Emblematic the Monument to the Diver, is the most precise recognition to the men of the sea that go down to know the riches of the island, it is one of the first sights when arriving to Cozumel and whose existence gives testimony of the main activity within the tourism, for which this destination is known worldwide.
This work, famous for its various photographs now disseminated on the Internet and previously on paper brochures and souvenirs, was designed by sculptor Rosa María Ponzanelli Quintero.
The idea, says the sculptor, was to recreate in an arc the corals and diving, for this she began by including the experience of divers both men and women now embodied in this work, where the fluidity of both figures goes to meet through the water with various marine species around them.
The corals of different shapes, were formed from photographs, to later be molded and forged in metal where they have remained immobile in their permanence at the foot of the sea, as a reflection in reverse. The marine species in their diversity of multicolored fish, with seahorses and many more, were interpreted in the same way through photographs and the transmitted experience of the divers and fishermen of Cozumel, explains the author.
Each of these characteristics that now give shape to the Monument to the Diver, were captured in this arch-fountain, whose flowing water gives life to a sculpture visible from the arrival by sea to the island and from the air with its majestic swallow around it that embraces it in a composition to define Cozumel.
The sculptor recalls that bringing the 12-meter long sculpture was an odyssey, with a cold front winds entrance and whose assembly and casting of some pieces, even the welding of everything, was carried out on the island.
“To those who seek in the depths of the sea the meaning of life and discover in the reefs the presence of the creator,” reads the plaque at the entrance of the monument and continues: “For you Cozumel, island of unparalleled beauty, for you brave and generous people, land of my roots.”
