Monumento a Juana Azurduy, Bronze independence monument at Plaza del Correo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Monumento a Juana Azurduy is a bronze sculpture depicting a woman warrior holding a sword while carrying a child on her back. The work stands at Plaza del Correo and presents this figure as both mother and armed fighter.
The bronze statue by Argentine sculptor Andrés Zerneri was inaugurated on 15 July 2015 by Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Evo Morales, the latter funding it with a one-million-dollar donation from the Bolivian State. It replaced the Columbus monument removed on 29 June 2013, and in September 2017 was moved to Plaza del Correo for the Paseo del Bajo works.
The figure carries a baby on her back in an aguayo, the handwoven cloth Andean women use to carry children, and her poncho imitates the folds of wool garments of American indigenous peoples. Her right hand extends in a protective gesture toward the child and the people.
The monument stands in Plaza del Correo, facing the Centro Cultural Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, on the block between the Casa Rosada and Avenida La Rábida. It was moved here in September 2017 for the Paseo del Bajo works, so approach it from the plaza side; the bronze and the stepped pedestal are visible from the surrounding pavement.
The six-metre base beneath the pedestal is shaped as a stepped pyramid modelled on Tiahuanaco architecture, a deliberate reference to the Andean world Juana Azurduy fought for. The bronze was cast over three years in the sheds of the former Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada with 45 people taking part.
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