It is national holiday Tuesday, October 12, 2021 in Spain, to celebrate the “discovery” of America attributed to Christopher Columbus in 1492. In Mexico, the authorities prefer to evoke “the indigenous resistance”.
And the statue of the navigator was removed a year ago from the square that bears his name.
On the empty plinth, feminists erected the silhouette of a woman, fist raised towards the skyscrapers of Paseo de la Reforma, mirror of Mexican capitalism.
They renamed the place "place of women in struggle".
Eventually, the statue of Columbus will be replaced by a replica of "La joven de Amajac" which represents an indigenous Olmec woman, announced the mayor of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, close to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
It is a tribute to five centuries of “indigenous resistance,” added Ms. Sheinbaum, granddaughter of Jewish migrants who left Europe in the 20th century.
The statue of Columbus "cannot return to its place," historian Federico Navarrete told AFP.
"Trying to impose this racist and colonialist story (...) no longer makes sense," he says.
Six meters high, erected in 1877, the statue is being restored.
The work of the French sculptor Charles Cordier (1827-1905) should be reinstalled in the very chic Polanco district, decided the Monuments Committee of the capital.
In this anniversary year, the Mexican government once again demanded that Spain and the Vatican ask for “forgiveness” for the brutalities against “indigenous peoples” on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the conquest of Mexico in 1521. Argentine Pope Francis acknowledged “sins” in Mexico in a letter to the episcopate read by the president on the bicentenary of Independence Day in 1821, September 27.