page_title: Indio Comahue Monument
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Indio Comahue Monument / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Construction of the Indio Comahue Monument in Villa Regina, Río Negro Province.
context_page_description: The Monumento al Indio Comahue is a monument located in Villa Regina, in the Argentine province of Río Negro. It was constructed to honor the native inhabitants of the Comahue Region. The monument was completed in time for the inaugural Comahue National Fair in 1964.
  Commissioned by the organizers of the fair, Bartolo Pasin and Rogelio Chimenti, it was designed by Miguel De Lisi and constructed in two months by local bricklayer Aldo Cardozo. Presently it is used as an overlook for its panoramic view. The monument is considered to be a symbol of the town, and as such it is depicted in the coat of arms.
context_section_description: De Lisi sent the drawings to the local construction team, led by Aldo Humberto Cardozo and Alberto Sartor. The monument had been originally planned to be 10 metres (33 ft) tall, but Cardozo re-scaled it to be nearly 11 metres (36 ft), and later also added a high base of 2 metres (6 ft 7 in). The completed monument, now standing at almost 13 metres (42.4 ft), depicts a native who is holding a long spear while watching the horizon.
  Work started in July 1964, with the structure being built of reinforced concrete. It had an iron skeleton made up of 4 inch pipes (100mm), which was reinforced with radial sections that were soldered every 50 centimetres (20 in). Later, the figure was filled from the feet to the hips with ceramic brick and concrete, with the top half finished using a layer of reinforced concrete. The monument was completed in two months with an estimated weight of 80 tons, and a height of 12.90 metres (42.3 ft). In its construction, five hundred bags of cement, 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb) of iron, 60 metres (200 ft) of steel, and 80 square metres (860 sq ft) of sand were used.
  It was later painted by a local man, Carlos Basabe Cerdá. The job proved to be very difficult due to strong winds that blew the wooden planks off the scaffolding and into a nearby ditch. A construction team later tied on the planks, solving the problem. The painters first applied  a primer coat, then linseed oil, varnish, and finally a coat of copper glitter. The monument was inaugurated during the opening of the Comahue National Fair on September 7, 1964.
caption: Construction of the Indio Comahue in 1964
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