Monumento ecuestre a Pedro Infante

The equestrian monument to Pedro Infante stands in the south of Mérida's centre, on a small square where Calle 62 meets Calles 87, 89 and 91, a junction locals call the cuchilla de las cinco esquinas. The square is known as the Plaza de la Canción Mexicana. Pedro Infante, the singer and film star from Sinaloa who was one of the great idols of Mexico's golden age of cinema, died in Mérida on 15 April 1957 when the cargo plane he was piloting crashed onto the corner of Calles 54 and 87, a few blocks east of the statue.

The idea for the monument came in the 1970s from a Televisa show, Sube, Pelayo, sube, whose host Luis Manuel Pelayo ran a Pedro Infante look-alike contest and then asked fans to donate keys to be melted into a statue. Admirers in Mexico and the United States sent in millions of keys. The Yucatecan sculptor Humberto Peraza made the bronze: Infante rides a rearing horse dressed as a charro, smiling, holding up his hat and an Ariel, the Mexican film award. The statue travelled from Mexico City to Mérida by train, and since the lot where the plane fell was tied up in a family inheritance, the state governor and mayor placed it at the nearest available spot. It was installed and handed to the city in February 1976; the plaques on its yellow pedestal record the homage of the people of Mexico, the state government, the city council and Televisa.

The square is a gathering point for fans. Every 15 April, the anniversary of his death, a festival held since 1971 brings a floral offering at the foot of the statue followed by charros, mariachis, trova singers, folk ballet and musical numbers, and the city has made the date its official Pedro Infante Day. A few blocks away, on Calle 87 between 52 and 54, a small park opened in 2017 near the crash site holds a life-size statue of Infante by the sculptor Reynaldo Bolio Suárez, and a 1993 plaque with a bust marks the place where he died.