The opening ceremony of the 33rd International Sailfish Sport Fishing Tournament was the perfect setting to remember and commend those who first sat down and organized what would become the Fiestas de Noviembre in Puerto Escondido.
The ceremony in which these pioneers were feted was led by the members of the Puerto Escondido Sailfish Sport Fishing Club and attended by those very men, including Enrique Ortega González, Juan de Esesarte, Héctor Audifred, and Gilberto Ramírez, among others.
In a moving recollection, Ortega said he was very touched by the event, and recalled that “right here next door, in Doña Goya’s restaurant Junto al Mar, we had the idea of having the Fiestas, we copied what they did in Guadalajara, but in our own style.”
He recalled that they were the ones who formed the first Fiestas committee: “We worked very hard, we promoted it in the best radio shows. We must thank our friend Óscar Cadena, who joined the effort to make the Fiestas de Noviembre as we know them today.”
“I want to thank my father, who taught me to love this land, he played an important part in the construction of the road that connects Puerto Escondido with Oaxaca city, “ he continued.
The members of the first committee, he recalled, were Chuy Silva, Gilberto Ramírez, Héctor Audifred and the late Raúl Navarro, a renowned sports journalist and a pioneer himself in his field in the 1970s.
Navarro passed away in 2015, but his wife, Antonia Carballido, and his daughter, Cecilia Navarro, were in attendance and received the award in his place.
With reports from El Imparcial
