I’m writing this in Mexico City, the first leg of my trip. I woke up at 3:30 in the AM to catch a plane from Miami at 8:10 AM, and it landed in Mexico City around noon. After I got to the hotel, I found out that no one from the mining company would arrive until 8:30 pm or 9:00. Argh!
Anyway, this means I had plenty of time for a walk and took the opportunity to practice my Spanish. And in the space of a mile I saw multiple statues of naked or topless women. I actually saw more statues than that, but there were friendly Mexicans around who could explain the significance of two of them. And it’s quite an interesting story. Because these women have chips on their giant shoulders when it comes to the United States.
First, let’s look at one of the most famous statues in Mexico, the Angel de la Independencia, or Angel of Independence.
Here you can see her on her pedestal …
And here she is closer-up.
There is a copy of the statue at ground level, but if I posted a real close-up, I’d get yelled at by the powers that be. Because, as you probably know, in the U.S. you can show someone’s one’s living heart ripped out on TV, but God help you if you show women’s nipples.
Anyway, The Angel, as the locals call her, was built at the turn of the 20th century to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Mexico’s war of independence. The Treaty of Cordoba that ended the war also brought to an end three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico.
The Angel, in short, is Mexico’s Winged Victory in their war of independence. The Angel holds a crown in her right hand and a broken chain in the other. The crown symbolizes victory and the broken chain symbolizes freedom.
The gold-plated bronze beauty is 27 feet tall, and she stands on top of a 121-foot column made of steel. No one I talked to could tell me the significance (if any) of the numbers 27, 121, or their sum, 148. On four faces of the base are bronze statues of four females representing Law, Justice, War and Peace. In 1925, the remains of the heroes of Mexico’s war of independence were interred in the basement. Since then, the basement has been revered as a mausoleum for those heroes. The whole thing is built on the beautiful Reforma avenue.
So why do I say the Angel has a chip on her shoulder? Because she points North. I’m told this was deliberate – as a reminder that Mexico may have won its war of independence against Spain, but still feels colonized by the U.S., and needs to win that struggle as well. “No Mexican can forget that the United States grabbed half of Mexico,” my guide told me.
That was the 1846-48 Mexican-American war, for those of you who are spotty on your history. Rest assured that the Mexicans haven’t forgotten.
Now, let’s look at statue #2, called la Diana Cazadora or Diana the Huntress. I’ll only show you the rear view …
Cheeky, eh? I’m told that the original name given to it by its sculptor was la Flechadora del Norte or the Northern Arrow Thrower. And her arrow is pointing – you guessed it – North across the Rio Grande.
The statue has layers of meaning, and this is where the story gets interesting. The sculptor, Juan Olaguibel, also meant his work to be a monument to the beauty of female body. So he presented Diana in the nude. It was placed on a fountain in the middle of Reforma Avenue in 1942. But Mexico at that time wasn’t ready for a giant nude woman hanging out in the middle of one of the city’s most important streets.
So, in 1944, a group known as the “League of Decency” headed by the wife of Mexico’s president, decided that the Diana statue, such was indecent due to the fact that it was nude. They put cotton underwear on the bronze statue.
Now THAT must have looked weird. The sculptor Olaguibel protested. He argued “at least let me put some bronze underwear on her.” The League of Decency assented, and Olaguibel did just that. But he only welded the underwear in 3 places, figuring he could get the Mexican people to come to their senses eventually.
The 1968 Olympics came around, and were held in Mexico City. The government agreed the underwear was a silly addition to the statue, and ordered Diana’s bronze bloomers removed for the games. So it all works out, right? Wrong!
Even though there were only three small welds, the statue was damaged by the underwear’s removal. Argh! So, the original was donated to the town of Ixmiquilpan in the state of Hidalgo, where it still stands today.
Tenacious to a fault, Olaguibel then made a new and unharmed statue of Diana with the same cast. And it was put in its place of honor just in time to be moved AGAIN due to construction taking place in the area.
Diana was left unattended and abandoned for 18 years before the statue was finally, FINALLY relocated to its original place in 1992.
The name of the lady who modeled for the original statue, is Helvia Martínez. In 1974, she posed for a non-nude picture, next to a photo of her nude with the statue all those years ago. When all this started, I don’t think she could have imagined the kerfuffle it caused. It really is a beautiful statue.
But in all the changes, that arrow still points north. Many Mexicans still haven’t forgotten their history with the U.S., and they aren’t happy about it.
I probably shouldn’t have brought this up because next we’ll have some hot-heads putting up bronze statues on our side of the border with arrows pointed South – an arms race as it were, even if it’s an arms race of statues of naked women.
The good news is history gets folded and put away when it comes to making money. Mexico is a treasure trove of minerals, and imported know-how from Canada is getting a lot of gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and more out of the ground, and lifting a lot of Mexicans out of poverty in the process. I think the richer the Mexicans get, the less they’ll hold a grudge against us gringos.
Anyway, enough sight-seeing. Next up, the mountains!
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- HoweStreet Interview – Mexico at Risk, the Euro and Gold (08/16/10)
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