Public sculpture is built to civilize the discourse of power. In an attempt to educate the population to respect the established order, the powers that be systematically put in place various devices, including: the occupation of public space, the exaltation of the image, the reference to civic memory. Thus, the sculpture of Ecuadorian writer, Juan Montalvo (Ambato, Ecuador, 1832-1889), has served to establish a strong connection with one of the “heroes” of the past, whose memory has been used to build much of contemporary local history. However, in recent years, the sculpture has suffered several attacks. The authorities have simply classified them as “criminal acts”, but these events haven’t been analyzed or studied. This paper, therefore, raises the question: What does the attack on Montalvo’s sculpture narrate? To answer it, it presents a reading of aggression in the current cultural context that the city and its inhabitants live. The main argument is that the civilizational project of constituted power faces gestures of protest that, far from being negative, can open the door to the inclusion of dissenting voices in the telling of their history.