The story
As you stand here amidst the rhythmic roar of Paseo de la Reforma’s traffic, look up at the center of the roundabout. There she is, the Archer of the North Stars, better known to every local as La Diana Cazadora. She is poised, elegant, and timeless, but the bronze figure you see today carries a history of scandal, censorship, and a very strange wardrobe choice.
Our story begins in 1942. Mexico’s president, Manuel Ávila Camacho, wanted to beautify the city’s grandest boulevard. He commissioned sculptor Juan Fernando Olaguíbel and architect Vicente Mendiola to create a fountain.
They chose to depict the Roman goddess Diana, but instead of hunting animals, she would be hunting the stars. When she was unveiled, however, she didn't just capture the stars; she captured the absolute fury of the city’s most conservative citizens. During the 1940s, a group known as the League of Decency held significant social power.
Led by Soledad Orozco, the President’s own wife, they were horrified by Diana’s nudity. They considered her bronze curves an affront to public morals. The backlash was so intense that they actually vandalized the statue, covering her in clothes and demanding her removal.
To save his masterpiece from being melted down or hidden away, Olaguíbel was forced into a surreal compromise. He didn’t remove the statue, but he did give her a "modesty" fix. He welded a bronze loincloth—essentially a heavy metal bikini—directly onto the sculpture to hide her intimacy.
For twenty-five years, Diana stood right here, forced to wear a bronze outfit she was never meant to have. It became a running joke among the people of Mexico City. But the story takes another turn in 1968, as the city prepared to host the Olympic Games.
The artistic climate had shifted, and officials decided it was time for Diana to be seen as originally intended. However, when they tried to remove the bronze loincloth, they realized it had been welded so securely that the process badly damaged the underlying sculpture. The statue you are looking at now is actually a second version, cast from the original mold to ensure she remained flawless and free.
The original, scarred "clothed" Diana wasn't discarded, though; she was moved to the town of Ixmiquilpan, in the state of Hidalgo, where she still stands today. Before you move on, consider the woman behind the bronze. For fifty years, the identity of the model was a state secret.
It wasn't until 1992 that Helvia Martínez Verdayes revealed she was the sixteen-year-old secretary who had posed for Olaguíbel. She had kept it quiet for half a century, fearing she would lose her job at PEMEX if the conservative public ever found out. Today, she and her statue remain symbols of a city that eventually chose art and freedom over the constraints of the past.