Independence Angel

"I am at war with the obvious."

William Eggleston

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Who Are You?

The Heroic Cadets Memorial in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.  Monument designed by architect Enrique Aragón and sculpted by Ernesto Tamaríz at the entrance to Chapultepec Park in 1952. 

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Esculturas del Monumento a los Niños Heroes. Chapultepec

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Heroes

Heroes of the past crying for the present.

El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence"), most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtownMexico City.

El Ángel was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence, celebrated in 1910. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, and it has become a focal point for both celebration or protest. It bears a resemblance to the July Column in Paris and the Victory Column in Berlin.

Construction of El Ángel was ordered in 1902 by President Porfirio Díaz. Architect Antonio Rivas Mercado was in charge of the design of the monument, while the actual construction was supervised by Mexican engineers Gonzalo Garita and Manuel Gorozpe. All the sculptures were made byItalian artist Enrique Alciati. The monument was ready for the festivities to commemorate the first hundred years of Mexican Independence in 1910. The opening ceremony was attended by President Díaz and several foreign dignitaries. The main speaker at the event was Mexican poet Salvador Díaz Mirón.

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Place Charles de Gaulle

Arc de Triomphe

Place Charles de Gaulle

The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier 

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It is located on the right bank of the Seine River. It forms the backdrop for an impressive urban ensemble in Paris. The monument surmounts the hill of Chaillot at the center of a pentagon-shaped configuration of radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years, and in 1810 when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect Jean Chalgrin died in 1811, and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot. During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, in 1833–36 when the architects on site were Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. Napoleon's body passed under it on 15 December 1840 on its way to its second and final resting place at the Invalides.^[6] The body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arch during the night of the 22 May 1885, prior to burial in the Panthéon. 
Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War. Interred here on Armistice Day 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the year 394. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both World Wars). The French model inspired the United Kingdom's tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. A ceremony is held there every 11 November on the anniversary of the armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918. It was originally decided on 12 November 1919 to bury the unknown soldier's remains in the Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on 10 November 1920, and put in its final resting place on 28 January 1921. The slab on top carries the inscription ICI REPOSE UN SOLDAT FRANÇAIS MORT POUR LA PATRIE 1914–1918 ("Here lies a French soldier who died for the fatherland 1914–1918"). [Wiki]

Jose Saramago - 16 Nov 1922-18 June 2010.Carlos Monsivais - 4 May 1938-19 June 2010.(Splendid minds of XX-XXI centuries and both leftists.)
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Paz / Peace

El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence"), most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City.

El Ángel was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence, celebrated in 1910. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, and it has become a focal point for both celebration or protest. It bears a resemblance to the Victory Column in Berlin.

The base of the column is quadrangular with each vertex featuring a bronze sculpture symbolizing Law, War, Justice and Peace. Originally there were nine steps leading to the base, but due to the sinking of the ground fourteen more steps were added. On the main face of the base, which faces downtown Mexico City, there is an inscription reading La Nación a los Héroes de la Independencia ("The Nation to the Heroes of Independence"). In front of this inscription is a bronze statue of a giant lion led by a child, representing strength and the innocence of youth during War but docility during Peace.

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Justicia / Justice

Justice

… Finalmente, una condicion importante para el desarrollo de la biofilia ( Amor a la Vida ) es la libertad. Pero no es condicion suficiente “la libertad respecto de” trabas politicas. Si ha de desarrollarse el amor a la vida, tiene que haber libertad “para”, libertad para crear y construir, para admirar y aventurarse. Tal libertad requiere que el individuo sea activo y responsable, no un esclavo ni una pieza bien alimentada de la maquinaria.

Resumiendo, el amor a la vida se desarrollara mas en una sociedad en que haya: seguridad en el sentido de que no estan amenazadas las condiciones materiales basicas para una vida digna, justicia en el sentido de que nadie puede ser un fin para los propositos de otro, y libertad en el sentido de que todo individuo tiene la posibilidad de ser un miembro activo y responsable de la sociedad, éste ultimo punto es de particular importancia. Hasta una sociedad en que existen seguridad y justicia puede no ser conducente al amor a la vida si no se estimula la actividad creadora del individuo. No basta que los hombres no sean esclavos. Si las condiciones sociales fomentan la existencia de automatas, el resultado no sera amor a la vida, sino amor a la muerte.
De: El Corazón del Hombre. Erick Fromm
From: The Heart of Man by Erich Fromm.

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Cuauhtemoc

Monument to Cuauhtemoc on Paseo de la Reforma Ave.

On August 13, 1521, Cuauhtémoc went to call for reinforcements from the countryside to aid the falling Tenochtitlán, after eighty days straight of urban warfare against the Spanish. Of all the Nahuas, only Tlatelolcas remained loyal, and the surviving Tenochcas looked for refuge in Tlatelolco where even women took part in the battle. Cuauhtémoc was captured while crossing Lake Texcoco in disguise. He surrendered to Hernán Cortés along with the surviving pipiltin (nobles), and offered him his knife and asked to be killed. At first, Cortés treated his foe chivalrously. "A Spaniard knows how to respect valor even in an enemy," he declared. However, he allowed Aldrete, the royal treasurer, to have Cuauhtemoc tortured to make him reveal the whereabouts of hidden treasure. Cuauhtémoc, insisting that there was no hidden treasure, stood up under the ordeal. [ Wiki. ]

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Cristobal Colon / Christopher Columbus

Monument to Christopher Columbus (bt. August and October 1451 – May 20, 1506) was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the Western Hemisphere and of the American continents within. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Afro-Eurasia — preceded some five-hundred years by Leif Ericson, and perhaps others — Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans. With his several hapless attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, he personally initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World". The term Pre-Columbian is sometimes used to refer to the people and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors. [ Wiki. ]

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Louis Pasteur

The French Colony of Mexico to the Mexican people in the 1st Centenary of its Independence. 1810-1910.

Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist best known for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of disease. His experiments supported the germ theory of disease, also reducing mortality from puerperal fever (childbed), and he created the first vaccine for rabies. He was best known to the general public for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness - this process came to be called pasteurization. He is regarded as one of the three main founders of microbiology, together with Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch. He also made many discoveries in the field of chemistry, most notably the asymmetry of crystals. [ Wiki. ]

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Angel de la Independencia

El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence"), most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City. (Wiki)

Gracias por su visita / Thanks for visiting.

Angel de la Independencia

El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence"), most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Columna de la Independencia, is a victory column located on a roundabout over Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City.
El Ángel was built to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence, celebrated in 1910. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City, and it has become a focal point for both celebration or protest. It bears a resemblance to the Victory Column in Berlin. From Wiki.

Diana La Cazadora / Diana The Huntress

Fountain of Diana La Cazadora and in the background The Marquis Reforma Hotel at Paseo de la Reforma, very near Chapultepec Park.