Made in Europe, the bronze statue of Christopher Columbus was erected in 1877 on the boulevard Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. Almost 150 years later, it will now be permanently removed and replaced by a monument in honour of indigenous women, the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced in early September. Since the waves of demonstrations, including the Black Lives Matter movement, had spilled over into Central and South America after the death of George Floyd in May 2020, last year the statue had already been removed from its pedestal for »restoration purposes«" also in view of the annual protests to commemorate Columbus' arrival on 12 October 1492. Now it is to find a new place in a less memorable location, the Parque América in the Polanco district.
The mayor justifies the change of location with Columbus' decisive role in America's colonial history and the transatlantic slave trade. True, because the bronze statue made in the 19th century stood for the eurocentric, colonialist idea of a »New World« that only began to exist through Columbus' discovery, despite the people that had already lived there for centuries. The new monument, designed by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes, should be ready by the end of the year and embody an Olmec woman. These lived on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from about 1500 to 400 BC. It will be called »Tlalli« (Náhuatl, meaning »land«) and, according to Sheinbaum, will stand for social justice in relation to the historical role, especially of indigenous women in Mexico.
