{"id":6366,"date":"2019-11-13T16:47:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T22:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/?p=6366"},"modified":"2019-11-13T16:47:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T22:47:07","slug":"do-you-know-that-mexico-city-was-the-home-of-one-of-the-most-surrealistic-fountains-of-the-world-we-want-it-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/do-you-know-that-mexico-city-was-the-home-of-one-of-the-most-surrealistic-fountains-of-the-world-we-want-it-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you know that Mexico city was the home of one of the most surrealistic fountains of the world? (We want it back)"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Quijote Fountain, protagonist of this note, was built, the purpose behind its construction was to create a corner to inspire people to reading in the contemplation of nature inside Mexico City\u2019s maelstrom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exact date when this place was created is unknown, we know that it was built around the start of the XX century. While time passed by, this beautiful corner inside the heart of the forest, became citizen\u2019s favorite spot for cultural enjoyment, that even offered them its own library, that was sheltered inside the columns topped with statues.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time, this enchanting place had a structure composed of four benches, hand-painted tiles that narrate some passages of the literary work \u2018El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha\u2019, and two columns and sculptures in the likeness of \u2018El Quijote\u2019 and \u2018Sancho Panza, initially made by the Spanish sculpturer Miguel Alessio Robles, in Sevilla, Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, sometimes fatality brings unexpected and positive effects. After the place was vandalized in 1974, when the sculptures were stolen, the reconstruction of the space engendered a gift for Mexico City with one of the most surrealistic chapters of its sculptural history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The improbable mixing of two, equally improbable, statues<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u2018El Quijote\u2019 and \u2018Sancho Panza\u2019 are by themselves, surrealistic characters. Maybe Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra never imagined that they could be taken to an even more amazing place.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this actually happened thanks to the work of art elaborated by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Fern\u00e1ndez Urbina. This Mexican sculptor from Durango devises, among his last works, a very special and singular mixed one.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his mind, Jose Mar\u00eda somehow, found a match between the personality or at least the physical appearance of Salvador Dal\u00ed (maybe the most surreal of the surrealists) with \u2018El Quijote\u2019s shape; and his faithful squire was portrayed by a favorite \u2018rotund\u2019 artist of the pictorial history of Mexico: Diego Rivera: what a character!<\/span><\/p>\n

This mixture so unrealistic and nice at the same time, lived inside the Chapultepec forest up to 2015, when again \u2018The Quijote Fountain\u2019 was vandalized.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The most surreal neighbors of the forest want to come back<\/b><\/h3>\n

We want these characters back and we want to help to give back to Mexico City, one of its most special cultural heritage landmarks. That is why we have created a campaign to achieve this goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pro Bosque Chapultepec Trust, and Steve McPherson, a lover of this place and the forest, we join efforts to rescue this Fountain and its very surreal characters with the help of a fundraising effort that will last 6 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our intention is to again give to this magic place its original cultural purpose of inspiring people to read and contemplate surrounded by nature in Mexico City (CDMX) the same as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. We want to bring to life this amazing space of Mexico city\u2019s lungs, and with your help, we will be close to achieve this purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

To get more information about the campaign, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Quijote Fountain, protagonist of this note, was built, the purpose behind its construction was to create a corner to inspire people to reading in the contemplation of nature inside Mexico City\u2019s maelstrom. The exact date when this place was created is unknown, we know that it was built around the start of the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[175,309],"class_list":["post-6366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bosque-de-chapultepec-en","tag-quijote-fountain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapultepec.org.mx\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}