Monday, May 21, 2018

Francisco Morazan's Statue at Tegucigalpa's Central Park






On August 27, 1882, the government presided by Marco Aurelio Soto decided to leave a legacy of sculptural works in the city that, apart from embellishing it, became the tribute that the country made to its illustrious men. In addition to the bronze statue of the paladin Francisco Morazan stood out the one of José Cecilio del Valle, the busts of José Trinidad Cabañas and José Trinidad Reyes and the group of the Four Seasons that stood in the Central Park. The monument of Francisco Morazán was erected in 1883, but it was thanks to the fact that on August 27, 1882 the contract signed by Ramón Rosa was made for these works, in which 32,000 Central American pesos were invested, "said Carlos Turcios, Director of the Casa de Morazán Museum. The date is a reason for celebration and this venue to celebrate this event will offer a conference on the subject. It was reported that the exhibition will be held next Wednesday and will be in charge of the historian Rafael Leiva Vivas, who has been responsible for distorting based on facts the doubts that the statue that looks in the central square belongs to the hero. Converted into a kind of black legend, Gabriel García Márquez repeated the false argument of Morazán's enemies. With his delirium of the magic word and highlighting the mysteries of the imagination he related that "the monument to General Francisco Morazán, erected in the main square of Tegucigalpa, is actually a statue of Marshal Ney, bought in Paris in a repository of used sculptures."
Over the years this fantasy was taking the form of a hypothetical truth and has been repeated with disregard and ridicule, only comparable to the false identity that is attributed to the Central American peoples and the exhibitionist desire to compare reality with caricature. Rafael Leiva Vivas, author of the book "La Estatua de Morazán", from which the data we transcribed has been removed, verified the authenticity of the statue, and explained to LA TRIBUNA that finding the information took him about two years, in the archives diplomats of Paris.


If you want to learn and read more: http://www.elheraldo.hn/tegucigalpa/906819-466/es-la-estatua-de-francisco-moraz%C3%A1nhttp://www.elheraldo.hn/tegucigalpa/906819-466/es-la-estatua-de-francisco-moraz%C3%A1n

Former Presidential Palace


The Old Presidential House was built between 1916 and 1922, with President Francisco Bertrand having the idea to build such a great mastrerpiece. However, the first president to occupy said house was Rafael López Gutiérrez (president between 1920 and 1924). The materials that were used for the construction were the following: pink or rosáurica stone, and sand and stone extracted from the Choluteca river. The Italian architect Augusto Bressani was the one who directed the construction of the Old Presidential House. Also he was the one in charge of the constyruction of the Manuel Bonilla Theater.
The main garden is in the center of the Old Presidential House and from there you can see the neo-medieval and neo-Gothicdesigns that the installation possessed, as well as the large security towersthat looked after the president.
The second garden, which was also considered a patio, had a view of the Choluteca River and the city of Comayagüela.
The third and last garden (which currently does not exist and is a park) was where the animals were, including rabbits, deers and guacamayas. In 1990 these animals were moved to the National Zoo or Picacho Zoo during the management of Rafael Leonardo Callejas, the last president to ocuppy this house.







Former President Juan Lindo


According to Wikipedia, Lindo was born into a landholding family. There is some question about his birth and death dates. Some sources give 1790 for his birth and some give 1853 for his death. In 1814 he became a lawyer (licenciado en derecho) at the University of San Carlos of Guatemala. After graduation, he worked for the Spanish regime.

    He was elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly of Honduras in 1826. The following year he aided Conservative Jose Justo Milla in his defeat of Honduran Chief of State, Dionisio de Herrera. He was a deputy to the constituent assembly that was convoked in June 1838, where he represented the Conservative Party. From his position in the assembly, he promoted the separation of Honduras from the Federal Republic of Central America, in October 1838.
  In 1842 he returned to Honduras and established himself at Comayagua. After General Francisco Ferrera declined to serve as president, the Honduran assembly elected Lindo constitutional president, a position he exercised from 12 February 1847 to 4 February 1848. During his term he established the University of Honduras and promulgated a new constitution. In accordance with the new constitution, he was elected for a second term, which ended on 1 February 1852.
   In his second administration in Honduras, General Jose Santos Guardiola, appointed by Lindo, revolted in Tegucigalpa against the National Assembly, with the intent of taking prisoner General Ferrera and Don Coronado Chávez, who were intriguing against Lindo. Felipe Bustillo, who had taken over government functions from Lindo, fled to Copán, and Lindo resumed the presidency. Ferrera and Chávez fled to El Salvador. Guardiola later revolted against Lindo, but was defeated and went into voluntary exile.
 At the end of Lindo's second term General Jose Trinidad Cabañas entered the presidency. Lindo retired from politics and established himself in the city of Gracias, department of Lempira, where he died in 1857. 

Virgin of Suyapa


There are many versions about the discovery of the Virgin of Suyapa. The most widely accepted version is that of its miraculous discovery by agricultural worker Alejandro Colindres. ; at the end of January or beginning of February in 1747.
According to the Honduran tradition, and our source the Honduran page, Xplor Honduras, Colindres and his 8-year-old son were sent by his mother to clean fields of corn to the mountain of Piliguín, northeast Tegucigalpa. On the way back, they were caught in the night and decided to sleep outside. Colindres was awake because of a sharp pain in his side and he realized that he was lying on something. Later versions of the story affirm that Colindres, without seeing what he was, took and threw what bothered him as much as he could, but when he went back to bed there he was again. The next morning, Colindres discovered that he had been sleeping on a statuette of a virgin, which he then took to the altar of his family in his mother's house.
It was not until after 20 years of staying at the altar, when in 1768 the statue was credited with its first recognized miracle and began to attract the attention of the entire public. After his first miracle, the family of Colindres began to raise funds to build a chapel, which was completed in 1777. In 1925, Pope Pius XI declared her patron saint of Honduras under the title of Our Lady of Suyapa and declared the 3 February as your holiday. In the decade of 1950 a great basilica next to the chapel was constructed, named Basílica de Suyapa. Currently, the statuette of the virgin spends most of the time in the chapel but every year moves to the Basilica of Suyapa on the day of its celebration to accommodate the crowd of people who attend to see it, both from Honduras and the Center America.
The first remarkable miracle, attested notarially, occurred in the year of 1796. The first hermitage was blessed in 1780 and the present-day temple, of enormous proportions, capable of housing 1983. In the country of the poor, this Sanctuary of Santa María de Suyapa is the crowds that make pilgrimages to Suyapa, was visited by John Paul II in located in one of the most humble areas of the city.