SILENT STATUES | oaxaca

Filmed: April 16, 2019
Location: Calz. de la República, Oaxaca, Mexico

 

ABOUT THE VIDEO

Calzada de la República has 18 statues (and one empty pedestal), gifted in 1972 from the various regions of Mexico, to commemorate the hundred year anniversary of the death of President Benito Juarez who was of Zapotec ethnicity and the 26th president of Mexico. He was a key figure in restoring the Mexican republic after the French invasion and he also supported liberal policies which forced native communities to sell their communal land. Today, many of the statues exist without their plaques, the names removed and their voices mute.

I came across these statues when I was visiting my friend and filmmaker Luis Hernandez in Oaxaca. So being interested in monuments and hidden histories I thought we should film them. In my later research I found that the Google Street camera had captured images of the statues with plaques in 2016. By 2019 when I visited the plaques were gone.

Silent Statues of Calz. de la República