ANTONIO RIVAS MERCADO: BIOGRAPHY AND OUTSTANDING WORKS - HISTORY - 2025

Antonio Rivas Mercado (1853 - 1927) was one of the best-known architects of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Mexico. He also worked as an engineer and restorer and developed important work in the field of teaching. He is credited with modernizing the studies of Architecture and Fine Arts in the country.

Much of his training took place in Europe, specifically in England and France. His style was also influenced by the trips he made in Italy and, above all, in Spain. After returning to Mexico, he immediately began to receive orders.

Antonio Rivas Mercado. Unknown author / Public domain

His family relationships helped him get some of his early jobs, as he had to take it upon himself to build the house for his brother-in-law, a famous and wealthy landowner. This work gave him great fame in his sector. He also held the direction of the School of Fine Arts in the capital, where he did a good job.

His performance was affected by the change in political attitudes at the beginning of the 1910s in the country, since he was related to the Porfirio Díaz regime. It was precisely that president who commissioned him to carry out his best-known work: the Monument to Independence to celebrate the centenary of the beginning of the War of Independence.

Biography

Childhood and early years

Antonio Rivas Mercado was born into a family with a good economic position on February 25, 1853. He came to the world in Tepic, where he also carried out his first years of study. After these, he moved to Mexico City, entering the San Carlos Academy and the mining school.

When he was only 11 years old, his parents decided to send him to England to continue his training. Thus, he spent a few years at the Jesuit Stonyhurst College.

Architecture and engineering

His next educational activity was carried out in France, more specifically at the Lycée de Bordeaux. After finishing high school, he combined architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts School of Fine Arts in Paris and engineering at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In 1878 he received the corresponding titles and set about visiting part of the continent. He first traveled to Italy, touring the country by bicycle and selling watercolors painted by himself in order to support himself. Then he spent time getting to know Spain. He returned from the latter country impressed by Mozarabic architecture.

The Juárez theater, a work designed by Antonio Rivas Mercado

First jobs

In 1879, Antonio Rivas returned to Mexico. He got a position as a professor at the Engineering and Architecture schools and began to develop his work as an architect.

As an observer he was sent in 1889 to the Paris exhibition. Its task was to collect information on all the advances presented. It was about taking advantage of the novelties in the scientific, agricultural, cultural or mining fields to try to apply them in Guanajuato.

Achievements in teaching

His teaching career brought him great achievements during his life. In 1903 he held the position of director of the National School of Fine Arts in Mexico City, a position he held until 1912.

In his effort to modernize education in these sectors, he prepares a totally new curriculum. His contributions include having separated the two careers, until then united into one.

In addition to his professional work, he also had time to dedicate himself to public service. Rivas Mercado held a seat as a federal deputy between 1884 and 1910.

Personal life

As for his personal life, he married Matilde Castellanos in 1894, from whom he divorced in 1910 after a notorious adultery by his wife.

He had 6 children, among them Antonieta, who achieved great fame in the intellectual and artistic environment and in the fight for women's rights.

Antonieta Rivas Mercado. Tina Modotti / Public domain

Last years

His last years of life were marked by the aforementioned divorce and by having to leave the position of director of the School.

It was a time of political change, with many mobilizations against the Porfirio Díaz regime. In 1911, in one of the strikes called at the educational center, the students stoned Rivas.

Given these circumstances, the architect decides to leave Mexico and return to France. He would not return to his country until 1926. He died on January 3, 1927, when he was 74 years old.

Outstanding works

Experts highlight the influence that European architecture had on the works carried out by Rivas Mercado. Likewise, they point out that his style is part of the aesthetics of the Porfiriato.

One of his first commissions was provided by the father of his brothers-in-law (the architects' two sisters married, in turn, two brothers). This was a landowner with many properties, being considered one of the richest Mexicans of his time.

This landowner trusted Rivas to build his house. It was the year 1884 and the landowner wanted to build a huge mansion in the Alameda Central area of ​​Mexico City.

Facade of the National Palace

Thanks to his good work, he began to make a name for himself in the world of architecture in the country. The taste for French influences, so present in Mexico at that time, helped him win in 1889 a competition called to remodel the facade of the National Palace.

Juárez Theater of Guanajuato

Another of his great works was the Juárez Theater in Guanajuato. Its construction took more than 10 years, from 1892 to 1903 and experts place it among the most beautiful in the entire nation.

The style that Rivas uses for this building is a mixture of the neoclassical, with the Mozarabic architecture that had so fascinated him during his visit to Spain.

Monument to Independence

The Independence Monument is possibly the most famous work of Rivas Mercado. It was Porfirio Díaz himself who commissioned him in 1902.

Díaz wanted to erect a large column to celebrate the centenary of the beginning of the War of Independence. That is why the monument receives the popular nickname "Angel of Independence."

Laura Velázquez / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

After several years of work, Porfirio Díaz inaugurated it on September 16, 1910. The opening ceremony was carried out with all the solemnity that the moment deserved, the monument being described as follows:

"The character of the monument is glorious and triumphant, perpetual of the most brilliant struggle in history and in which in that contest it succumbed… Hidalgo is the main figure, Morelos to the right of Hidalgo and Guerrero has a place of honor."

Other works

In addition to those previously mentioned, Rivas Mercado is the author of other works, such as the Chapingo school or the remodeling of part of the Legislative Palace.

The Hacienda de Tejacete, the Customs building in Santiago Tlatelolco, his own house on Héroes street and the San Bartolomé Del Monte estate, are other projects to which he dedicated his professional life.

References

1. Ecured. Antonio Rivas Mercado. Obtained from ecured.cu
2. Delgado Ruiz, Miguel Ángel. After the first trace of the architect Antonio Rivas Mercado. Obtained from magazines.inah.gob.mx
3. Urbipedia. Antonio Rivas Mercado. Retrieved from urbipedia.org
4. Thomas Kellner. Market, Antonio Rivas. Retrieved from thomaskellner.com
5. Werner, Michael. Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico. Recovered from books.google.es
6. Groupers. Angel of Independence. Retrieved from meros.org
7. The Best Guide to Guanajuato. Juarez Theater, Guanajuato. Obtained from guanajuatomexicocity.com