León Felipe Monument

The Leon Felipe Monument stands on the roundabout just outside the Casa del Lago in the First Section of Chapultepec. The statue was the 1974 gift of then-president Luis Echeverría in honor of the Spanish-born poet, León Felipe.

• Felipe Camino Galicia de la Rosa, (1884–1968), was known world-wide as León Felipe. He first used the name in 1919 when his book Versos y oraciones de caminante (Verses and Prayers of the Wayfarer) was published. He’s often associated with the Generation of ’27 but his poetic work was far more broadly read and appreciated. Widely known as a defender of justice, truth, and solidarity, he moved back to Spain in 1938 to oppose the Civil War there. In 1949, he settled permanently in Mexico City and continued to write through the end of his life.

The sculptural monument is the 1973 work of sculptor Julián Martínez Soto. In these pages, he’s best known for the Mestizaje Monument in the Parque Xicotencatl in Coyoacán. Always controversial, that work casts an awkward light onto the more compelling equestrian monument to Morelos in the Alameda del Sur. His best-known work though, is likely the equestrian monument to Francisco Villa in the Parque de los Venados. For that monument alone, the park is also known as the Francisco Villa Park.