Puerto Vallarta - Prominent Citizens, Past and Present

Prominent Citizens, Past and Present

• Francisca Rodriguez y Rodriguez - Puerto Vallarta's first teacher. She arrived in Puerto Vallarta in 1918 from Tomatlán, and served as Puerto Vallarta's schoolmistress until she retired in 1943. Initially she taught in improvised schools, but eventually moved to the 20 of November School on Ca. Juárez. She was affectionately remembered as La Pachita (the little Pasha) by generations of Vallartan schoolchildren. She was killed by an automobile in Ca. Juárez not far from the school where she taught, and a bronze plaque at the site commemorates her life and death. There is a street named after her in Col. Emilio Zapata.
• Manuel Lepe Macedo (1936–1984) - a painter renowned for his naive style paintings, a style that has become closely associated with Puerto Vallarta. His works are exhibited in town at the Peter Gray Gallery at the University of Guadalajara's Coastal Center near Ixtapa.
• Carlos Munguía Fregoso (d. 2005) - well known as Puerto Vallarta's official historian and chronicler. He was author of countless articles on the history of Puerto Vallarta, and of several books, including most recently Panorama Histórico de Puerto Vallarta upon which much of the historical narrative in this article is based.