El Ángel was built in 1910 during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz by architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence.

In front of this inscription is a bronze statue of a giant, laureled lion that guides a child, which symbolizes, according to Rivas Mercado, "the Mexican people, strong during war and docile during peace.

The structure is made of steel covered with quarried stone decorated with garlands, palms and rings with the names of Independence figures.

Antonio Rivas Mercado began to design the monument, envisioned as a column with both classical and modern elements, with bronze statues at its base.

But in May 1906, when the foundations were built and 2,400 stones placed to a height of 25 m, the sides of the monument collapsed, so Díaz created a study commission composed of engineers Guillermo Beltrán y Puga, Manuel Marroquín y Rivera, and Gonzalo Garita.

The inauguration was held on 16 September, the 100th anniversary of the Grito de Dolores (the battle cry by Father Miguel Hidalgo that was considered the initiation of Mexican independence).

An eternal flame (Lámpara Votiva) honoring these independence heroes was installed in the base of the column at the order of President Emilio Portes Gil in 1929.

However, the capital government declared justifying that the closure is due to the restoration, within the framework of a work program in Paseo de la Reforma that involves several more monuments.

[5] In 1925, during the administration of Plutarco Elías Calles, the remains of the following Heroes of the Mexican Independence were interred in a mausoleum under the base of the monument.

At the entry to the mausoleum is a statue of William Lamport, also known as Don Guillén de Lampart y Guzmán, an Irishman who was tried by the Mexican Inquisition in the mid seventeenth century, following the discovery of his plot to achieve the independence of New Spain.

He was released by the inquisition to secular authorities and executed in the auto de fe of 1659, with his remains forbidden burial in sacred ground.

[6] More than 60 years after the mausoleum was erected, on September 16, 1998, it was permanently opened to the public by President Ernesto Zedillo and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Head of Government of the Federal District.