Finding Maria in Bogota

Of all the murals on the steets of Bogota, this one really caught my Polish eye. On a building in the city center, next to a metro station, was this homage to Maria Curie Sklodowska. They even spelled her name the Polish way, Maria, instead of Marie, and included her Polish maiden name, which rarely happens. The words read: Daughter of Poland. Citizen of France. Scientist of the World. The mural didn’t seem to be affiliated with any institution that I could see, it was just on some random building, making me wonder what it was all about.

A bit of Googling later, I found it had been commissioned by the Polish Embassy in Bogota:

"Did You Know That María Skłodowska-Curie was Polish?
In tribute to the great chemistry ⚗️ and physics 🔬 of 🇵🇱, in August 2020 we commissioned the creation of this mural to the urban artist 🎨 Lili Cuca, in a building on the western side of the Transmilenio Universidades station."


Sending this one to my Polish friends and family…us Poles, we are everywhere…

5 responses to “Finding Maria in Bogota”
  1. Donna Kruszewska Avatar
    Donna Kruszewska

    And the spelling of the last name is even correct: the l with a crossbar = w sound. and they didn’t masculinize the ending to an ski. Wspaniale! Ok i see daughter of Poland, Citizen of France and what’s the third line?

    1. Scientist of the World.

      1. Donna Kruszewska Avatar
        Donna Kruszewska

        very nice

  2. Tereska R Buko Avatar
    Tereska R Buko

    She pops up in the most usually of places. I’d like to make a list of all the films/movies in which she has been mentioned. Thanks Basia.

    1. That would be a great project!

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