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On the other side of the cathedral from the Museo Regional, south of the Sagrario, the Plaza de Armas centres on an elaborate kiosk - a present from the people of France - where the state band plays every Thursday and Sunday evening. Dominating the eastern side of the square is the Baroque frontage of the Palacio de Gobierno (daily 9am-8.30pm; free). Here Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (the "father of Mexican Independence") proclaimed the abolition of slavery in 1810 and here, in 1858, Benito Juarez was saved from the firing squad by the cry of " Los Valientes no asesinan " - "the brave don't murder". Both these events are commemorated inside, but the overwhelming reason to penetrate into the arcaded courtyard is to see the first of the great Orozco murals on the stairway. The mural here is typical of Orozco's work - Hidalgo blasts through the middle triumphant, brandishing his sword against a background of red flags and the fires of battle. Curving around the sides of the staircase, scenes depict the Mexican people's oppression and struggle for liberty, from a pre-Conquest Eden to post-revolutionary emancipation. Upstairs in the domed Congress hall a smaller Orozco mural also depicts Hidalgo, this time as El Cura de Dolores (the priest from Dolores), legislator and liberator of slaves.
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