relocated to the National Museum of the Viceroyalty, in Tepotzotlán, State of Mexico, while the Antimonumenta Vivas Nos Queremos and The Young Woman of Amajac sculptures would coexist on the roundabout.[22]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cocking, Lauren. "A Guide To Mexico City's 15 Most Important Statues and Monuments". Culture Trip. Archived from the original on November 23, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  2. ^ Nava, Jenifer (February 17, 2023). "Tras dos años, monumento a Cristóbal Colón por fin tendrá un lugar definitivo" (in Spanish).
  3. ^ Barbara Groseclose,"Monuments and Memorials", The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, Simon and Schuster 1992, vol. 2 p. 481.
  4. ^ Groseclose, "Monuments and Memorials", p.481.
  5. ^ Groseclose, "Monuments and Memorials", p. 481.
  6. ^ Vazquez, Oscar E. (1992). "Translating 1492: Mexico's and Spain's First National Celebrations of the "Discovery" of the Americas". Art Journal. 51 (4): 21–29. doi:10.2307/777281. JSTOR 777281.
  7. ^ Claudia Agostoni, Monuments of Progress: Modernization and Public Health in Mexico City, 1876–1910. University of Calgary Press 2003, p. 95.
  8. ^ Vázquez, "Translating 1492", p. 24.
  9. ^ Luis García Pimentel, El Monumento elevado en la ciudad de México a Crisóbal Colón. Mexico: Imprenta de Francsco Díaz de León 1879 p. 13, cited in Vázquez, "Translating 1492" p. 29.
  10. ^ Barbara Tenenbaum, "Streetwise History: The Paseo de la Reforma and the Porfirian State" in Rituals of Rule: Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico, ed. William Beezley et al. Rowman and Littlefield 1994, p. 131.
  11. ^ Reyes Castro, Nayeli (October 12, 2020). "El día que quisieron derrocar la estatua de Cristóbal Colón (The day they wanted to toppling the statue of Christopher Columbus)". El Universal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  12. ^ "How Statues Are Falling Around the World". The New York Times. September 12, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  13. ^ Roa, Wendy (October 10, 2020). "Retiran estatua de Cristobal Colón en Paseo de la Reforma". Excélsior (in Spanish). Mexico City. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  14. ^ Sánchez, Israel (October 12, 2020). "Resguardan otro monumento a Colón en Buenavista". Reforma (in Spanish). Mexico City. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  15. ^ "Cristobal Colón. Monumento, símbolo del colonialismo: López Luján (Christopher Columbus. Monument, symbol of colonialism: López Luján)". Milenio (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  16. ^ Andrew, Scottie (September 6, 2021). "A statue of Christopher Columbus in Mexico City will be replaced by one of an Indigenous woman". CNN. Archived from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  17. ^ "Mexico City to swap Columbus statue for one of indigenous woman". BBC News. September 6, 2021. Archived from the original on September 6, 2021. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  18. ^ "Retiran a Pedro Reyes del proyecto 'Tlali', que sustituirá a Colón en Reforma". El Financiero (in Spanish). Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 16, 2021.
  19. ^ "Rebautizan la Glorieta de Colón como la "Glorieta de las mujeres que luchan"". Proceso (in Spanish). Retrieved September 28, 2021.
  20. ^ Agren, David (October 12, 2021). "Mexico City to replace Columbus statue with pre-Hispanic sculpture of woman". The Guardian. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  21. ^ Talavera, Juan Carlos (July 4, 2022). "Cultura con tinte masivo, Claudia Curiel de Icaza" [Culture with a massive touch, Claudia Curiel de Icaza]. Excélsior (in Spanish). Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  22. ^ Nava, Jenifer (February 17, 2023). "Tras dos años, monumento a Cristóbal Colón por fin tendrá un lugar definitivo" [After two years, monument to Christopher Columbus will finally have a definitive location]. Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved February 19, 2023.

External links[edit]

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