The Washer Woman (2008) Jim Demetro

The Washer Woman, Jim Demetro, Puerto Vallarta

You’ll find this sculpture “The Washer Woman” by Jim Demetro in front of the buildings that replaced the lush and beautiful gardens of Molino de Agua.

This bronze sculpture on the wall of the Molino de Agua Condominium by artist Jim Demetro depicts a woman scrubbing her clothes on a rock, as was traditional in the Cuale River and is still done by many people along the edges of this and other rivers in Jalisco and Mexico.

Cafe Franzi by the water wheel, Cuale River Island 1980

The water wheel behind her is a “Molino de agua”, there was one on the Island for some time and there was also a hotel with the same name.

The sculptor, Jim Demetro, had a local 76-year-old woman as his model for this, one of Puerto Vallarta‘s traditional washerwomen, hoping to preserve this local custom in bronze.

The Washer Woman, Jim Demetro

The local washerwomen would walk to the river banks with packs of clothes on their heads. There they would build rustic palapas with three sticks and a couple of palm fronds, creating a bit of shade and a respite to the hot sun and heat while they washed their own family’s laundry and for some extra pesos, that of other families in town, in the river flow, laying it out on flat stones, scrubbing and hitting them on the flat stones.

Banks of the Cuale River 1959

Josefina Cortés Lugo de Torres mentions this tradition in her book titled “Remembering a Paradise”.

Customs and Traditions, Our Town

Even though I have witnessed the transformation of my town into a great city and tourist destination that Puerto Vallarta is now, I cannot erase from my memory the memories of smells, flavors, colors and customs that I have experienced since I can remember.

I remember how women used to wash clothes in the Cuale River with wild hazelnut guide herbs bundled up and used as scouring pads; the dish washing brushes were made of magueys, roots or different plants from the hills that were sold from the nearby ranches.

The washerwomen made shades out of palapa and bush branches that grew on the banks of the river to protect themselves from the sun’s rays and heat; their clotheslines lay on the ground: they were stones arranged like cobblestones, but without dirt. They also used them to extend and whiten the soapy clothes, every now and then they would dampen them so they wouldn’t toast in the sun. There were some ladies who used dry bush branches and, on them, they dried the clothes, already rinsed and clean. It was such a beautiful sight to see the palapa frond cones and the clothes stretched out on the cobblestones on both banks of the river!

In dry times, people who lived nearby could leave their clothes there. Those who lived far away would leave their clothes with their neighbors. No one dared to steal them. Only in the rainy season would they would pick them up in the afternoon for fear that the rising river might come and wash everything away, as it did several times.

Jim Demetro, wife and daughter with one of their sculptures, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Jim Demetro is from Battle Ground in Washington state. Since 1992, he has worked sculpting professionally and has produced nearly 50 works of public art.

During his 13 years living in Puerto Vallarta, he has donated a number of public sculptures to his favorite city including these iconic Vallarta Dancers on the Malecon, one in front of Molino de Agua condos, The washerwoman, The Fishermen on Los Muertos Beach, Ándale Bernardo (the donkey statue) at Lázaro Cárdenas Square and other statues around town.

Artist Gallery Website: http://demetro.net/

You’ll find this beautiful sculpture to your left when crossing the mouth of the Cuale River, over the bridge laid out at the end of the Malecón II, this is the start of the Romanic Zone (Old Vallarta) and to your right, the beach is the one known as Olas Altas.

Washer Woman, Jim Demetro, Puerto Vallarta

Author: M. A. Gallardo