The Virgen de El Panecillo looks out across the city of Quito, her angelic wings outstretched as if she were about to take flight. She stands 41 meters (135 feet) above the hill that marks a dividing line between the wealthier northern and central parts of Quito and the poorer neighborhoods that make up the southern part of the city. The winged statue of the Virgen de El Panecillo faces the north, turning her back on the impoverished masses that have flooded into the city in recent decades. In the 2011 film, A tus espaldas, this metaphor describes life in Quito for a young man trying to escape the poverty he was born into, with the angelic statue casting its shadow across Ecuadorian society. The Virgen de El Panecillo is a powerful symbol of Quito, in all of its contradictions.