Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that a statue of Christopher Columbus which stands on one of the city’s major avenues will be replaced with a statue of an Indigenous Olmec woman.
The Columbus statue, which was removed from its location last year due to public pressure, will be relocated to a park in order to remember, but not glorify, the devastating effects that colonization had on the region.
Mexico City is working with sculptor Pedro Reyes to create a statue of an Olmec woman. The Indigenous Olmec civilization thrived in the Gulf of Mexico from 1200 BC to 400 BC.
