Time Blooms Enternal
By Sarah Muñoz

Technically, Puerto Vallarta’s history began back in the 1800s, but it’s Hollywood’s arrival more than a century later that really kicked this sleepy port town awake. Even before it was considered a city, however, and years before Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and other members of Hollywood’s elite arrived, Puerto Vallarta was attracting visitors as word spread of the region’s untouched beauty and authentic charisma.

The Night of the Iguana was mostly filmed in an area of Puerto Vallarta called Mismaloya, where the jungle of the Sierra Madre Mountains spills down onto the Pacific Ocean. The romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton added even more drama to what was literally a movie setting, with paparazzi capturing the natural wonders of the region while they waited around to capture the stars out and about (Burton and Taylor eventually purchased a house in Gringo Gulch, Casa Kimberley, which is now a bed-and-breakfast). Only a few vestiges of Hollywood may be visible today, but Puerto Vallarta is, in its very special way, the city that John Huston built.

1851
Guadalupe Sánchez, a boatman from Cihuatlán who would bring salt to Los Muertos Beach to be picked up by muleteers, sets up a home here and calls the area Las Peñas.

1914–1935
Former miners begin to look toward agriculture as the price of silver goes down, choosing the fertile area of Las Peñas for their harvests. Corn and other produce are sent on boats because there were no roads out of Las Peñas.

1918
Las Peñas becomes a municipality and is granted its present name of Puerto Vallarta after Ignacio Vallarta, who served as governor of the state of Jalisco from 1871 to 1876.

1935–1949
The sharks swimming in adjacent Pacific waters are increasingly sought after, as their fins become main ingredients for soup and the oil from their livers is used in nutritional supplements for U.S. soldiers during World War II.

1942
The first official promotion of Puerto Vallarta abroad appears as a small ad in a New York magazine called Modern Mexico. The ad is signed by the Fierro brothers, who founded the first airline service in the community.

1951
The 100th anniversary of Las Peñas brings about celebrations, reporters and cameramen who showed the beauty of Puerto Vallarta to the world. Shortly thereafter, Fernando “Freddy” Romero arrives and imposes the Vallarta style.

1963
John Huston, already a “name” for movies such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon, shows up in Puerto Vallarta with Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr to shoot The Night of the Iguana. Burton’s paramour, Elizabeth Taylor, also comes over.

With the stars come a swarm of paparazzi that show to the world the beauty of Puerto Vallarta; after that, tourists begin to arrive in droves.

The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose original foundations were first laid out in 1903, receives the first of several crowns in 1963. The crown is said to have been inspired by the headdress of Empress Carlota, wife of Emperor Maximilian I, who briefly ruled over Mexico during the 1860s.

1968
Puerto Vallarta is officially declared a city and is granted resources to build bridges, roads and other necessary infrastructure (including an international airport to welcome the many people wanting to visit).

1970–1973
Departing Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz signs a decree calling for the development of the lands around Banderas Bay and expropriating 1,026 hectares, which are then regulated through the founding of the Puerto Vallarta Trust by President Luis Echeverría Álvarez in 1973. These steps are said to be instrumental in the evolution and growth of Puerto Vallarta. After 1973, the construction of large hotels begins.

1996
The Puerto Vallarta Tourism Fund is created.

Juan Manuel Gómez Encarnación: City Historian

Born and raised in nearby Ixtapa, location of much of the archaeological activity in the region, Juan Manuel Gómez Encarnación holds archaeologist Dr. Joseph Mountjoy in high esteem. "The doctor has proved that our roots in this region go back to long before the Spanish appeared in the bay." Not discrediting the sources of the Spanish noblemen and fathers who lived on the coast, Gómez Encarnación mentions several he plans to investigate, who visited and wrote about the region.

Gómez Encarnación is an accomplished writer himself, author of six or seven titles primarily focused on the stories, legends and myths of the region. In 2002 his book Uitzitzilin was awarded the National Prize for Children's Literature in Veracruz. His current occupation allows him computer access and office space in the cultural offices at the Isla Río Cuale for his research and notes.

"History is an important element of our identity, because if we know where we're from, maybe we can figure out where we're going. Through knowing a place, we grow to love it. And if we love it, we'll take care of it. In our daily life in Puerto Vallarta, we learn the value of not only our families, but of our regular interaction with others in the community. We live more consciously and are healthier. Even in the solitary condition of man, we feel less lonely with the hands of friends to help and guide us. When we lose our culture, we become distant from one another."

"Even the place where we were born isn't important. It might have been here or maybe elsewhere. We can still be Vallartan if we recognize the spirit of the community and find our place within it. Not only are we accepted, but we learn to empathize and not judge what we see around us. We become Vallartan by conviction."