File:Fray Antonio Montesino.jpg

English: This huge statue is the most remarkable work of art representing Antonio de Montesinos. Montesinos is widely recognized by scholars as the first Human Rights leader in the Americas ("Protector of the American Indigenous People") and for sparking a crisis that created the first set of international laws concerning universal humanity. The statue portrays him as if shouting the words that made him famous: "Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude?" This statement was part of two homilies he gave in the colony of Santo Domingo on December 21, and 28, 1511, to a congregation full of encomenderos and conquistadors who were responsible for the massacre of millions of indigenous people of the Caribbean. Bartolomé de las Casas, another well-known Human Rights activist, was present there, and it was this sermon that prodded him to a career as a defender of the American Indigenous People. The conspicuous statue is about 50 foot tall (15 meters) and is the most famous work from the celebrated sculptor Antonio Castellanos Basich. The Mexican government donated it to the Dominican People in 1982 and it stands today near to the site wherein 1511 the fearless Montesinos called out evil by its name in two earth-shattering speeches. Montesinos later moved to other regions of the Americas (even to Virginia) on his Human Rights crusade.