Mexico’s great constitutional president, Benito Juarez, was born on March 21, 1806. This year a monument being created to honor him at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso is one step closer to completion. Kenna Ramirez, former First Lady of El Paso and President of The XII Travelers of the Southwest Memorial, announced that over half the $290,000 needed to complete Benito Juarez-Child to Man, has been raised. This milestone allows sculptor Ethan Houser to complete phase two of the project resulting in a 1 ½ life size clay model of Benito Juarez as a Zapotec Indian boy sitting beside the future President of Mexico. Each figure holds a book, symbolic of the education that allowed an illiterate boy to rise out of poverty and lead a great nation through civil war. Benito Juarez has been called the “Abraham Lincoln of Mexico” and a medallion with both presidents’ profiles will accompany the final bronze. A space between the seated figures encourages interaction, allowing the Chamizal’s more than 100,000 annual visitors – including nearly 4,000 disadvantaged children- the opportunity to sit between them for a photo op.

Benito Juarez has special importance for the El Paso/Juarez region. He governed his country from Paso del Norte (current day Ciudad Juarez) for 10 months - August 1865 to June 1866 – having fled from Mexico City after Napoleon III made Maximillian emperor of Mexico. The people of Fort Bliss and Franklin welcomed Juarez, though he declined offers of hospitality vowing to never leave his country while it was occupied by foreign invaders. He faced issues of flooding and a meandering river that placed Mexican land on the U.S. side, leading to nearly a century of disputes ultimately resolved in the 1964 Chamizal Treaty. Soon after Juarez left El Paso del Norte in 1866, he reunited his country. On September 16, 1888, the villagers of Paso del Norte re-named their town in honor of their distinguished guest – the citizen President of Mexico.