Today’s Google Doodle solves a little mystery leftover from my brief March visit to Mexico City. Staying in Colonia Cuauhtemoc, making my way to Insurgentes metro stop took me across Paseo de la Reforma and past this beguiling sculpture.
I circumnavigated the sculpture on several occasions in an unsuccessful attempt at finding a plaque identifying the artist. Thanks to today’s Google Doodle, now I know. Titled, How Doth the Little Crocodile (also known simply as, Crocodile), it is by the late surrealist artist, writer, expat, and women’s liberation activist, Leonora Carrington, whose 98th birthday is being honored today. The sculpture’s title comes from the Lewis Carroll poem by the same name.
Carrington led an extraordinary and fascinating life that was touched by many of the most important events and influential people of the twentieth century. In 2000, she donated the sculpture to Mexico City, her adopted home for the latter part of her life, and it was moved to its current location in 2006. How lucky for all whose paths cross this whimsical creation with its smiling jaws!
How Doth the Little Crocodile
by Lewis Carroll
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
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View From Casita Colibrí 
I had been wondering about the google doodle earlier today – thanks for posting this. It’s a fantastic sculpture and a very amusing poem.
Thank you! I love that it is positioned so prominently. But, then again, Mexico places more of a value on public art than many places in the world.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen this in DF during many visits. It is splendid as is the poem. Thank you for sharing. I will be sure to find my way to the Crocodile next time.
You are very welcome! I know what you mean, I’ve stayed in the same colonia before, but must have crossed Paseo de la Reforma on a different block. Crocodile lives where Av. Insurgentes intersects with Reforma.
Thanks for that! We saw that little crocodile and have photos of it.
She was quite a woman and that crocodile is quite a show stopper!
By the way, did you know that she was a friend of André Breton and a founding member of the Mexican women’s liberation movement in the 1970s?