Mexico City to Swap Columbus Statue With Monument Honoring Indigenous Women

Mexico City has found a replacement for its former Christopher Columbus statue: the effigy of an indigenous woman. The city’s governor, Claudia Sheinbaum, said Tuesday that a statue of the Young Woman of Amajac will replace the Columbus monument, which was taken down last year after indigenous groups threatened to topple it. Sheinbaum said the move was made to recognize how “indigenous women had been the most persecuted” during Columbus’ period, which opened the door to Spanish conquests. The Young Woman of Amajac, whose first statue was discovered in January, won out over a number of other proposals within the last year. The original statue resides at the city’s Anthropology Museum, which will create a replica three times the size of the Columbus statue, per BBC News. The original Columbus monument will not be entirely discarded, however; it will be placed in another park in the city.