Unknown Insurgent Monument

Under the presidency of Francisco Salgado in Dolores Hidalgo, street names were changed and Jardín Ocampo became Jardín Pípila. During the 1930s and 1940s, a first statue of the Unknown Insurgent of Dolores stood in the center of the plaza, similar to the current one and made of rough stone, representing an unknown soldier born in this patriotic town who joined the libertarian cause of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, recalling that the first Army of Mexico departed by way of what is now Jalisco Street. Popular usage began to associate the garden with El Pípila and to call the small plaza Jardín Chiquito, comparing its size with Jardín Independencia, the city’s main square. On September 16, 1950, a new statue of the Unknown Insurgent was inaugurated through the initiative of Mexican residents in Chicago as a tribute to the people of Dolores Hidalgo who accompanied the Father of the Nation in the struggle for Mexico’s emancipation, and a new pink-stone statue was placed at the northeast corner of the plaza with an inscription saying that the insurgent army left from these streets on September 16, 1810, to win Mexico’s freedom.

Guanajuato · Mexico