February 22, 2017
The Cristo
The Cristo is a monument located on Avenida el Cristo Redentor and the Second Ring, in the middle of a rotunda with traffic streaming around it. If you continue north on this highway you will get to the airport, so coming into Santa Cruz for the first time, you will meet this statue.
The statue was cast in bronze by the
sculptor Emiliano Lujan of the city of La Paz in the year 1961. Its original purpose was to commemorate the
Fourth National Eucharist Council in 1961.
The dedication ceremony was attended by then president, Victor Paz
Estenssoro.
The statue faces the city of Santa Cruz, seeming to bless the city. In the busy, rough and tumble world of Santa Cruz, it is a good thing to have Christ looking down on you.
On the southwest corner of the intersection is an open-air chapel, with a beautifully carved wooden cross facing the monument. This monument was built for the recent visit of the Pope. He wanted to look on the Christ while preaching to the faithful of Santa Cruz.
The road running south from el Cristo is lined with restaurants, many of them old and serving traditional Bolivian meals. A friend and I enjoyed a nice meal here after spending the morning at Interpol. It is an avenue, so that means a divided street. The median is like a park. There is a wide walkway, with trees, a fountain, statues, and plenty of places to sit and watch the busy traffic pass by.
At the far end of the avenue is the Palacio de Justicia, the tallest building in Bolivia and one of the tallest in South America. With a few exceptions of buildings in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago, there are just not that many tall buildings compared to what we have in the States.
It seems that every time I visit the Cristo monument, three times since I moved here in July, I haven’t been able to catch the light just right. The sky is too bright and the statue too dark. One day I need to go near dusk. Maybe then I will catch it. (The nice picture I have included was just before I returned to the United States. Finally I had a good picture!).
It is nothing compared to the amazing statue in Rio de Janeiro, but it should surely be on your list of places to see in Santa Cruz. After you take some selfies of yourself in front of the statue, stop and have a nice meal at a sidewalk café.
In Rio at the Cristo with my Brazilian son, Artur
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