Monumento a la Patria

The Monumento a la Patria stretches across a busy roundabout, a band of stone you can circle on foot. More than three hundred reliefs cover its curved surfaces, each one a scene from Mexico's past. The carving carries eleven years of work by the Colombian sculptor Rómulo Rozo and dates from 1956.

The figures begin with Tenochtitlan's founding and run through the revolution, the oil expropriation and Mexico's part in the Second World War. At the centre a Maya figure wears traditional jewellery, its expression as enduring as the stone itself. Around the base, emblems of every Mexican state and territory encircle a fountain for Lake Texcoco, the country's legendary cradle. Above it all the national flag flies, tying past to present. You meet jaguars, birds and the ceiba, the Maya tree of life, in the smallest details. The theme is unity rather than conquest: indigenous and European heritage meet as one story.

People still gather here, some to celebrate, some to protest, some simply to pause and reflect. In that company the carving does its work: a homeland that belongs to everyone.