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The Fountain of Diana the Huntress, one of the most
representative sculptural works of Mexican art, has
an interesting history; it reflects political,
social and cultural changes in Mexico City, a city
that has adopted it as one of its most precious
urban symbols.
The sculpture of Diana the Huntress, whose real name
is “The Nothern Star Shooter”, begins its history in
1942, when the president of Mexico Manuel Ávila
Camacho, through the Federal District regent Javier
Rojo Gómez, started a program to beautify the city;
this program included the creation of several
monumental fountains that would be placed on
roundabouts or important street corners. Among the
ones that still remain, there is one in Plaza
California in the Del Valle district and another,
the Petrol Fountain, in Lomas de Chapultepec. The
architect Vicente Mendiola and the sculptor Juan
Olaguíbel were commissioned to build one of these
fountains for a roundabout that was located in
Reforma Avenue, near the entrance to Chapultepec.
The theme that was selected was Diana, the roman
goddess of hunting, but in this fountain, this
goddess, instead of hunting beasts in the forests
with her bow, would now hunt the stars of the
northern skies, hence the name of the sculpture. As
a model for the sculpture, Helvia Martínez Verdayes
was selected, a 16 year old girl that worked in the
afternoons as a secretary in the offices of PEMEX.
The sculpture was made from April to September of
1942, month in which it was finally cast in bronze.
During all this time, Helvia Martínez Verdayes posed
nude for the sculptor without receiving other
payment than the vanity of seeing her body
immortalized in one of the most beautiful avenues in
the city.
The Fountain of the Northern Star Shooter, was
inaugurated on October 10th 1942 and from that
moment gained the public’s affection, who started to
call her “Diana the Huntress”, but in that time it
also received criticism from the most
ultraconservative sectors in Mexican society, being
the “Decency League” which a year later, after a
series of protesting acts that included putting
fabric underwear on the sculpture, accomplished
their goal by forcing Juan Olaguíbel to put bronze
underpants on his work. Nevertheless, anticipating
more liberal times, the artist fixed it by only
welding three points, in hopes of being able to
remove them later.
With the passing years the mentality of Mexican
society started to evolve and, taking advantage of
the Mexico ’68 Olympic Games’ celebrations, the
regent Alfonso Corona del Rosal, in response to a
petition by Juan Olaguíbel, decided to remove the
bronze underpants from the sculpture, nevertheless
the statue suffered some damage. It was decided a
new sculpture would be cast to take the original’s
place, while the damaged one was sold to the regent
by Olaguíbel so it wouldn’t be destroyed; the regent
then donated the piece to Ixmiquilpan, his native
town, where it has remained since 1970.
In 1974, because of the work being done in the
Circuito Interior, the Fountain of Diana the
Huntress was moved to its original location in Ariel
Park, to one side of the place where the Torre Mayor
stands today. In this place it remained practically
hidden for 18 years, until in 1987 a group of
artists and intellectuals demanded the re-location
of Diana the Huntress to the roundabout that forms
on the crossing of Paseo de la Reforma and Sevilla
Street. This petition was backed by the citizens,
and they all managed to convince the government to
re-locate it on August 5th 1992 to its
inaugural roundabout where it remains to this day.
This is how the history of this sculpture has
developed, a monument to women, a monument to the
beauty of the human body, a monument to freedom.
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