The Angel of Independence

The Angel of Independence is a golden statue of a winged woman standing atop a tall, stone column in the middle of a roundabout on the Paseo de la Reforma. She holds a laurel wreath in her right hand and a broken chain in her left, representing victory and liberation from three centuries of Spanish rule. Architect Antonio Rivas Mercado designed the monument, which was inaugurated on September sixteenth, nineteen ten, to mark the centennial of the start of the Mexican War of Independence.