The entertainment industry has to support the recovery of Acapulco, producers emphasize – El Sur Acapulco suracapulco I News Acapulco Guerrero

Mauricio Ángel / Reforma Agency

Mexico City

At the beginning of the film Tintansón Crusoe (1965), Germán Valdés Tin Tan praises the benefits of Acapulco, a destination he describes as the world capital of landscape, natural peace to calm the nerves and rehabilitation of the spirit. Therefore, it is not surprising that a music festival in the port shined for a long time.
Figures from Luis Miguel to Selena Quintanilla, including Princess Estefanía of Monaco, among others, paraded in some of the editions of that musical celebration, which began in 1991 promoted as a meeting truly without competition at the national level.
“It was to recognize those great stars and luminaries. There was a great reception for the project and that is why the top figures who were in the music market at the time attended.
“Also, it wasn’t just about bringing them in and having them do a small concert. The idea was to bring them together, put together duets, trios, apart from what they did. Do something different so that this would attract international attention. The first to accept were Julio Iglesias, Vicente Fernández and José Luis Rodríguez El Puma,” Luis Mario Santoscoy, one of the producers behind the Acapulco Festival, also called Acapulco Fest or Aca Fest, recalled in an interview, along with the late Raúl Velasco. .
Santoscoy, who was general director of Televisa Espectáculos, highlighted that Acapulco had been a natural attraction for the company to organize beauty contests and musical programs there, and considers that the festival was a most important brand in the Guerrero city.
To do this, he stated, they took on the task of looking for the artists who would have the most projection, so they invited Selena, The Queen of Tex-Mex, who was beginning to make noise in Houston, Texas, as well as Bronco; They even celebrated alternate events, such as the visit of 6,000 motorcyclists for a parade.
“The festival paid so much and it grew so much that the Convention Center that existed at the time became too small, and later it became what is now Imperial World. It was a trigger for everyone, the service providers were eager to have an event that would put them in the international firmament.
“It was a week of festivities, the following years people already knew and came. Of course it left its mark on the figures who came to the festival, many of them are still in force. They were the most important artists of the time,” said the producer.
Until its cancellation in 2005, the event featured stars such as Juan Gabriel, Mecano, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Rocío Dúrcal, Miguel Bosé, Thalía, Barry White and Gloria Gaynor, among others. Even so, the festival was just a sample of the privileged destination that the port represented for shows.
Almost 100 years ago it began to be chosen for filming, both by Orson Welles, who chose it as the location for The Lady from Shanghai (1947), and the second installment of the Rambo films, the franchise starring Sylvester Stallone, which required of 3 thousand extras, according to the American Film Institute (AFI).
“Whenever we were looking for a place that would allow us to have a romantic escape, a scene with a beautiful sunset, Acapulco was there. It is one of the most beautiful and important bays in the world: I remember that, when I was very young, Acapulco was the top of mind of any place I wanted to visit.
“Today there are other destinations in our country that have been established, but that spearhead as that magical place was Acapulco. It is one of the places where I have worked the most on locations, both in Acapulco, body and soul and in Code Postal, recalled soap opera producer José Alberto Castro.
That landscape so seduced the El Güero family that Verónica Castro, her sister, lives there, although she was not in the city when Hurricane Otis hit and her house suffered only minor damage.

They support the reconstruction

In addition to contributing with supplies and asking for urgent reconstruction, José Alberto Castro and Luis Mario Santoscoy agree that the entertainment industry will have to contribute to the recovery of Acapulco and relaunch it to bring tourists back.
“We will do what we can do to revive that image, to be able to bring the magic of the place and invite people to experience it again, to invest in that paradise. It will be our responsibility to disseminate it. It is really sad to know that a place that has given us so much is so abandoned,” said El Güero.
“Not only will there be musical events, there should be film shows, contests, activities that reposition Acapulco due to the importance it has. It is one of the most beautiful bays in the world; It will be important to carry out projects once they are restored,” said Santoscoy.