Conversation with Miguel Gonzalez

Title

Conversation with Miguel Gonzalez

Description

This interview features Miguel Gonzalez, who immigrated from Venezuela to Canada to escape what he describes as a “difficult situation” unfolding there. Miguel had family in Ottawa and Montreal prior to moving to Canada, and selected Ottawa as his home base because of his family's prior experince with English, which he believed would allow them to better integrate into the community. Family is central to Miguel’s identity and experince in Canada. He has many family members who immigrated to Montreal, and he sees them frequently. As a husband and father of two, he is motivated to provide stability and opportunity for his children. He believes success is measured not only by professional achievements but also by the ability to support loved ones and remain grounded in one’s values. Maintaining strong relationships is important to him, whether within his household or his broader social circle.  Miguel has a passion for helping others with mobility and supporting them. He finds it deeply important to have mutual support and information-sharing, particularly within immigrant and Latin communities. He believes collaboration and empathy are essential for overcoming challenges, especially in unfamiliar systems. Having seen how easily people’s skills can be overlooked, he strongly believes in recognizing the knowledge and experience individuals bring. Overall, Miguel is guided by respect, hard work, and a strong sense of responsibility toward others. These beliefs carry over into how he celebrates and shares his Venezuelan culture, as he prioritizes seeing his loved ones share knowledge and supporting the broader Latin American community.

Date

2026-03-10

Format

MP3, 21:45 minutes

Language

English

Interviewer

Annalise Carson, Malaika Mwabila

Interviewee

Miguel Gonzalez

Location

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Transcription

Annalise:Perfect, we are ready to start the interview. Welcome Miguel to our interview for our anthropology and hispanic and caribbean class. Okay, so we're starting it off pretty simple. Our first question is what is your country of origin because we are addressing like your past of being an immigrant to Canada so they're all deriving around that.
Miguel: Yes, well I am originally from Venezuela. From Venezuela and what brought you to Ottawa? Well basically the situation was really difficult in Venezuela so I have to take care of my family and we have to move back to here in Canada and specifically from Ottawa because the options were like in Montreal where I have family members they're going to speak French so in terms of integration for me to be more easier because in Venezuela we learn some English but not French so okay it's like in terms of getting started into the working field as soon as possible it's going to be a short period of time for me if I just polish my English instead of going to start a new language from zero so basically Ottawa was the best city for my family at the time.
Annalise: Okay, perfect, so that was pretty much a little bit of our next question. So if you do in fact have family here, do you see them frequently? So you have family here with you and you have family in Montreal is what I'm gathering. Do you see them pretty frequently?
Miguel: Well some of them yes, I visit them a few times a year because of my job I also have to go a lot to Montreal so sometimes I get a couple of days here you know what let's have a coffee I will visit other place but yes I have my wife and my two babies here in Ottawa and also my cousins and my aunt is in Montreal.
Annalise: Okay, our next question is do you live in a Latin community or neighborhood where people speak Spanish in your case not so much Portuguese and celebrate various occasions so like any holidays that attribute to Venezuelan culture?
Miguel: Being honest there are not that many Venezuelans I mean I know there are some of them sometimes they coordinate some Venezuelan activities because of the situation that is currently happening over there they meet together and that's it but actually I don't know that many I don't know that many Venezuelans and I would like to know more if there are more of them anytime I speak with someone they say oh I'm from Venezuela oh I have a friend I have a you know the the girlfriend of my friend the boyfriend of my friend say oh introduce them to me because I am interested in getting more involved with more Venezuelan people but there are not that many and also nothing related to Venezuelan culture. And so that would mean but Latin community in general would you say that you have more of a Yes Latin community 100% I mean in Mexican communities there is a festival like the Dia de los Muertos for example the Day of the Dead in November there is also a Latin festival how do they call it in English it's like we call it in Spanish desfile it's a paradise parade sorry no paradise parade so there is a Latin parade in September but where all the communities get involved but obviously Colombia, Mexico are bigger communities than Venezuela.
Annalise: And what celebrations are most important to you?
Miguel: Okay that's important and this one is because the city where I came from we are very we have our own celebration so for example in November there is a celebration a Catholic celebration and also we commemorate the we commemorate like a Catholic celebration so we have our own celebration in November 18 because that's the city where I came from but as Venezuela basically we don't celebrate that much I mean we have like a Semana Santa which is I don't know how to call it in English is because in Venezuela we talk the whole week but it's like here in Canada it's just Thursday and Friday for the Catholic celebration around May or June how do you call it I don't remember in June in May April or May it's like 40 days oh my god I am so bad with this May or June let me see let me let me just translate the Semana Santa in English because the holy week we call it the holy week is you have it here in Canada it's just two days on Friday but that happens sometimes here but over there in Venezuela we do celebrate the whole week and also we have carnivals we call it carnival carnivals it's like you know Brazilian carnivals in Venezuela are kind of the same but it's just two days it's not that big as in Brazil but we do celebrate that and also Christmas, Christmas is like the best celebration that have as a family and Latinos we love to celebrate Christmas it's a little bit different in Canada how do you call it when you eat like the pavo one well I will Easter you know Eastern time yeah that's that's for us it's a whole week you have like two days okay Easter Friday and Easter Easter Sunday Thursday or something like that well we have the whole week for that and we celebrate that a lot and also Christmas in Christmas we do celebrate a lot okay
Annalise: Perfect, okay, so could you describe a typical day in your community so your community potentially here that you have with people or your community back home?
Miguel: Okay, okay, well back home I left Venezuela 10 years ago so I would describe a day a typical day in my countries it's like okay you get up and then you took your breakfast go to work then I was able because of my job to get back home for lunch and then going back to work and then finish around five and then I have the rest of the day for myself that was after finishing my university studies and it was pretty much amazing being honest then when you move here you say oh my goodness you have you need to have two jobs sometimes three and there is no time to do anything and but no back home was amazing but here here in Canada I am independent so basically I have my own schedule I have my appointment because I am in the customer service field I am a financial advisor so basically what I do is I just schedule my appointment I don't do like anything related to my culture here it's just you know I am working I am focusing right now on my business so if there is a Latin event I would like to go because I like to show up and I want to people know me what I do oh it's a Latin guy having an office in a finance office in downtown Ottawa that's great I want to be there but I just try to go to those to these events to to have presence in the Latin communities but different than that I do not coordinate anything like that so so basically that's my day-to-day it's like having work have to work a lot of hours for my business
Annalise: Perfect, okay, and then our next question is how do you celebrate your heritage?
Miguel: Okay, well basically in Venezuela we have a the the independence day is in July it's July 5th yes July 5th Canada is July 1st July 1st Venezuela is July 5th we have that independence day but I don't know why but we are not that patriotic yeah I mean it's like yeah it's a holiday it's just like any it's like any other holiday in Venezuela we have so many holidays so basically every single month there is at least one or two every single month and carnival is like two days then for the Easter Easter week it's like the whole week then we have a July in June basically every single month that it has celebration but we do not do that we in my city specifically I am from Maracaibo people used to call us like we are the Quebecois we are the Quebec guys of you know why Canada and Quebec wants to be independent so we basically thinks about the same in our city so we are more it's like okay our culture here in Maracaibo this is what we do we have our own traditional music for festivities we have our own food we have our own celebration and we do that a lot in November yeah
Annalise: Okay, cool, what are some values that you hold most dear as a member of the Latin community or as a member of your Venezuelan community? So values that you would hold dear to your heart?
Miguel: Okay, well I will just talk obviously about myself, but basically I like helping a lot of people so before coming to Canada I went to Chile and Chile also I was able to help a lot of Venezuelans that they were coming from Venezuela to Chile and that for me is important they always I don't know why my wife always say oh you always say yes and sometimes I say yes even before thinking oh my god imagine all the things I have to do just to do a favor but well you know it's because my instinct is to help others so basically I would be like I am always trying to look for the best for the people in any areas that I can help with for example when I came here I have two degrees I have a bachelor in accounting and also a diploma in insurance so I was able to get a way into the accounting industry getting hired for a big accounting firm and then when you see there is a lot of people looking for information hey how do you how were you able to make it how how was that possible because for me I don't find any information so basically I was sharing that information with them because if for me was that easy I think everybody should have access to that information as well but sometimes other Latin Latino people who are here they are not that friendly to share that information I don't know why sometimes like if for me it wasn't easy so for you it's not gonna be that easy as well so I don't think that way I think if for me it was easy I want this information to be shared with everyone so everybody every other everybody's life would be easier if I share this so that's the way how I think I think we should be more involved as a community even some people say that we are like we think that we are a great community because we help each other from inside I think we should be doing better because we we are not like like for example Jewish or Arabic communities they are very African communities they help each other a lot we are not like them but hopefully we can get better into that okay cool um what would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know well um is that it's an interesting question um well here's to all in sometimes uh you are gonna find you're gonna find people with a lot of knowledge with a lot of a lot of experience but sometimes they don't speak English or they don't speak French so I have to face it by myself I have knowledge I know how to do this stuff but sometimes I am not able to communicate that that doesn't mean I don't have the knowledge so for example you are going to see a lot of people like if you have the patience enough to to listen to to get the way how to understand what they is what they are saying you are going to find a lot of talent that is not being taken advantage by the city because they are they have that barrier the the language barrier is so difficult for them and I can see that with my wife for example my wife has a bachelor in human resources so in HR so basically uh sometimes we say if if you would know how smart I am it's just because I am not able to communicate you know so so people who is raised and born here in Canada is fortunate because they can learn English from scratch and French from scratch or both and that's great but you are going to find a lot of time outside in Latin community there's a lot of professionals willing to do the effort but sometimes the the language barrier is is something that you know for example in my field is accounting that's okay I can handle the numbers I will find a way to get the message across but in the health in the health field for example if you're a doctor if you're a nurse you should be able to communicate very well what what what you are seeing what you know so well if you're like not because you don't speak English or French perfectly that doesn't mean you are not somebody with the knowledge enough to do anything here because you have a lot we have people with a lot of experience in their fields it's just about the language which is okay but that doesn't mean we need to let them on the side because if if we can find a way as a country to take advantage of those people we would be in a you know even better position
Annalise: I think that's super relevant, like I've just I've thought about this a lot so I think that's super cool that you bring it up um what foods do you do what foods do you make that remind you of home and where do you purchase your groceries to prepare these traditional meals?
Miguel: Okay, well in Venezuela we have arepas yeah so have you tried arepas before um I don't think I've tried them but I've heard about them so there's that place in Ottawa I haven't gone there yet but everybody said you have to go you should go it's amazing called Gunis it's in downtown Ottawa okay and I don't remember the streets but this is in downtown Ottawa nice place I have heard a lot of good reviews about that place you can go there and try it but so we have arepas and also we have a traditional dish called it pavijón in spanish pavijón I don't know how to translate it's like a regular you don't need to translate so it's like shred beef with rice with a yellow plantain and also a cheese and black beans of black beans it's a strong dish for for the lunch time you're gonna love it and also the arepas it's something like it's like I don't know how to describe it it's not like bread but it's a kind of bread so you can put inside whatever you want it's like amazing you know you want to put tuna you want to put cheese you want to put chicken beef pork whatever eggs whatever you want it's amazing it's a good mix with everything so that's something that we do and also we get it from the Walmart from the grocery store than the Super C, Maxi all of them sold those those products that to make arepas and it's really really nice and great to have the chance because when I get when I get out of Venezuela in 2015 I went to Chile first and they were there were not that many places I remember my my dad coming to visit me in Chile and I have to ask them hey bring me some condiments you know some spices because there is nothing so basically I'm eating food from here like Venezuelan style but the taste is not the same because the spices are way way different so so yes here at least here in Canada all the groceries store has a section for latin food or something like that yeah for latin food
Annalise: Do you feel like it got better over the years the amount of um like produce that you guys have in the grocery stores?
Miguel: Yeah, anytime it's it's it's more it's a piece of oh now they are bringing this product now they are bringing this product now they are bringing this product it's amazing amazing I am just missing the cheese the cheese a traditional cheese at home so this is because of the weather is the weather here in Canada doesn't help to rest the cheese appropriately so we have an amazing cheese back home but it's about the weather
Annalise: Okay and uh wait, this is our 11th question, so um pretty much our interview is going to be shared on our website that's produced by our professor so it's been like accumulating interviews over the past years so the question. Is how likely would you and your family be uh how likely would you and your family be to use the website uh that we are creating for uploading your stories and how would you use it um we would like to better serve the community so any suggestions from you about access as well as what should be posted would be greatly appreciated so right now our interview our website I don't know if you've ever gotten a chance or if the link was shared with you by my professor but it's pretty much just you open a blank page and then you select a in a file and then you have all of these different interviews um from different immigrants from different parts of the latin and caribbean parts of the world. So, um, the question pretty much remains as what what could we do to make it better?
Miguel: Yes, um, well, first of all we have to share it with as many people as possible so if you can find people even the the same interviewers interview for example if you share the link with me I can share the link in the group in the facebook group for example in my social media hey guys you know what this is a link where these people are interviewing a latin latin entrepreneur or latin professional or whatever so so they can take a look and because being honest I didn't know the website that website existed so would be interesting and also because talking about exactly the same what I mentioned before if I if I see if I can see an interview with someone who has my profile and I can hear he say here his or her experience to all so there is a way to do probably in a short period of time what I want to do so I will contact him or her to get the information to see how he he or her or she is doing it so basically if we can spread the word is is we are going to have we are going to reach more people and more talented people are going to have access to it so that means okay so look at this there are other ways to do the things that you are trying to accomplish but probably that will save you time and money sometimes depending on what you want to achieve you know I think if we can spread that would be would be great
Annalise: Perfect, well I'll send it to you by email after this so that you'll have access to your interview eventually once it comes out and to any other interviews that are available on the website and then our last question is do you have any comments or concerns about our whole process?
Miguel: No, not really. No worries at all.

Original Format

On Zoom

Duration

21:45 minutes