by Ruby Smith Diaz
Diaz’s first book is a highly detailed accounting of one of Vancouver’s most notable historical figures, Serafim “Joe” Fortes, the popular volunteer lifeguard and Constable who saved so many from drowning in English Bay at the turn of the century. What makes Searching for Serafim so unique however is Diaz’ own personal take and her research process interspersed with Fortes’ biography, as she reflects on vignettes from her own life, on the Black experience and on discrimination in general. Her prose is experimental, sometimes injecting history with poetry and period song.
The tone throughout focuses on race and the racism Fortes experienced, far moreso Diaz admits than most other biographers have written about him. Of Fortes’ swimming, Diaz speculates that the freedom there comes in “to feel his body weightless amid the crushing weight of white supremacy” (25). Diaz’ biography is deeply entrenched in race, from the theft of indigenous lands in early Vancouver settlements and Fortes’ position as other, even while being celebrated by the city of Vancouver and its people. Diaz also notes that she projects modern ideas of racism to the past, grafting them on to a Fortes who likely felt comfortable and happy (48), and in this her work reads sometimes as an insightful revisionist text based on critical race theory and a very innovative reading of a familiar story – she states that her attempts are to “disentangle who he really was from what the white gaze wanted him to be” (51). As such, Diaz confronts racism in how Fortes was treated even in his most positive moments and celebrations.
Perhaps reminiscent of Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Searching for Serafim is a thoughtful unpacking of how we understand biography and what we bring from our own identities and positions in history to the investigative process. The emphasis here is in the Searching aspect of the title, as it’s more a story about race and research than Fortes himself – biography is fraught with this complexity, as on one hand Diaz writes “I imagine Serafim’s experience through my own stories,” (59) and on the other, she notes the compelling “the biggest tragedy of Serafim Fortes’ life is that he will never be able to tell us in his own words who he was” (68). Ultimately, the text is an intensely unique, detailed and passionate take on this lauded hero of Vancouver (and Canadian) history.