Walk a few blocks west on Avenida Juarez from the busy intersection of Alcalde and you’ll come across a peculiar bronze statue of a man standing on the sidewalk appearing to be pushing against the wall of a building.
An accompanying plaque explains all, but here’s the story for those of you who may not have the time or inclination to visit the site.
The man represented in the statue is Jorge Matute Remus, a celebrated local engineer, who in 1950 moved that 1,700-ton building, owned then by Telefonos de Mexico (later Telmex), 11.6 meters without disturbing a single brick. He carried out the feat as part of his plan to widen Guadalajara’s main thoroughfare. The alternative was to demolish the building—weighing around 2,000 tons—and construct another.
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