The governor of Nayarit, Miguel Ángel Navarro Quintero, announced that the sculpture known as “Hermana Agua,” which depicts a nude woman and alludes to the poem of the same name by the Nayarit poet Amado Nervo, will be removed from the glorieta de la mujer in Tepic. The MORENA politician stated that a bronze sculpture representing a Wixárika family will be installed in its place—though the indigenous people of Nayarit are the Nayerij. The new sculpture, he told the media, was created during his administration “to exalt the family and exalt our origins.” Navarro said the removal of the original sculpture was a “demand from women's groups,” although he did not specify which collectives made the request or their specific arguments. The exact date for the removal and installation of the new sculpture was not detailed. In another interview with local media, the Secretary of Government, Rocío Esther González, explained that the nudity of the work “unleashed public controversy, where people constantly approached the governor and told him they felt it was a non-representative figure.” The official suggested that the discomfort could be due to the sexualization of the female body but warned that she cannot say “with certainty” the reasons, though she mentioned that the sculpture's location near a family park might be the cause. The sculpture has sparked a moral debate. “Hermana Agua,” a female nude figure inspired by the poem “La Hermana Agua” (1901) by Amado Nervo, made by sculptor Francisco García Montero, was originally placed in Parque Juan Escutia in 1950 and has been an urban landmark of the Nayaritan capital, integrating literature, art, and public space. It was removed in 1980 and the original sculpture is believed to have been destroyed during the removal. However, in June 2007, after the remodeling of Parque la Loma—one of the city's lungs and a recreational public space—a new version by sculptor Andrés Castillo was placed in a glorieta in front of the site. The monument is not only associated with its aesthetic value but also with the cultural symbol of the literary legacy of Amado Nervo, an emblematic figure of Nayarit. To date, no feminist collective or other representative women's group has publicly claimed credit for the request to remove this artwork as announced by the governor.
