Execution of Maximilian of Habsburg: image, monument and social memory: imagen, monumento y memoria social

Abstract

This work analyzes the execution of Maximilian of Habsburg at the Cerro de las Campanas as a key symbolic and political event in the consolidation of the Mexican Republic during the 19th century. Its objective is to examine how images of the execution site and funerary monuments erected between 1867 and 1900 functioned as material references for social memory and national identity. Taking on a historical-anthropological approach, the research draws on the analysis of newspaper articles, travel guides, photographic views, and cenotaphs, interpreted through the paradigm of indicial inference. The study articulates the concepts of identity, social memory, and place of memory to demonstrate that these visual and material devices reinforced republican legitimacy by anchoring the past in a specific commemorative space. As a contribution, this work departs from interpretations that emphasize the sacralization of Maximilian and instead proposes understanding these narrative and visual images and monuments as mnemonic strategies aimed at strengthening historical continuity and the republican national project.