In Mexico, the idea of paying tribute to mothers with a monument arose in 1922, when the Secretary of Public Education,
José Vasconcelos, and the journalist , founder of the newspaper
Excélsior, wanted to pay "a tribute of love and tenderness", on May 10. In 1944, President
Manuel Ávila Camacho laid the first stone of what would be the Monument to the Mother. The monument was inaugurated by President
Miguel Alemán Valdés on May 10, 1949. The architectural component was completed by
José Villagrán García, while the sculptures were designed by
Luis Ortiz Monasterio, who won a contest held by
Excélsior in 1948. The monument is located in the
Jardín del Arte Sullivan, between the streets of Sullivan, Villalongín, and Avenida de los Insurgentes, dividing the
Cuauhtémoc and
San Rafael colonias (in the
Cuauhtémoc borough). It features three sculptures: an indigenous man seen writing, an indigenous woman with an ear of corn (a symbol of fertility), and a mother with a child in her arms. On September 19, 2017, the monument's central sculpture collapsed due to a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that shook Mexico City. On November 21, 2018, the government of Mexico City reopened the monument. The project was carried out by the architect Gabriel Mérigo. ==See also==