page_title: Paseo de la Reforma
section_title: Monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Paseo de la Reforma / Streetscape / Monuments
caption_attribution_description: English: A tribute to the children heroes
context_page_description: Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as the Ringstraße in Vienna and the Champs-Élysées in Paris. After the French intervention in Mexico overthrew the constitutional President Benito Juárez, the newly crowned Emperor Maximilian made his mark on the conquered city. He commissioned a grand avenue linking the city center with his imperial residence, Chapultepec Castle, which was then on the southwestern edge of town. The project was originally named Paseo de la Emperatriz in honor of Maximilian's consort Empress Carlota. After her return to Europe and Maximilian's subsequent execution, the restored Juárez government renamed the Paseo in honor of the Reform War.
  It is now home to many of Mexico's tallest buildings such as the Torre Mayor and others in the Zona Rosa. More modern extensions continue the avenue at an angle to the old Paseo. To the northeast it continues toward Tlatelolco, where it changes its name near the Plaza de las Tres Culturas.
context_section_description: Many monuments to people and events in Mexico's history and the history of the Americas are situated on and along Reforma. The most prominent monuments are in the centers of its major traffic circles, with the monuments to Columbus, Cuauhtemoc, and the monument to Independence, "El Ángel" (1910), the most famous of the monuments. There is a lengthy list of statues added over the years along the broad avenue's sides. They mainly honor Mexican liberals, as well as some writers and journalists who influenced political discourse. Guadalupe Victoria (1786-1843), military hero of independence and the first president of Mexico, is honored in a low key way considering his accomplishments.  Others with name recognition in Mexican history are Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (1765-1827), Carlos Maria de Bustamante (1774-1848), historian; José María Luis Mora (1794-1850); Miguel Ramos Arizpe (1775-1843), "father of Mexican federalism"; Andrés Quintana Roo (1787-1851), after whom a state is named;  Miguel Lerdo de Tejada (1812-1861), prominent politician in the liberal Reform;  Melchor Ocampo (1814-1861), radical liberal, murdered during the War of the Reform; Guillermo Prieto (1818-1897), prominent journalist; Gabino Barreda (1818-1881), Positivist philosopher and educator; Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (1834-1893), intellectual and writer of indigenous origins;  and Vicente Riva Palacio (1832-1896), liberal general, writer, and politician, who died in Spanish exile. History is written by the victors, so that absent from the array of liberal heroes are statues of prominent Mexican conservatives Antonio López de Santa Anna, general and president of Mexico for much of the early 19th century; and Lucas Alamán, historian and politician. Also absent is a statue Porfirio Díaz, liberal general and president from 1876-1911, when the regime was overthrown by the Mexican Revolution.
  A monument, officially called the "Altar to the Homeland" (Altar a la Patria), honors the Niños Héroes – the Heroic Cadets of the Battle of Chapultepec  – with a particularly grand monument in the entrance of Chapultepec Park. Heroes of South American independence include Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. There is also a fountain with sculptures that commemorate the nationalization of Mexico's oil reserves and industry in 1938, and the Diana the Huntress Fountain that includes a statue featuring the Roman goddess Diana originally named The Arrow Thrower of the North Star.
  The Angel of Independence – a tall column with a gilded statue of a Winged Victory (that bears resemblance with an angel, therefore its common name) on its top and many marble statues on its base depicting the heroes of the Mexican War of Independence, built to commemorate the centennial of Mexico's independence in 1910. The base contains the tombs of several key figures in Mexico's war of independence.
  Near the central section of Reforma, across from the Alameda, is the Monumento a la Revolución ("Monument to the Revolution"). This is an enormous dome supported by four arches. It was originally planned, by Porfirio Díaz, to be a part of a new parliament building, but it never was completed because of the start of the Mexican Revolution. 
  After Díaz's overthrow it became a monument to the revolution that deposed him. The remains of Francisco I. Madero and several other heroes of the Mexican Revolution are buried here.
caption: Monumento a los Niños Héroes, inaugurated in 1952
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