(b ?Mexico City, 1833; d Mexico City, 5 July 1869). Mexican sculptor. He was an outstanding pupil of Manuel Vilar at the Academia de S Carlos, Mexico City, which he entered in 1845. His important student work included the sculpture Mercury Putting Argos to Sleep (1854; Mexico City, Mus. N. A.), in which the figure of the god had obvious affinities to the Mercury of Bertel Thorvaldsen (1818; Copenhagen, Thorvaldsens Mus.), and the relief, Descent from the Cross (1855; Mexico City, Mus. N. A.), an ambitious composition in which the actions of a group of people are skilfully interwoven. Both works reveal the purist direction of the academy’s teaching. On the death of Vilar, Sojo was appointed director of the sculpture department (1860), a position he occupied until 1868. He was one of the artists favoured under the liberal cultural policies adopted by Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico (reg 1864–7). His best-known work is a pair of marble busts of the Emperor and his wife, Empress Charlotte (versions in Mexico City, Mus. N. A. and Mus. N. Hist.).