Monumento a Benito Pablo Juárez García

The Monumento a Benito Pablo Juárez García began in Oaxaca City as a public tribute to Benito Juárez, Mexico’s first Indigenous president. Born in Oaxaca’s mountains in 1806, Juárez championed free speech, equal rights, and the separation of church and state. Miguel Noreña created the bronze sculpture during the nineteenth century, while engineer Francisco González Cosío designed its pedestal. Luis Mier y Terán’s governorship brought sculptures of local heroes into Oaxaca’s public spaces, and Juárez received the city’s first such monument.

The unveiling combined music and celebrations, linking civic ceremony with the city’s historical memory. After roughly a decade, the statue moved to Guelatao, Juárez’s birthplace. That relocation prompted public debate and encouraged a new Juárez sculpture in Oaxaca City. The move also connected the monument to a wider effort to make public spaces secular and commemorate local leaders. Its bronze surface still carries the story of how Oaxaca represented Juárez’s reforms, origins, and place in Mexican history.