A massive black spike has appeared on the glorieta located at the busy intersection of Plan de San Luis and Andres Teran.
A foreboding alien object, perhaps a harbinger of an impending interstellar invasion?
No, it turns out the city decided a huge, dusky obelisk was the ideal way to pay tribute to the medical profession.
The piece, by artist Adrian Guerrero, comes with a 119,000-peso price tag. Commissioned way back in 2004, it is, according to acting Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Ibarra, a “living monument,” since the names of doctors who merit inclusion will be engraved on the object’s capacious surface as long as the medical profession continues to exist or until no space is left.
The statue has an enthusiastic booster in Fernando Petersen Aranguren, director of medical services for Guadalajara. “Historically, obelisks were erected to celebrate some sort of triumph. We’re using it to celebrate the medical profession,” he said. “We doctors have always carried an enormous social commitment.”
In addition to being a tribute to doctors in general, the granite slab is a direct homage to Fray Antonio Alcalde, the 18th-century Guadalajara bishop who helped give life to the city’s Hospital Civil, a public hospital which doubles as a teaching facility for University of Guadalajara medical students.