Ignacio L. Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta Main Square

Ignacio L. Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta Main Square

The statue of Ignacio L. Vallarta is very well located on the main plaza of the city, right by the central kiosk. It is one of the oldest statues in town and was sculpted by a very famous and acclaimed artist from Guadalajara.

Las Peñas, which at the time had no more than 2000 inhabitants, changed from Commissariat to Municipality on May 31st, 1918, at the same time the town’s name changed, by the State Congress, from Las Peñas to Puerto Vallarta, in honor of Ignacio Luis Vallarta, a Mexican lawyer and governor of the state of Jalisco from 1872 to 1876.

Ignacio Luis Vallarta by Miguel Miramontes Carmona (1964)

Statue of Ignacio Luis Vallarta

The sculpture was donated by another Governor of Jalisco, Juan Gil Preciado.

The sculpture was originally placed in Aquiles Serdán Park, where it was inaugurated in 1964 by the Municipal President Carlos Arreola Lima.

It currently stands on the main plaza in front of the kiosk and by the Town Hall.

Miguel Miramontes Carmona

Miguel Miramontes Carmona

Miguel Miramontes Carmona (1918-2015)

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on May 8, 1918.

In 1934 he began as an apprentice-santero in Agustín Espinosa’s religious imagery workshop, and by 1937 he began as a sculptor in Fidel Galindo’s religious imagery workshop.

In 1944 he entered the silver workshop of Aurelio Martínez Sandoval.

In 1947 he enrolled in the National School of Plastic Arts –or Academy of San Carlos–, of the UNAM.

In 1950 he was assistant to the sculptor Juan Olaguíbel, and modelled most of the sculptures of his master at that time.

In 1951 he decorated the Bar Azteca in Mexico City with sixteen painted high-relief murals.

In 1952 he concluded his studies as a sculptor and became the first person from Jalisco to have academic training in sculpture. He then won a contest, for which he was able to enter the Plastic Integration Workshop, directed by the painter José Chávez Morado.

In the same year of 1952, invited by the teacher Jorge Martínez, he returned to his hometown and was appointed professor at the School of Letters and Arts of the University of Guadalajara.

In 1953, the governor of the state of Jalisco, Agustín Yáñez, commissioned him to found the Sculpture Workshop at the School of Plastic Arts at the same University.

For 30 years he was a university professor until in 1983 he received his retirement.

Throughout his career, he designed and made more than four hundred sculptures.

  • Among his many awards
  • Jalisco Award in the branch of sculpture 1955
  • 1st prize in the sculpture contest of the government of the state of Jalisco 1958
  • Badge Jose Clemente Orozco 1959
  • Distinguished son of Guadalajara, by the City Council, 1964
  • Centenary Medal of the muralist José Clemente Orozco, 1983.

On October 14, 2015, he died in Guadalajara and was buried in the Recinto de la Paz cemetery, after receiving posthumous homage at the Espacio Azul Gallery of the National Institute of Fine Arts.

Author: M. A. Gallardo

Last Updated on 10/02/2022 by Puerto Vallarta Net