Construction in the Park

The principal entrance into Chapultepec Park is a walkway known as "la Avenida Juventud Heroica"... Heroic Youth Avenue.  It leads from the Paseo de la Reforma to "el Monumento a los Niños Héroes"... the Monument to the Boy Heroes.  Behind the monument is a hill crowned by Chapultepec Castle.

When I visited the park last week, the area around the monument was closed off by a barricade.  The sign said that the monument was undergoing "rehabilitation".  To visit the attractions of the park, such as the castle or the zoo, you need to circle around the construction area.

At that time, I need not see any work being done on the monument itself, but workers were replacing the marble paving stones on the plaza in front of it.

The monument honors the six teenaged cadets who died in the Battle of Chapultepec when the United States invaded Mexico City in 1847 at the end of the Mexican American War.  Chapultepec Castle was at that time the site of the "Colegio Militar" (the Mexican equivalent of West Point in the U.S.).  In those days the castle was on the outskirts of the city, and the Battle of Chapultepec was the Mexican army's final, desperate defense of the capital.  Although the young cadets had been ordered to leave the castle, many of them refused and continued to fight in the battle.  Six of them, between the ages of 13 and 19 died.  According to popular legend, one of them, Juan Escutia, wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped to his death from the castle rather than let the flag fall into enemy hands.