Monumento a Manuel J. Clouthier

The Manuel J. Clouthier Monument is a popular sitting area, if not exactly a park, at a busy Mexico City intersection. It stands at the very western end of the Vita Alessio Robles Park. The park extends from Insurgentes in the west to the Avenida Universidad in the east.If makes for a green walk from Insurgentes to Metro Viveros in the east, or indeed, the famous Viveros Park, just on the other side of the avenue.

• Manuel de Jesús Clouthier del Rincón (1934–1989) was a political reformer and presidential candidate in the 1988 elections. “Maquío” had been a successful agriculturalist, union leader, and businessman. He took up politics in the 1970s, and eventually won the nomination to run as the PAN candidate in the 1980s. He is remembered as one of the earliest to stand against the PRI party and for adding many members to the PAN party in those years. He died in a car accident one year after the election he’d lost. He’s still regarded especially as a political reformer.
• General Vito Alessio Robles (1879–1957) was an important military officer during the Mexican Revolution. He was also an accomplished prosecutor, engineer, writer, journalist, diplomat, and academic, and he’s best remembered as a historian. His three-volume history of Texas and Coahuila is still among the finest histories of its kind.

Today the monument to Manuel J. Clouthier is an important landmark on Insurgentes Sur. To the rear of the monument, the Avenida Vito Alessio Robles is among the least well-known of Álvaro Obregón parks.