The authorities of Mexico City, capital of the Latin American country, announced the removal of the monument dedicated to the discoverer Christopher Columbus on the Paseo de la Reforma. The statue in question was removed in 2020 for maintenance work but, finally, it will never return to its original place as it will be replaced by another statue: a replica of a recently discovered pre-Hispanic one that was baptized as ‘La Joven de Amajac’. In this way, the rejection of the figure of Christopher Columbus and the colonization by the Spanish, which has been growing in recent years, by certain political sectors in Mexico and in almost all of Latin America, is consummated.
It was Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Government of Mexico City, who explained that the new statue will measure around six meters in height and her choice to replace that of Colón responds to the request of more than 5,000 indigenous women from different cultures and peoples of the North American country. “‘La Joven de Amajac’ will remain in this roundabout and we thank the community of Hidalgo Amajac, in Veracruz, for this possibility,” said Sheinbaum. “We also want to say that it represents women, but in particular indigenous women, their struggle and what they represent in the history of Mexico,” he added.
For the Mexican authorities, the objective of this censorship of Hispanic colonization in 1492 is “to vindicate the greatness of Mexico through its original cultures.” “It is a monument, it is a cultural beauty, but it also represents a historical and social justice in our country: recognizing the indigenous women who gave us a homeland,” he argued, within the framework of the acts for the Pluricultural Nation Day.
Who was the ‘Young Woman from Amajac’?
The original sculpture of ‘La joven de Amajac’ was discovered on January 1, 2021 in the state of Veracruz , and is currently on display at the National Museum of Anthropology. His find was totally fortuitous. Inhabitants of the town of Hidalgo Amajac discovered the pre-Hispanic sculpture upside down in an agricultural field. When the piece was upside down, it was ignored for a long time, until they discovered the details that the carving had. An investigation determined that it is the representation of a woman from the elite of the Huasteca culture . “Possibly he was a ruler, due to his posture and attire, rather than a deity as almost all female Huastec sculptures have been interpreted, which is linked to the goddess Tlazoltéotl,” said archaeologist María Eugenia Maldonado Vite in a statement.
The statue is two meters high and is carved out of limestone rock . The small face is carved with open, hollow eyes that are believed to have been inlaid with obsidian or other stone. On the head there is carved a high headdress, a necklace in the center in which a drop shape can be distinguished and a torso dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and a skirt that reaches the ankles on bare feet.
