Among fanfares of sparks and music, President Felipe Calderon January 7 inaugurated the country’s new bicentennial monument, Estela de Luz, in Mexico City.
The new monument towers 104 meters above Paseo de la Reforma, at the intersection of Calle Lieja near the entrance to Parque Chapultepec. This measurement doubles 52, the number of years to complete a calendar round, an important synchronization cycle of two Mesoamerican calendars.
With 1,704 individually lit panels of translucent quartz running up each of its two faces, the monument looks like an old Atari game launching an orderly, squared attack on the otherwise cultivated urban beauty of Mexico City’s most famous street.
Calderon, addressing a crowd of high-ranking government officials and dignitaries, spoke of the monument as a symbol of unity for the nation. “For its symbolic importance and architectural beauty, this monument will be added to the majestic works so emblematic and admired by all Mexicans, such as the Angel of Independence, the Monument to Juarez, or the Monument to the Revolution.”
While the Carlos Chavez Juvenile Symphonic Orchestra filled the space between firework explosions with the monument’s own theme song, a small crowd of protesters referred to the monument by its unofficial name.
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