Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, June 12, 2026 – Puerto Vallarta is mourning Félix Fernando Baños López, the historian, teacher, poet, and artist whose work helped shape the city’s civic memory and public art.
His death was reported on Friday, with local accounts describing him as a central figure in Puerto Vallarta’s cultural life.
Baños was best known locally as the author of the lyrics to the Himno de Puerto Vallarta and as the artist behind Los Milenios, the sculpture installed at the north end of the Malecón.
A life tied to Vallarta’s civic memory
Baños was born Nov. 3, 1936, in Santiago Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, and had lived in Puerto Vallarta since March 26, 1972, according to a local artist registry and municipal records reviewed by PVDN.
The record of a 2013 solemn session of Puerto Vallarta City Council shows Baños received the Premio Ignacio L. Vallarta Ogazón, described in the session record as the highest honor granted by the people and government of Puerto Vallarta.
That same municipal record cited his work in culture and historical research, his role in civic projects, and his authorship of the city hymn. It also noted his work under the artistic name Mathis Lídice.
Baños was part of the generation that documented Puerto Vallarta’s transition from port town to international destination. His work matters because much of that memory now competes with development pressure, tourism branding, and the fast turnover of public spaces.
The hymn and the Malecón
The Himno de Puerto Vallarta remains one of Baños’ most visible legacies, even for residents who may not know his name.
The hymn was first sung publicly on Oct. 31, 1986, during a civic commemoration connected to the old Las Peñas period, according to a 2023 historical interview. The same account identifies Baños as the lyricist and Eduardo Blass Silva as the composer of the music.
The hymn’s chorus describes Puerto Vallarta as an “amplia casa, fraterno lenguaje,” meaning “spacious house, fraternal language,” a phrase that still fits the city’s self-image as a place shaped by migration, hospitality, and local pride.
Baños himself resisted treating the hymn as personal property. In that 2023 interview, he said, “It is not a private work of art,” but something that belonged to the city and should be used by the Ayuntamiento.
His public art is also part of daily life downtown. Los Milenios, installed in 2001 and listed in the official tourism office’s guide to the Malecón’s open-air gallery, marks the new millennium through images of evolution, sea life, DNA, and historical figures.
For visitors, it is often another sculpture on a waterfront walk. For locals, it is part of a longer debate over what the Malecón should preserve and how public art helps define the city. That debate resurfaced this year when Puerto Vallarta removed temporary Malecón sculptures after public backlash.
A public voice for old Vallarta
Baños’ work went beyond writing and sculpture. Municipal records from 2013 credit him with cultural projects, tourism advisory work, support for public art, and teaching.
The same record says he helped promote cultural exchanges with Santa Barbara, California, and supported projects that added sculpture to Puerto Vallarta’s public spaces. It also notes his service as head of the city’s Culture and Recreation office during the 1992–1995 municipal administration.
His concern for local memory continued late in life. In 2024, Baños pushed for a monument to Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, the founder associated with Puerto Vallarta’s early settlement story. City Council had approved the monument in 2022, but the proposal remained unresolved two years later.
That unfinished project now becomes part of the question facing the city after his death. Puerto Vallarta has no shortage of plaques, anniversaries, and civic ceremonies. The harder work is protecting the people, records, and public places that give those ceremonies meaning.
Baños’ death comes less than two weeks after Puerto Vallarta marked its May 31 civic anniversary. PVDN recently explained why the city celebrates two birthdays every May, one tied to its creation as a municipality in 1918 and another to its elevation to city status in 1968.
Baños spent much of his life working in that space between history and public identity. His name remains attached to the hymn sung at civic events, the sculpture passed by thousands on the Malecón, and the local records that help Puerto Vallarta remember what it was before it became a brand.
