Paperback: 9781551529752, 160 pages, 2025. With black-and-white photos.
Book
Searching for Serafim
The Life and Legacy of Serafim ‘Joe’ Fortes
I’m thrilled to unveil my debut book, “Searching for Serafim”, a deep dive into the life and legacy of Serafim ‘Joe’ Fortes, a trailblazing Black lifeguard who became a cultural icon in a racist society.
“Ruby Smith Díaz pushes back against white colonial perspectives on history in this creative nonfiction”
“We look forward to the publication of Ruby’s book and to seeing more of Ruby’s work in the community!”
“Having taught a short story on Fortes in my undergraduate classes I have known of the need for this book, written from a perspective like Ruby’s. […] I can’t wait to use it in class and to see it out in the world. It’s going to fill a very necessary gap.”
Description
Searching for Serafim is a layered exploration of the life of Vancouver’s first lifeguard, 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, and his funeral drew the largest crowd ever recorded in the city’s history. Since his passing, Fortes has been commemorated with a Canada Post-issued 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 Diaz seeks to unravel the complicated legacy of a local legend to learn more about who Fortes was as a person. She draws from city archives and historical documents to form an insightful critique of the role that colonial settlerism and anti-Black racism played in Fortes’s publicized story and reconstructs his life, from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. Searching for Serafim conjures a new side to one of Vancouver’s most beloved – and misunderstood – public figures.
About The Author
Ruby Smith Diaz is an Afro Latina multidisciplinary artist, educator, and award-winning body-positive personal trainer. Her experiences growing up in a migrant, poor, single-parent family in amiskwaciy (Edmonton, AB) have inspired her to dedicate her life’s work to exploring and addressing issues of equity and social justice. Ruby currently resides on the unceded territories of the Stz’uminus peoples (Ladysmith, BC).
