Las Botas Viejas
Oversized bronze boots honoring a poet's sonnet comparing hometown love to worn-out shoes.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Las Botas Viejas in Cartagena traces sculptor Tito Lombana's 1957 unveiling of two oversized cement boots near the old walls, cast in honor of poet Luis Carlos López, known as El Tuerto, and his sonnet comparing love for Cartagena to a worn-out shoe. Newspapers called the sculpture an eyesore and a disrespect to López and civic dignity, while writer Héctor Rojas Herazo defended it as a monument to no hero at all, only to affection. The boots stood on that corner for thirty-seven years before decay and a new bridge forced the city to take them down.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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