page_title: Monument to Cuauhtémoc
section_title: Historical context
hierarchical_section_title: Monument to Cuauhtémoc / Historical context
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument to Quatemor, Mexico City, Mexico, ca.1905-1910 Stereograph of monument to Guatemor, Mexico City, Mexico, ca.1905-1910. A statue of a figure with a feathered headpiece stands atop an ivy covered stone monument (somewhat obelisk shaped). Laurels are hung around the base. The monument is in a grassy lawn with trees behind. Six flags fly on two poles in front of it. Three people are walking in front of it. Legible signs include: "Coanacoch", "Cuitlahuac", "A la memoria Quantemoc y de los [...] que combatieram [...]icamente en defen[...] de su patria, MDXXI". Call number: CHS-661 Filename: CHS-661 Coverage date: circa 1905/1910 Part of collection: California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960 Type: images Part of subcollection: Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960 Repository name: USC Libraries Special Collections Format: glass plate negatives Microfiche number: 1-224- Archival file: chs_Volume89/CHS-661.tiff Geographic subject (city or populated place): Mexico City Repository address: Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Subject (adlf): monuments Geographic subject (country): Mexico Format (aacr2): 2 photographs&#160;: glass photonegative, photoprint, b&amp;w&#160;; 13 x 20 cm., 26 x 21 cm. Rights: Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Project: USC Accession number: 661 Repository email: specol@usc.edu Contributing entity: California Historical Society Date created: circa 1905/1910 Publisher (of the digital version): University of Southern California. Libraries Format (aat): stereographs; photographic prints; photographs Legacy record ID: chs-m14560; USC-1-1-1-14147 Access conditions: Send requests to address or e-mail given. Phone (213) 821-2366; fax (213) 740-2343. Subject (file heading): Mexico -- Mexico City Subject (lcsh): Monuments -- Mexico
context_page_description: The Monument to Cuauhtémoc is an 1887 monument dedicated to the last Mexica ruler of Tenochtitlan Cuauhtémoc, located at the intersection of Avenida de los Insurgentes and Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. It is the work of Francisco Jiménez and Miguel Noreña in the "neoindigenismo", and was proposed to promote the new government of Porfirio Diaz.
context_section_description: The construction of the monument was part of a nationalist discourse, promoted through a program of public sculpture and an expansion of the Paseo de la Reforma. Its construction occurred subsequent to the Monument to Christopher Columbus, located at the next major roundabout (glorieta) of the same wide avenue, and in contrast to it, as an attempt to highlight the mestizo (mixed origin) identity of contemporary Mexico. It is also deliberately made in the same scale as monuments celebrating national heroes from the 19th Century Mexican War of Independence. Alongside the Mexico Pavilion at the 1889 Paris exhibition by Antonio Anza, the monument was part of a failed search for a purely Mexican artistic style.
  The monument to Cuauhtémoc was created on the initiative of Vicente Riva Palacio who proposed to promote the "Porfiriato" regime of president Porfirio Díaz with a monument to honour the last of the Mexica rulers. To do this, in 1877 D.J.S. Bagally, Emilio Dondé, Manuel Gargollo y Parra and Ramón Rodríguez Arangoyti were convened as judges for a public competition. The winners was engineer Francisco M. Jiménez who were inspired by the details of prehispanic Mexican architecture, such as the ancient buildings of Uxmal, Mitla and the archaeological site of Palenque, among others. Jimenez died two days after the decision was announced therefore the construction of the monument was overseen by Ramón Agea, architect and engineer of the National Palace of Mexico. The Minister of public works, Carlos Pacheco Villalobos, then commissioned Miguel Noreña for sculptures on the monument at a cost of 37,863 pesos. 3 thousand was later added to the cost for the bronze leopards around the base as these had originally been planned by Jiménez to only be built in chiluca stone.
  The foundation stone was laid on 5 May 1878 a date chosen by Diaz in recognition of the Battle of Puebla. It was opened nine years later on 21 August 1887 by Diaz. The casting was made in the workshop of Jesús Contreras and weights 354 tons.
caption: Stereograph of monument c. 1905-1910 by William Henry Jackson.
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