Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes

by Ruby Smith Diaz

The life and legacy of Serafim "Joe" Fortes, a trailblazing Black lifeguard, who became a cultural icon in a racist society


Searching for Serafim is a layered exploration of the life of Serafim "Joe" Fortes. A Trinidad native who arrived on the shores of Canada in 1885, Fortes was heralded as a hero in Vancouver for saving dozens of people from drowning as the city's first lifeguard, and his funeral drew the largest crowd ever recorded in the city's history. Since his passing, Fortes has been commemorated with a postage stamp and local buildings named in his honour. Yet, little has been discussed about how he navigated an openly white supremacist society as an Afro Latino man.


In Searching for Serafim, author Ruby Smith Díaz seeks to unravel the complicated legacy of a local legend to learn more about who Fortes was as a person. She draws from historical documents to form an insightful critique of the role that settler colonialism and anti-Black racism played in Fortes's publicized story and reconstructs his life, from over a century later, through a contemporary Black perspective, weaving poetry and personal reflections alongside archival research. The result is a moving and thought-provoking book about displacement, identity, and dignity.


With black-and-white photos.


This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also
meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is
screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities.
This book is defined with accessible structural markup. This book
contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for
images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and
semantic structure.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Race, Canada, Memoir

144 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serafim ‘Joe’ Fortes gained renown in Vancouver as the city’s first lifeguard, in the late 19th and early 20th century, first taking up the role unofficially while living in a tent by the beach, and then being granted a stipend and a cabin. He carried out several dramatic rescues, including of the US ambassador, he guarded the distinction between the men’s and women’s sides of the beach, and he taught many adults and children to swim. On his death, he had a large municipal funeral, and since then has been featured on a stamp, had his name and a mascot-like image used by a fancy restaurant, and had a branch of the public library named after him.

Serafim was also Black, Afro Latine from Trinidad, having arrived at the age of 19 when a ship he was working on could make it no further. He never returned. The author is also Afro Latine, born in Canada, and she’s interested in the lack of documentation of Black lives in the city’s archives, and in peering through the gaps to imagine Serafim’s experiences and make connections to her own, as well as to what was going on around him. I thought some of her observations were very astute, for example when wondering about how Serafim thought of and positioned himself when enforcing racist practices against Asians, or noticing how the papers at the time when quoting him depicted him as speaking with a southern US accent. So telling, it seems, that at his funeral, they honoured him not with a favourite hymn of his own but with a song called “Old Black Joe” that referred, however inaccurately, to cotton fields.

The writing wasn’t my favourite. It made sense when I saw the author acknowledged Harsha Walia as having read and supported her work as I had some similar issues when I read a book of hers earlier this year: this was slimmer and not dense, but the merging of story telling and political underpinnings wasn’t seamless. However, super interesting new-to-me source material, and I love this kind of building out from gaps.

[Beckiezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoopla bonus borrow. The subtitle on this book does a disservice to its actual intentions because I came into this book expecting a biography of a historic figure but what we were actually being given was an art project where the author explored her own experiences and beliefs as a Black Latina Canadian under the guise of exploring the life of Serafim Fortes. I think it’s a wonderful idea for self-discovery, exploring the racist history of Canada, and expressing all the ways she’s disappointed in the world, but it is not a good biography of a historic figure who came from a very different culture and experience than the author despite the possible Caribbean/Latin/Black/Canadian similarities. Almost every bit of historic information about Serafim Fortes she had to twist to her own current ideas instead of letting them exist as a record. I’d much rather have the possibly biased record of contemporaries who interacted with Serafim Fortes than the definitely biased reinterpretation by the author in a biography. If the subtitle was something that actually reflected the art she was creating I wouldn’t have spent a good chunk of listening being annoyed that there was little life or legacy of Fortes being explored.

A couple reasons I didn’t love the audiobook experience: pictures that I wasn’t able to see, heavy accent of the narrator (to represent his Caribbean origins? While repeatedly in the text talking about how he did not have an accent different from the other people of Vancouver?) and an hour of endnotes speaking out websites with all their dashes and forward slashes.

[Yvelisse · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟
I really enjoyed this book so much and appreciated this perspective on Serafim "Joe" Fortes's life from an Afro Latina. Black Canadian history is really hard to find and if found it is riddled in racist language. Ruby navigates all of that in this book, since she admits to how hard it was to find information on his life before Canada and what it was really like for him to be black in a white only space. This book isn't a biography but rather an exploration and honest talk about black people being erased from Canadian history. I really loved reading Ruby's personal anecdotes throughout the book and her words flowed so poetically through the stories she told. I highly recommend this book.

[Rene Salomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book, giving us a glimpse into Vancouver at the turn of the 1900s into the 20th century. Ruby Smith Diaz does not give the routine gloss over of how culture tried to embrace a man form outside their own culture. This is a real view of the absolute tramatic lives of any outsiders coming into Vancouver and Canada.
I loved the intertwining of Ruby Smith Diaz's own life and difficult experience in Canada.
Two facts from the book that will never leave me from this book.
One - 1908 The "continuous regulation" that barred all Asians from entering Canada unless their ship had made a continuous journey from the place of their citizenship origin. There were no continuous voyages in those days directly to Canada. Therefore no Asian immigrant allowed in Canada.
Two - Doctrine of Discovery issued by the vatican in 1493 , which asserts that anyone who is not christian is to be subdued, vanquished and destoyed.
What a world to live in !!

[imeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is, of course, an important book that delves into a lot of history that has long been ignored or rewritten, however, i think it's the style of this book that doesn't quite work for me particularly. it's quite infodumpy at times and while i understand that there is a lot of information that ruby smith diaz wants to get through, there isn't really a flawless transition between the more informative sections and the parts where diaz is trying to tell a story. the actual content itself is interesting to read about it, but the writing style is where this falters because it just doesn't seem seamless. it feels almost hastily put together??

and of course, there's not a lot of information about serafim that diaz can work with. that's understandable. but it feels like so much of this book relies on diaz making assumptions on what serafim must have thought and speculating about his beliefs and opinions. a lot of it is drawn from the author's own life, which isn't a problem to me, but feels a little stilted at times just because they're not completely connected. i actually did really love the personal anecdotes and i wouldn't want them removed at all because i think they add something new and fresh to the text, but i just think everything in this book needs to flow better.

for someone looking specifically to learn more, i think this is really good. despite any technical blunders in the style and whatnot, the actual content is informative and interesting. some of the stories that diaz manages to discover through her research are truly interesting and it's clear that there was a lot of effort and intention put into this book. there's quite a lot of interesting history to dig into here and i am always interested in learning more about whatever i can and i did enjoy those aspects of this text. this is probably not a text i'm going to revisit once i'm done with the essay i have to write on it LOL but i think i did gain something from reading it and really, isn't that the most important thing?

[Thomas Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diving into a figure from Vancouver history, the author draws on as much historical documentation as possible about Serafim "Joe" Fortes, whose work as a lifeguard and existence as an Afro Latine man from Trinidad, made him one of the young city's most celebrated figures. Given how little we actually know about his life, Díaz fleshes out the book with discussions of "so-called Canada"'s brutal colonial past and present, the legacy of racism and segregation that would have shaped Serafim's surroundings and experience. This ends up being as much a polemic as a biography, zooming out to look at an aspect of colonialism and its mirrors in the present day, then zooming in on how these factors may have impacted the way Serafim lived. The author's own identity as an Afro Latine woman leads her to speculate on how their lives might have been similar, in moving and bittersweet passages. This is a book about how ideas of Blackness and social hierarchy shape the past and present, and how it is impossible to embark on any historical endeavour without working with and through those influences. And also about how much so-called Vancouver fucking sucks, and (like the rest of Canada/the Americas/the "civilised world") is founded on a history of brutal racism and rapacious colonial greed.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the grand scheme of history, this book explores a singular point in the timeline. And this book shows how one person can make an impact even if they aren't remembered or commemorated into the next century.

Serafim “Joe” Fortes was a black immigrant in Vancouver at the turn of the century. He made a home for himself, and integrated himself into the community's hearts despite the rancid racism of the time and area. Ruby Smith Diaz explores the context of the time Fortes was alive, citing historical racism from before Fortes' arrival, and the racist society he operated in. It is through her eyes we see how that history is reflected in today's society, and how white oppression is always oppression, even when a black man is beloved.

I was very intrigued by how this community rallied around Fortes after his death, and clearly respected him. But at the same time this community accepted the KKK into their city, they conveniently overlooked Fortes' heritage and basically made him an "honorarily white" in their eyes. While this is not surprising, it is stark information to absorb.

Overall this was a powerful read. Serafim "Joe" Fortes' life was a single thread in the tapestry of history, but his thread carries power and weight with all it mirrors in history.

[Paola QC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a powerful and necessary read. It opened my eyes and heart to the ongoing realities of racism, segregation, and white supremacy in Canada, while also exposing how racialized bodies are often shaped to fit into what is familiar or comfortable to whiteness—at the cost of our dreams, identities, and visibility.

As a Latine living on stolen land, I was deeply moved by the hidden Black history of Vancouver that Ruby brings to light, and how it intersects with Asian and Indigenous struggles. There is so much care, research, and imagination in these pages—it feels like reading an Afrolatina Octavia Butler.

Every Latine in Canada should read this masterpiece, Latin American studies departments should make it part of their syllabus. It’s not just a history book; it’s a reclamation of past, present, and future.

[Clare K H · Rating 3 out of 5]

This did not fully work for me, I found the book's didactic tone almost limited my engagement. The author worked with very little information about Mr Fortes, and so there was a (repeated) emphasis on the experiences and presumed opinions of a single, black person living in a very white, racist Vancouver. If the author could have had a subtler approach that allowed the historical realities to speak for themselves rather than having then continually underlined - well for me I felt this approach eventually blunted its own impact.

However, this was a debut work and the author did unearth some stunning stories in her research, some of her suppositions were a bit of a stretch in sections, but at the same time, I am glad she voiced them.

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was so much potential here but it fell flat. Read more like a term paper rather than a novel. The research is important but should be summarized in the end so it does not disrupt the reading. It would have been really interesting but it constantly gets inundated with the author's personal opinions rather staying on the facts of the life and legacy. The author additionally gets distracted with different things that are going on at the time rather staying focused on the story line of Serafim Fortes. Sad really because it could have been a good story rather than propaganda. Missed opportunity for sure.

[Mira · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has very little about Serafim himself, because very little record of who he was exists. I was a bit underwhelmed as I went in expecting there to be a BIT more about him in particular, but this was mostly context about Vancouver leading up to/during his life, and speculation about how he might have experienced the social/racial context of his time. I think it's probably also more interesting for someone who has been to Vancouver/been to the library named after him/already known about him.

[Babs Langille · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this an easy and well written format to take in some local history, while not being too bogged down by history-book-like formalities. I also really enjoyed the method of framing black history in Vancouver around one man, and then expanding out from there to include other overlapping events of the time. I honestly wasn't sure about the title until the very end - once I had read the entire book, I thought it fit quite nicely. I had never heard of Serafim until this book but I'm glad I know now...better late then never.

[Jenny Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant novel that provides much needed information and insights about the true story of Serafim, as well as the city today known as Vancouver. Beautiful, eloquent and soulful work that is a fantastic resource, especially for those interested in history. I will be using "Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim "Joe" Fortes" as a much needed resource with my students and highly recommend it!

[Lex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how to rate this book. It seemed like half the book was about Serafim, the other half about the authors view on racism (especially in the modern day). I enjoyed learning about Serafim, and I wish the book was more focused on him; though I do understand the lack of records likely made that impossible. This book didn't make a great audiobook because it included photos, and 20% of the book was her listing references.

[Sonja Dickinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about an important man in Vancouver’s history and some of the truth behind his story

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well-researched book. So glad someone took the time to learn about Serafim, he deserves it.

[Emily C]

Okay for a bonus borrow on Hoopla 👍