It was erected amidst festive ceremonies on 14 July 1860 near Teatro Alfonso XII in Arroceros in what is now Plaza Lawton (now Liwasang Bonifacio).

Political upheavals in Spain led to the downfall of the Queen Isabel II and the rise of the liberal government in 1868.

One of its officials, Carlos María de la Torre, was appointed governor-general of the Philippines.

Chinese workers were hired to remove the statue and Barretto hid it in his house before the Ayuntamiento reclaimed it.

The Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País (Economic Association of Friends of the Country) requested that the statue be made part of their museum collection but de la Torre consigned it to a storeroom in the Casas Consistoriales.