Author sheds light on the racism famed lifeguard Serafim 'Joe' Fortes faced in 1900s Vancouver
CBC News | Posted: February 4, 2025 4:40 AM | Last Updated: February 6
Ruby Smith Díaz's new book looks at the contradictions Fortes faced
Serafim 'Joe' Fortes arrived in Vancouver as a sailor in 1885 somewhat by accident.
The ship he was working on had been badly damaged and the crew was discharged.
Fortes found himself stranded in Vancouver. He stayed and worked a variety of jobs including as a boot black and a bartender. Eventually, he became a popular lifeguard thanks to his talents as a swimmer.
Through his lifeguarding work, Fortes was credited with saving at least 29 people from drowning deaths and of teaching three generations of Vancouver kids to swim, according to the BC Black History Awareness Society.
But, amid the fame and notoriety, Fortes, a Black man of mixed ancestry from Trinidad, had to contend with a racist society, said author Ruby Smith Díaz .
Her new book, Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim 'Joe' Fortes, uses archival documents including photographs, journals and newspaper stories to paint a nuanced picture of his life from a contemporary Black perspective. She also weaves in poetry and personal reflections.
"The common story that we hear about him is that he was just a hero and that he just loved working as a lifeguard and that he loved saving people's lives," she told CBC's Margaret Gallagher.
"And that's really all we hear about him, I always want to know a little bit more," she added.
Smith Díaz said Fortes was credited with saving the lives of many white, wealthy, prominent Vancouverites.
"I questioned whether he would have achieved the same level of fandom, of prominence, if the lives that he was saving was that of other Black communities, of other Indigenous folks, of other marginal, racialized communities," she said.
Fortes wasn't initially paid for his lifeguarding work, but people got a petition together to try and change that, Smith Díaz said.
The petition worked, and around 1900 Fortes became a city employee, according to the Black Historical Awareness Society.
Smith Díaz said she sees the petition as something to take inspiration from when it comes to supporting minority groups, but she also sees contradictions in it.
"[In Vancouver] at the same time we see record numbers of people signing up for groups that are targeting minorities," she said, citing the Asiatic Exclusion League and several politicians running for city council on a platform of standing for a white Canada.
"I thought to myself, how are we able to hold that contradiction? Where Serafim as an Afro-Latino man, as a visibly black man, is supposedly loved to end and adored and valued by Vancouverites, but at the same time politicians are standing on platforms that threaten his very existence?"
Fortes died in 1922, and an overflow crowd at his funeral included an estimated 10,000 people who paid tribute on the streets, according to the Black History Awareness Society.
In 1986 the Vancouver Historical Society named Fortes the Vancouver Citizen of the Century. A library, a water fountain, and a high-end restaurant - all in Vancouver - have also been named in his honour.
Searching for Serafim is available from Arsenal Pulp Press. Book launch events will take place in February in Richmond, New Westminster and Victoria.