The Statue of Liberty

Nueva York es famosa por infinidad de cosas- sus parques, sus tiendas y muchos monumentos y museos, pero nada es más emblemático en su ciudad que la Estátua de la Libertad- the Statue of Liberty. Hay pocas personas en el mundo que no hayan oído hablar nunca de élla. Fue una de las primeras cosas que vieron los inmigrantes cuando llegaron por primera vez a "la tierra prometida"y siempre simbolizó la libertad y la oportunidad para nuevos retos. Desde Home English, recordamos hoy en este post a esta gran señora de la gran manzana.

“Liberty Enlightening (iluminando) the World”

This is the statue’s real name, although (aunque)  it is known simply as the Statue of Liberty.  It is an enormous copper (cobre) statue of a woman holding a torch in her right hand on Liberty Island – one of the largest statues ever built. The Statue of Liberty was given to the people of the United States by the people of France in 1884. It was given in friendship (amistad) and also to express the ideal of freedom shared (compartido) by the two countries. The French donated the money to build the statue and the Americans raised the money to construct the base. It was designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. 

 

When he returned to France, he began designing the statue. He started his work in a workshop (taller) in Paris in 1875. He made wooden moulds (moldes de madera) and attached (pegó) thin copper sheets (láminas de cobre) to them and hammered them into shape.(les dió forma con el martillo) The copper sheets were then attached to an internal iron structure that was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

After the statue was finished it had to be dismantled (desmontada) into 300 pieces for shipping (enviar en barco) to the United States. The French ship Isère carried the statue across the Atlantic Ocean and it arrived in the United States on 17^th June 1885. Unfortunately, the base was not finished because of lack (falta) of money. However, after an intensive newspaper campaign by Joseph Pulitzer, the pedestal was finally completed in April 1886. The official ceremony, dedicating the statue to the city of New York, finally took place on 28^th October 1886.

        

It is said that Liberty’s face was based on Bartholdi’s own mother’s face. He created a kind of Roman goddess (diosa) figure wearing a cloak (manto) fastened (abrochado) at her left shoulder and the loose  robes (túnica aholgada) generally associated with them. In her right hand she is holding the torch burning with the light of liberty. In her left hand she is holding a tablet, which has the date of the American Declaration of Independence (4^th July 1776) written in Roman numerals. She wears a crown (corona) with seven spikes,(puntas) which correspond to the seven seas and the seven continents, so that the light of liberty can shine (brillar) over them too. And there is a broken chain (cadena rota) lying at her feet. This represents the breaking of tyranny and slavery.(esclavitud)