The Clavadistas of Acapulco by Barbara Kastelein

Voices of courage from ‘The Myth Factory’’

In this illustrated talk, Barbara Kastelein will trace the extraordinary twenty-two-year journey behind Heroes of the Pacific: Entering the World of the Acapulco Cliff Divers . She begins with her first encounter with the Clavadistas Profesionales de La Quebrada. She them moves beyond the familiar tourist spectacle to discover the community behind it. Drawing on photographs, archival material and oral histories—including video clips made by the cliff divers themselves to speak directly to members of the British Mexican Society—she will introduce some of the protagonists of the world-famous show whose lives, families and friendships reveal another Acapulco. These describe a city shaped by tourism, Hollywood and jet set privilege, but also containing poverty, violence, faith, memory and an extraordinary community resilience.

The talk will explore Acapulco as a ‘Myth Factory’, a place where history, memory, tourism and storytelling continually intersect, and the challenges of trying to understand a place through the competing stories told about it. At its heart is the question of how an outsider can cross the bridge into another community: how trust is earned, whose stories get heard, and what happens when a researcher becomes part of the history she is documenting. It will also ask what heroism means at home, as ‘living legends’ die and ‘celebrities’ take their place.

Through the divers’ experiences of their “beloved and beleaguered” coastal city and their philosophies of life, shaped by defying death every day, the talk ultimately asks how we all create meaning through stories and how we can communicate to build legacy.

Photos from Barbara’s audiobook can be seen by clicking “Texto” on the free Musiteca link provided by Mexico’s Ministry of Culture through the National Sound Archive (Fonoteca Nacional), which co-produced the Spanish edition of Héroes del Pacífico to make it accessible to the cliff divers themselves and to the citizens of Acapulco: https://musiteca.mx/libros/heroes-del-pacifico