Morelia = land of morelos

Morelos is famous for a few things - capital city of Michoacan, one of the prettiest states of mexico; its beautiful large cathedral; the site of the aqueduct on the $50peso bill, which I'll blog about tomorrow; and possibly most importantly, the home of Jose Morelos, national hero.
In fact, the city used to be called "valladolid" after a city in Spain, until hometown hero Jose Morelos fought for Mexico's independence. After independence was "won" with a constitution separating them from Spain, the city voted to rename itself. So, "Morelia" was born.

Jose Morelos did not start the Independence movement. But after the priest who did declare independence was executed, Morelos and a few of his friends took up the fight. Morelos was a priest and also a war genius who fought for 4 years before being executed himself. (check out a map of his battles at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Campa%C3%B1a_de_Morelos.png)
Morelos' many military victories paved the way for independence from Spain.

Modern statue of Morelos:


This may be an urban legend, but I had always been told that in a statue of a solider on horseback, if the horse is depicted with one hoof off the ground, the soldier was wounded in battle (and may have died later from the wounds); Two raised hooves indicate that the soldier died in battle. If the statue shows all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed. I guess that being executed for treason means he died after battle?

The women in this statue are meaningful, also. The woman on the right is holding broken chains in her hand, symbolizing the independence movement breaking Mexico's chains of "slavery" to Spain. The woman on the left is holding fabric that may have been meant to symbolize the flag and also a scroll that symbolizes the constitution.