Lorraine Pinto, Sculptor of Cancún’s Iconic Ceviche, Dies at 92

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Lorraine Pinto, the US-born artist who became a Mexican citizen and created the Ceviche, the swirling sculpture that has become one of Cancún’s best-known landmarks, has died at 92.

Her death was announced in recent days on social media, even though she died on July 21. Members of the city’s cultural community confirmed the news, including architect Carlos Cosgaya Medina, who shared it in the Facebook group Archivo Histórico de Alice’s, run by Alicia González.

A kinetic artist who left her mark on Cancún

Pinto, a native of the United States who was nationalized as a Mexican, is best remembered for the piece formally titled “Fantasía Caribeña” (Caribbean Fantasy), which stands in the roundabout at the intersection of Avenida Tulum and Avenida Cobá. Residents and visitors know it simply as El Ceviche.

She was commissioned to build the work during the administration of former Quintana Roo governor Mario Villanueva Madrid. Her earlier contribution to the city was less fortunate: a kinetic sculpture created to mark the 1981 North-South Summit, installed at first in the same roundabout. People who remember that period say officials at the time of the Benito Juárez municipal government did not understand the project, left it abandoned and eventually allowed it to be destroyed.

Friends and colleagues shared memories of her long relationship with Cancún, which was defined by large-scale public works. The Ceviche still divides opinion — some in the city have never warmed to it — but it is unmistakably emblematic, and anyone who has visited Cancún can place it instantly.

The sculpture greets everyone who arrives in the city center, a fact her admirers said will keep her memory alive. “Her work welcomes all who come to Cancún,” one tribute read.