Mermaids and Fountains

I have always loved the four metal, maybe copper mermaids in the grassy area in front of the Municipal Palace. A couple of years ago one of them disappeared. Tuesday she was replaced with an exact copy, except in CEMENT. What a shock!!! At least she has been replaced.

We think they were once fountains, along with the fuente del soul, the dolphins on la ropa and likely other things. So what happened? Did electricity and water become too expensive to keep them running? Was it the personal project of one of our past presidentes? There are bound to be even more that we aren't aware of and would llke to look at...

The statue of the dolphins at La Ropa is the only one of the statues you mention that was once a fountain. It would clog up or break periodically, and the municipal government would fix it. If I recall correctly, Helmut of Villa del Sol even offered to fix it, but the municipal government refused his help, so it's sat there as a broken fountain for decades now.

Apparently the current municipal government is apparently so bent on selling the mayor's husband's own cement that they couldn't even replace the missing sirena statue with a true duplicate. They were made by Crescencio Oregón Torres of Pantla, and he should still have the original molds. It's insulting they would replace such a work of art with their own cheap cement copy.

I have lived across from the Dolphins for over six years. Due to a minor illness I slept through the addition. However, I am a romantic and a bad amateur poet so I prefer to believe either the dolphins mated and gave birth to the fourth or the three communicated at night until a fourth joined them. I shall be writing a poem about this, will post when completed and hope it will become mythological as opposed to the rather dull truth.

Still in a romantic mood, I read and have read much about sculpture. I am 1/5 my way through a 1,100 page of The History of Sculpture on my balcony across from the dolphins. There is a method known as ‘lost wax’ by which a plaster/cement/hard clay piece of sculpture can be reproduced as a bronze sculpture. Think Rodin and the Kiss etc. One bronze version of Rodin’s wonderful “Gates of Hell” is in Mexico City. There are some bronze sculptures in Centro Zihuatanejo.

Methinks the original sculptor could make bronze dolphins from a plaster cast and sell them! To raise necessary capital he could pre-sell them. They could be limited or unlimited versions but the former would be more expensive. Bronze is lighter than concrete and thus easier to transport.

Who wants a bronze dolphin sculpture? One would look great on my balcony across… across from the dolphin sculptures.