By Gilbert C. Correa, Community Engagement Associate
Over the course of the past three years, the Monuments Toolkit Team has been analyzing and documenting monuments, as well as proactive approaches that have been used by stakeholders. An anti-monument is one method often met with success. This blog post highlights Mexico City’s Roundabout to the Women Who Fight to resolve controversial monuments in public spaces.
On September 25, 2021, an organized group of feminists took over the former Roundabout of Christopher Colombus, which was situated on Mexico City’s famous Avenue “Paseo de la Reforma,” to demand that their struggles be acknowledged and to condemn the violence they encounter while seeking justice and the truth. An antimonementa of a woman’s silhouette with her left fist raised was placed on the pedestal that the statue of Christopher Columbus had occupied for decades. An antimonumenta is a monument erected to demand justice for the victims of gender violence and femicides in Mexico. The site was renamed to Glorieta de las mujeres que luchas (“Roundabout to the Women Who Fight”). After Amnesty International sponsored the roundabout in June 2023, the government decided not to demolish it in support of Mexican feminism.
<https://www.chiapasparalelo.com/noticias/2021/10/reivindican-glorieta-de-las-mujeres-que-luchan-si-lo-borran-lo-volvemos-a-pintar/>
Numerous activities have been conducted at the location since the seizure. The Somos Memoria (“We Are Memory”) garden, which has nine steel structures and eighteen mosaics with a thousand written women’s names, was planted on March 5, 2022.
The Roundabout to the Women Who Fight is a component of the Memory Route that has been established on Paseo de la Reforma.