A unique gift to the City of San Diego as part of the Sister City program.
The Lady of Shoes statue was a gift to the City of San Diego from the Mexican city of Leon. The statue is on display in Mount Hope Cemetery, a city-owned cemetery that has hundreds, if not thousands of unmarked graves. Those graves hold indigents or otherwise unidentified decedents that died within the city boundaries. Many of them were immigrants from Mexico or countries further South.
The Lady of Shoes statue symbolically stands guard over the unmarked graves. This is the link to a brief history of Mount Hope: Mount Hope Cemetery | City of San Diego Official Website
San Diego has a cultural exchange program with 16 cities around the world as part of the Sister City program. Here is a link to the city website that shows where those cities are located:
San Diego Sister Cities | City of San Diego Official Website
The city of Leon is in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. It was a farm town until the growing population developed a talent for making leather shoes. Leon is now known as the shoe capital of the world! The link to a brief history of Leon is here: LEÓN, SHOE CAPITAL | Unmarked
Now that you know a little about Leon, you understand why the statue is a woman holding a pair of boots! Her hair has several sections that look like shoe treads. It was created by Mexican artist Carlos Terres. He based the statue on the religious figure Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Our Lady of the Shoes Statue | City of San Diego Official Website
Here are more of my photos of the statue, from different angles:
