Conversation with Anonymous

Title

Conversation with Anonymous

Description

Anonymous is from Uruguay and immigrated to Canada. They Came to Toronto 25 years ago to start their graduate studies and 10 years later moved to Ottawa to be a professor. Anonymous speaks Portuguese, English, and French but mainly uses Portuguese when talking to their family. They have a larger community in Toronto since most of their family and Uruguayan community are integrated there. Anonymous often travels between cities for celebrations, Uruguayan food items, and gatherings with their community. Eating food at family gatherings is important to their culture. Uruguayan culture consists of a meat heavy diet that grills large amounts of beef. Toronto is the only place where they can find Uruguayan style beef. Anonymous is not integrated into Ottawa’s Latin community.

Date

2025-03-12

Format

MP3, 15 min 00 s.

Language

English

Interviewer

Niamh Margulis; Al Mohammed

Interviewee

Anonymous

Transcription

Niamh: All right. So Al, do you want to take the first question and we can trade off from there?
Al: Yeah, for sure.
Al: Okay. So first question is like, what is your country of origin? Anonymous: So I'm from Uruguay or Uruguay. Whenever I pronounce the name of the country, it's a little tricky because it's such a small country and few people know about it, but I've heard it pronounced both ways. In Spanish, it would be Uruguay. Al: and yeah, like what brought you to Ottawa from like all the way from Uruguay? Anonymous: Well, no, I've been in Canada for many years now. I came first to Toronto, where I did my graduate, studies. And, yeah, so, so I've been in Canada now for at least 25 years. And, so the first, 10 years in Toronto, and then I got - once I finished my studies and I worked in Toronto for a while, I applied to university where I was hired, in 2007. So yeah, it's more than 17 years now at the University of Ottawa.
Niamh: So, I guess you have family here.
Anonymous: I do. I have - I have a big family. I have siblings. So, I have sisters in Toronto and nephews and nieces and all. And in Ottawa, of course I live with my own family with my wife. We don't have children. Al: Have you ever like found a community in Ottawa or, how has that been? Yeah. Anonymous: Well, I’m not, I don't really, no, I don't think I'm connected to any community in, in Ottawa. I basically, the people I interact with are people that I've met through work at the university. But I don't have like - I'm not really integrated into a community or participate in activities, here in Ottawa.
Anonymous: I might go to a community, you know, they are in the summer, for example, a Latin festivals and things of the sort or, or, cinema series or something like that, that often embassies organize or things of.. But, that is my connection to basically community, to community activities. And then just, yeah, a couple of friends. I do have, I guess all my connections are back in Toronto where I have family and I, theirs were established sort of, I was really integrated there.
Anonymous: Ottawa has been a bit of an exile for, for us in that sense, but we often go to Toronto because I have a big family there and, we, we have a birthday every other week, you know, nephews and nieces. And, so yeah, I think much of our social life takes place in, in Toronto.
Al: Great!
Niamh: I guess the next question that we have to ask you is, are there any like celebrations that are important to you that you experienced within that community? I guess you were saying birthdays?
Anonymous: Well, for sure. birthdays are very important and something you must attend and buy presents for. So, you cannot miss them unless you have a very, very good excuse. So yes, we were in Toronto, on Saturday for a birthday. The second birthday, celebrated for one of my nephews because he celebrated his real biological birthday, in January in Uruguay, but he needed to have his Canadian birthday celebrated as well. So this was the second birthday.
Anonymous: yeah, so that would be for sure. plus of course, things like Christmas, parts of, you know, just, just not for religious reasons, but just part of a cultural, you know, practices. So it would be certainly Christmas, New Year. it would be, for example, Easter - Easter Friday, and things of the sort that would lead to, gatherings for sure. And perhaps another event that sometimes we participate in our activities around, for example, the country's independence, which is August 25th.
Anonymous: Sometimes people do like barbecues, in Toronto, there is such as, what they call an Uruguayan club. So a club of the community. And sometimes we have attended those events on that day.
Al: Cool. So that's like a way you like celebrate your heritage. Yes. Anonymous: Yes. I don't think about it that way because I think that in a way my heritage is very much living in me because I came here already as an adult, but, I can certainly see how it is critical for my nephews and nieces who are growing up here. And, I see it, for example, because I would never put on a T-shirt with the name of my country, but all my nephews who struggle to speak in Spanish, they all wear it.
Anonymous: So clearly the part of reconnecting with the community is critical for, for them. So, yeah.
Niamh: Are there any, I guess, cultural values that you really hold dear, as Anonyma member of the Uruguayan diaspora community? 
Anonymous: Cultural, values…
Anonymous: Um.. haha…
Anonymous: I haven't thought about it. I think more perhaps is the values that were communicated by my family as opposed to the values of the country, I guess. I think that informed, my life more. ous: Just, whatever my parents taught me about how I should behave, how I should be towards others, issues of respect or things like that. But… yeah, I don't think, I don't think that I'm connected to the values of the country in that sense. And perhaps because it's not a, perhaps if it were a religious country or something, perhaps, like, I don't think I got in from the country itself, values that I am, I share them, but not, I don't know. I, I just think more about a, of a family thing as opposed to a country.
Niamh: Okay. Yeah.
Al: Um, yeah, I have another question. So like within like your family or like, are people, you know, do you speak a different language besides English or…?
Anonymous: I do. I, I never, I only speak English with you right now. And, when I teach at the university, I also teach French courses as well. Of course it's in French. But, the language I speak at home is Portuguese.
Anonymous: That's what I speak most of the day is not my native tongue, but it is my wife's language and we speak what she likes. And, and then of course, with my family, we speak Spanish, but the language I use regularly is Portuguese. Yes.
Niamh: Nice. I think that we're at number 10. What foods do you make to remind yourself of, I guess, your culture? Are there any foods that like bring, bring up a lot of memories for you?
Anonymous: The key food that brings, memories would be, beef. Anonymous: I come from a very carnivorous culture. I guess you can compare it here to Alberta or Texas in the U S it's a cattle raising country. The whole country is full of cows. They are something like a hundred cows per inhabitant. And, it's what the country exports is just a big grassland area. Uruguayans are the largest consumers of meat per capita in the world. And, it's average, you eat at least half a kilo of beef. Grilling meat is something very special, I guess. And just the - not only eating the beef but also grilling it. Anonymous: Just the idea of, of, of cooking that outside and things like that. That is often what, what I do when we meet with my family, we're always arranging who buys, what type of meat for the barbecue and things of this sort, that would be a central, food, that that's what I think is. 
Anonymous: I would underline that, that as a key element and not only the consumption, but, the ceremonies around the consumption and preparing beef.
Niamh: Are there any, I guess, shops in Ottawa specifically that you go to purchase food?
Anonymous: Unfortunately, no, they're all in Toronto, because people consume a lot. There are, basically what is the, this is this, the eating meat is very much connected to Brazil and Argentina. So there are big butcher shops in Toronto that just working with those communities. But here, no. So normally what we do when we go to Toronto, it means that we also have to go to the Uruguayan butcher shop to buy what we need to consume here in Ottawa.
Anonymous: It's not that, of course there is beef here, but it has to do with the way you cut the cuts that are very, are very, yes, different or types of sausages and things of this sort.
Al: Does that include like spices and seasonings as well, or just like? Anonymous: No, the only, we do two things. We put salt, that's it. And, something you can do is put a little sauce, sometimes, which we now is, has become popular in North America. You can buy in supermarkets, even here in Norway is called chimichurri, which is something we, basically make by adding, combining parsley, oregano leaves and pepper and things like that. And we put some vinegar and oil and, and we just then can put that on top of, of the meat.
Niamh: I'm just checking to see what the next one would be. I guess the next question is how likely would you and or your family be to use the website that we are creating to upload stories for, what was the last next half the question? how would you, use it? We're making a website - It’s just going to have a transcript of this interview as well as a short blurb detailing it. Do you think that you're ever going to check it?
Anonymous: Well, I, I can certainly, yes, I will check it out what I said after, but then I can also, I'm sure if I share it with my sisters, they would, be interested in, or even make some of my, older nephews, look at it and visit. They are very big on that. And I must say that I'm perhaps not the best person in my family to talk about heritage and all that, but my sisters, I guess, because they have children that are growing up, are always working very hard to, connect them with our family history, who we are and so on. So I think, the moment I shared with them that they would look at it. I'm not, of course, I'm sure they would not agree with some of the things I said here.
Anonymous: They will find me that I could have been more somehow Uruguayan in my answers or, or, or something. Niamh: Well, you are who you are!
Niamh: Do you have any other comments or things that you just wanted to say? Anonymous: I don't know. Anonymous: No, I don't think so. I do feel that, just because I work at the University of Ottawa, I find that being a professor, and just working in an institution of higher learning, sometimes, we are less connected somehow to the community, as opposed to other people who work in other professions, other trades, other things.
Anonymous: I find that perhaps I, just because of my profession, I tend to feel very comfortable, spending a lot of time on my own and not being - you know - very social or doing engaged in social activities. I can spend 24 hours reading absolutely no problem. And I have a fantastic time just doing that.
Anonymous: So, I, I guess that makes me in a way to be less integrated, just because of the nature of my profession and the fact that I just enjoy being on my own, studying, reading, researching, and so on.
Niamh: I think I saw that you, teach, and, and study a lot of literature and philosophy.
Anonymous: Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's my field. So I'm, I'm in, you know, I'm in the oral languages department and we have a program there, the Spanish and Latin American studies program. And, so I, that is my focus of my research is really when it comes to research literature and just Latin American culture.
Niamh: And so, yes. I think that's everything for, the interview.

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