Walk to Guerrero Chimalli – Sebastian
Guides: Juan Carlos Cano and Axel Arañó
July 16, 2017
(…Every governor that praises himself in using a guayabera in the beach is interested in a monumental Sebastian sculpture in his town. It doesn’t matter if they are unfinished works, such as the Millenium Arcs in Guadalajara, or the Mexican Miscegenation Monument, lost, like the arrival of Quetzalcoatl, in the Caribbean Sea in front of Chetumal, or the Mexican government incomprehensible gift to Ireland that spoiled a calm sea landscape with a sculpture called Awaiting the Mariner.
And, of course, all of them carrying a message of national optimism or regional pride, the Paulo Coehlo of sculpture. Between all of them, the work that most exemplifies that Mexican monumentalism can be a metaphor for the contemporary national reality is Guerrero Chimalli. This gigantic red robot is located on Bordo Avenue on Xochiaca, in the heart of Chimalhuacan, State of Mexico. Antorcha Campesina territory. The area is full of opportunities, as is all the east of Mexico City’s Metropolitan Area. Along this avenue a camellón with magnificent opportunities of turning into a lineal park of 8 kilometers is spread out. Today, there are multiple activities, automobile sales, technical equipment, malls, garbage dumps, educational areas, old cars scrapyard, areas in disuse. And suddenly, a small park appears, a Mexibus bus station, and Guerrero Chimalli…)
Juan Carlos Cano
CHIMALHUACÁN
The town of Chimalhuacán gives its name to this municipality, located west of the State of Mexico between Nezahualcóyotl and Chalco. Located in the north hillside of the Los escudos (The Shields) hill, from which it gets its name, it fulfilled the purpose of an embarkation port towards Tenochtitlan. From its slopes, to date, volcanic rocks that were once used for sculptures and buildings for the Mexica capital are extracted.
During the seventies, the uncontrolled growth of Mexico City reached this population changing completely its landscape’s physiognomy, simultaneously bringing settlers from other parts of the country that have surpassed by far the number of original inhabitants. Many of these new settlers are affiliated or related to the political group called Antorchista (Torchist) or Antorcha Campesina (Rural Torch).
If the adjoining municipality of Nezahualcóyotl already had the identity of a huge coyote in one of its most important crossroads, Chimalhuacán’s identity couldn’t stay behind. In reference to the mythology of its founding, in the year 2008, it was commissioned to the sculptor Sebastián the building of a monumental structure that will represent the Chimalli warrior. Finished in 2014, this 60 meter high monument has added to the traditional shield a notorious mallet, which can be easily mistaken with a torch, as a forceful symbol of the numerical and political supremacy of the newcomers. The monumental and defiant gesture in which it addresses the city seems to confirm the sentence of one of its founders: “In the near future, all Mexico will be Chimalhuacán”.
Axel Arañó
ABOUT THE RAMBLE INTERLUDES. The Ramble Interludes cycle proposes a series of walks; each one will depart from a space that have a special connection with art and the city and will focus on a specific urban context, a certain neighborhood. Representatives of ten different spaces will guide subjective visits to the urban surroundings the building belongs to; they will point out spontaneous situations that have sparked their interest or anonymous architectural landmarks. This series of encounters thus sets out to investigate the relation between the architecture of the city and its users through case studies where different communities and collectives are connected with their districts thanks to cultural programmes.
