Museo Cabeza de Juárez

The Museo Cabeza de Juárez (English: Head of Juárez Museum) is a museum and monument in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. The top of the structure features a colossal head of Benito Juárez, the 26th president of Mexico. Luis Echeverría, the 57th president of the country, ordered its erection in 1972 – a century after Juárez's death – and it was inaugurated on 21 March 1976, the 170th anniversary of Juárez's birth. The museum's collection features the chronology of Juárez's life, and its esplanade is open for cultural events. Artists Luis Arenal Bastar and David Alfaro Siqueiros were involved in its construction and artistic style.

Museo Cabeza de Juárez
The museum in 2020
Museo Cabeza de Juárez is located in Mexico City
Museo Cabeza de Juárez
Location within Mexico City
Established21 March 1976 (1976-03-21)
LocationIztapalapa, Mexico City
Coordinates19°22′57.7″N 99°02′20.6″W
Public transit accessGuelatao metro station
Websitesic.gob.mx/museo_cabeza_de_juárez

History and construction

Luis Echeverría ordered the erection of a monument to Benito Juárez in 1972.[1] The selected space was a roundabout along Guelatao Avenue[lower-alpha 1] in Iztapalapa, Mexico City.[3] Architects Lorenzo Carrasco Ortiz and Miguel Ramírez Bautista designed the civil work.[1] Meanwhile, David Alfaro Siqueiros was hired to paint murals on the walls, but his health began to deteriorate and he died in 1974.[4] Luis Arenal Bastar, Siqueiros's brother-in-law, replaced him and additionally sculpted the colossal head with help of Carrasco Ortiz.[1][5]

After its inauguration, the sculpture ceased to receive federal support and fell into decline.[6] It was not until 2000 that it received its first major restoration by the government of the city,[7] where the plinth was transformed into a museum.[8] Following the earthquake of 19 September 2017, the museum received minor damage and the subsequent maintenance cost two million pesos. During the process, signs of corrosion and various bullet impacts were found.[9]

The plinth-transformed-into-museum is 12.38 meters (40.6 ft) high, 15.95 meters (52.3 ft) wide and 6.09 meters (20.0 ft) deep.[4] The external walls are painted with abstract murals.[10] They were inspired by the murals Estampas de Guerrero by Arenal and the Mural Cuauhtémoc contra el mito by Siqueiros.[3] The head sculpture weighs 6 metric tons (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons) and is 13 meters (43 ft) high.[4][9] Iron sheets were used to sculpt the concrete.[9] The head originally would have had a neck and shoulders, with channels to protect it from the accumulation of water.[1] Inside the museum, there is a collection with the chronology of Juárez's life, as well as some works by Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo.[10] Its esplanade is open for cultural events and the roundabout has a size of 64,732 meters (212,375 ft).[11]

Reception
Close-up of the head

Art critic Alberto Híjar Serrano said that the sculpture is "an exaltation to the patriotic sense of the liberals and their importance in the construction of modern Mexico".[3] Writer Carlos Monsiváis considered it "guillotined par excellence, horrible and terrible".[1] The head commonly appears on lists of the country's ugliest sculptures.[5][12] In a 2017 poll, 27.76 percent of voters rated it the ugliest in the city.[13] The head inspired the pictogram of the Guelatao metro station of the Mexico City Metro, which is the closest to the museum.[14] Blogger Tamara De Anda named it one of the system's worst pictograms.[6]

Notes
  1. Guelatao, Oaxaca, was Juárez's birthplace.[2]

References
  1. Ramírez Bautista, Francisco Miguel (January 2020). "La Cabeza de Juárez, un proyecto olvidado en la Ciudad de México" [The Cabeza de Juárez, a forgotten project in Mexico City]. Arqueología Mexicana (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  2. "Así es Guelatao, el poblado de Oaxaca donde nació Benito Juárez" [This is Guelatao, the town in Oaxaca where Benito Juárez was born]. El Heraldo de México (in Spanish). 20 March 2021. Archived from the original on 21 March 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  3. "La Cabeza de Juárez, el monumento que inició Siqueiros pero la muerte le impidió terminar" [The Cabeza de Juárez, the monument that Siqueiros started but death prevented him from finishing]. Reporte Índigo (in Spanish). 23 February 2020. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  4. "Cabeza de Juárez: las curiosidades que no te sabías" [Cabeza de Juárez: curiosities you didn't know about]. Chilango (in Spanish). 4 February 2021. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  5. Camarillo, Abigail (2 June 2021). "¿Estos son los monumentos más 'feos' de la CDMX?" [Are these the 'ugliest' monuments in Mexico City?]. Chilango (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  6. De Anda, Tamara (2 February 2017). "Un vistazo a la Cabeza de Juárez" [A glance at the Cabeza de Juárez]. máspormás (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  7. Ruiz, Eduardo (2 February 2021). "Cabeza de Juárez de Iztapalapa: Con drones revisan estructura" [Iztapalapa's Cabeza de Juárez: Drones are used to review structure]. Uno TV (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  8. Velázquez Yebra, Patricia (7 April 2001). "Cabeza de Juárez, museo por un día" [Cabeza de Juárez, museum for a day]. El Universal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  9. Israde, Yanireth (26 January 2021). "Rescatan 'Juárez' de Siqueiros" [Siqueiros's 'Juárez' restored]. El Norte (in Spanish). Mexico City. Archived from the original on 4 July 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  10. "Museo Cabeza de Juárez" [Cabeza de Juárez Museum]. La Verdad de Tamaulipas (in Spanish). Iztapalapa. 23 February 2020. Archived from the original on 18 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  11. Guzmán, Sheila (28 July 2017). "La escultura más fea de la CDMX: La Cabeza de Juárez" [Mexico City's ugliest sculpture: The Cabeza de Juárez]. Debate (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  12. Cruz López, Jesús (14 September 2021). "Ya de una, 5 horribles esculturas que merecen ser derribadas junto con la de Colón" [Once and for all, 5 horrible sculptures that deserve to be demolished along with the Columbus sculpture]. Cultura Colectiva (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  13. "Cabeza de Juárez, ¿la "más fea"?" [Cabeza de Juárez, the 'ugliest'?]. El Universal (in Spanish). 27 July 2017. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  14. "Guelatao" (in Spanish). Sistema de Transporte Colectivo Metro. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
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