Cuitzeo de Abasolo No. 1 / Abasolo / Cuitzeo de los Naranjos

Baptismal font consisting of an octagonal basin raised on a square shaft, a round lower base and a small square plinth; the basin is made of metal, the stem of wood and the base and plinth are stone. The font is famous for its relationship with Miguel Hidalgo [Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla] father of the Independence movement in Mexico. The font is described and illustrated in Carmen Mondragón (2009) [http://www.inah.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3677&Itemid=47] [accessed 19 March 2010] on the occasion of the celebrations of the bi-centenary of Independance. At the time of the first centenary celebration in September 1910, the font was paraded on a float in Mexico City, and later moved to the Museo Nacional de Historia, Castillo de Chapultepec, of the same city. In 2009 it was part of the exhibition 'Huellas de Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla', at the Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico D.F. The 'Crónica oficial de las fiestas del primer centenario de la Independencia de México' written in 1911 by Genaro García documents the celebration and has a visual record of the font in the 1910 parade. Visual records exist also at the Fototeca Nacional, in Pachuca, state of Hidalgo.