Born Nguyễn Sinh Cung in 1890, the man who would come to be known as Ho Chi Minh became interested in the ideals of socialism during his youth living and working in various Western, capitalist countries. However, it was his time in the communist Soviet Union and the soon-to-be communist China that proved defining upon Ho’s return to his native Vietnam in 1941 (which had been successively occupied as a French colony and then by the Japanese during World War II) as he sought Vietnamese independence under communist rule.
Guerrilla forces lead by Ho Chi Minh took the capital Hanoi from the Japanese in 1945, and again from French colonial rule in 1954. However, this resulted in a Vietnam divided between a north that greatly favored communism, and a south that was supported by capitalist countries like the United States.
This lead to the Vietnam War of 1955-75, and while Ho had already passed away by 1969, his leadership role within the Vietcong forces and North Vietnam has come to be considered crucial in their eventual victory over the U.S.-backed south. Seen as a founding member of the winning party of Vietnamese reunification, Ho Chi Minh is still considered a hero by the country’s communist authorities.
The southern city formerly known as Saigon was named after him as Ho Chi Minh City, and his mausoleum in Hanoi is a famous landmark of the capital. His figure continues to be considered symbolic by the modern Vietnamese government, even in its foreign relations.
This seems to be the reason behind his appearance in this monument in the Mexican capital, as an initiative from the Vietnamese mission in the country. In countries with large South Vietnamese diasporas that emigrated around the time of the War, such as France and the United States, Ho Chi Minh tends to be seen as a negative symbol, in other places where the diaspora immigrated more recently from a unified country, his image can be less divisive. This seems to be the case in Mexico, where he still retains some degree of the counterculture icon imagery that he amassed even in Western countries, given the unpopularity of the Vietnam War.
One might notice that there are other symbols of the 1960-70s counterculture in this monument, and Uncle Ho is sitting on one of them. The wide-brimmed backrests of this furniture recall the plumage on a male peafowl, which is the origin of the name of these “peacock chairs.”
Originating in Southeast Asia, likely Philippines, the peacock chair is usually made out of rattan or other woven fibers and it can be recognized as the seat of choice for several iconic artists in their album covers, from Al Green to Julio Iglesias. The versions featured here are fairly pared down but still recognizable enough as wicker thanks to the dedicated detailing by the unknown artists, along with the Vietnamese writing in Uncle Ho’s papers and the also-woven tabletop.
