Conversation with Eduardo

Another integral social value we learned from him was food. Back in Cuba, he mentions how important food becomes as it is heavily tied to crucial memories and traditions; it represents the social connections made. However, many of the Cuban dishes he lovingly detailed to us, such as arroz congri, have been largely abandoned.

Eduardo moved to Canada after being encouraged by his niece, who spoke of greater opportunities and a better quality of life. Migration did not mark a separation from his family, but rather an increased sense of responsibility toward them. For many years, he worked to support his parents and relatives in Cuba financially, often prioritizing their needs over his own. This sense of responsibility, “pressure” as he called it, shaped his daily decisions, often leading him to feel guilty about enjoying simple comforts. This sense of obligation shaped his daily decisions and motivated him to work consistently. Even after the passing of his parents, Eduardo continues to support extended family members, including a cousin who remains in Cuba. More recently, he was able to bring his sister to Canada, marking a significant shift in both his responsibilities and relief from the pressure he once carried. 

Today, Eduardo’s life in Canada is more centred around work and stability than cultural celebration. He does not actively participate in Cuban traditions such as carnival, and instead has focused on building a secure life. Eduardo did not marry a Cuban woman, he does not live in a Cuban cultural diaspora. Although he previously visited Cuba regularly and remained closely connected to family and friends there, he has not returned in recent years due to worsening social conditions. Reflecting on this, Eduardo acknowledges that he has, in some ways, left parts of his Cuban identity behind, showing the complex nature of cultural adaptation through migration. 

SABRINA

All right. My name is Sabrina Goriani, and I am here with a couple of my classmates doing an ethnographic interview.

SYDNEY

I'm Sydney Brown.

CHLOE

I'm Chloe Bonter.

ANNIE

I'm Annie Prionas.

SABRINA

And today, we will be interviewing Eduardo.

EDUARDO

My name is Eduardo.

SABRINA

So, the first question is, what is your country of origin?

EDUARDO

I'm from Cuba. Ummm [pause] I don't know. What do you want more or like?

SABRINA

No, that's okay.

And then ummm…

ANNIE

Do you have a city or an area?

EDUARDO

Ahh okay, okay, okay, okay So I'm from Cuba. I'm from Santa Clara. Santa Clara is practically, divide the country, is in the middle of the country, center of the country. And you know, Cuba is an island.

ANNIE

So what do you mean by divided?

SABRINA

The city is.

EDUARDO

Is… No, No, No not divided. It's like a, it's in the middle … the country. It's okay right there in the middle the center.[Overlapping oh and yeah from Annie and Sabrina] 
So from there you distance for everywhere, but everywhere. Oh, Santa Clara City, whatever, you know.

SABRINA

So it's in the middle, but do you have any beaches?

EDUARDO

Yeah, we have a beautiful ones. We have a ah all,[short pause] okay, it's a…
Cayo Coco, the people in all of Cayo Coco.
We have a Cayo Santa Maria, Cayo Las Bruja, a very big destination for Canadian and French people more of the time.

SABRINA

Yeah. [Laughter]

EDUARDO

And it's really one of the more beautiful, better right now than Varadero is the main center for the tourists. Because the distance is very short from the airport to the hotel in Varadero. But, what is Santa Clara is, 200 kilometres from all this island.[Overlapping oh wow from Sabrina]
But it's beautiful because this island is like, it's connecting from the ocean with the stone, building a highway in the top of the ocean.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So it's something really.
If the people never been in Santa Clara or in Cayo Santa Maria, [they] should be go there just to enjoy.
You're driving like you're driving at the top of the ocean because [it’s]? plus nothing in the side is water here and water in the other side.
It's a really beautiful view. 

SABRINA

Oh, okay.
Very nice, very nice.
And what brought you to Ottawa?

EDUARDO

To Ottawa or to Canada?

SABRINA

Well, you can say, you can start with Canada and then narrow it down to why Ottawa specifically.

EDUARDO

Oh okay, yeah. Well, I come to Ottawa because I have a niece. She was already living here in Ottawa.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

And she always, when she was visiting me in Cuba, she always was talking to me about Ottawa. Better life, better quality of life, better everything. So, she mentioned to me. So, [she] says, you have the opportunity, they left the country, you can come to Ottawa. It's a very good place, very nice place to live in. So that's the reason I'm in Ottawa.

SABRINA

Very nice, very nice. And so you said you had a niece that lives in Ottawa. How often do you see them?

EDUARDO

Oh, I was living with her.

SABRINA

Oh, you were living with her?

EDUARDO

No more family, so she invited me to live with her for a year.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So to the moment I decide, you know, independent myself to really build my life here.

SABRINA

Okay, very nice.
And do you have other family here?

EDUARDO

Right now, yeah. I have my sister here with me. I just brought… bring from Cuba. I bring her from Cuba in 2024.

SABRINA

Oh, OK. Very nice.

EDUARDO

And now she live here in Ottawa, too.

SABRINA

Oh, Okay.

EDUARDO

Yeah. We don't live together, but she live[s] in Ottawa.

SABRINA

And where you live, is it a Latin community? Do a lot of people near you speak Spanish or Portuguese?

EDUARDO

What I live in right now?

SABRINA

Yes.

EDUARDO

No, I live in ah, uh I work in Ottawa, but actually I live in Gatineau.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

I live in Gatineau. I'm all my community is French.

SABRINA

They're all French.?

EDUARDO

And just a couple of week, he find I was from Cuba. Because he going to Cuba, come back and [I] say, where [you] come from? He said, oh from Cuba. I said, you know I'm from Cuba.He said, ahugh, I was thinking you are from Puerto Rico or something else.

SABRINA

Okay

EDUARDO

I said, no, I'm from Cuba. He said, well, okay, good to know.[laughter]
But no, it's a French community, like it's a condominium, like similar like this.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

But all French.

SABRINA

Okay.

ANNIE

And sorry, do you speak French?

EDUARDO

Um ah, probably say I force myself, yes, because I actually was in the French school for three years.

ANNIE

Okay.

EDUARDO

But I always work in Ottawa. Always, always. Because I started here. I entered to Canada from Ottawa, to Ottawa. And after I-- well, I go to the English school here, to some public school. It's a school for English. And there, I do my English for three years. But by the price, the everything, you know, Ottawa price, everything, I decided to move to Gatineau because the price for the apartment house and rent, some food, it was-- Price is really low.

ANNIE

Okay.

EDUARDO

But it's a good place there. It's very quiet, at least where I am.

SABRINA

And so in your culture, what kind of celebrations do you find are most important to you? And what kind of celebrations do you celebrate with just yourself or your family?

EDUARDO

Well, we are celebrate, the more celebration is New Year. For my family, yeah, New Year.

SABRINA

Oh.

EDUARDO

Beside that, we not celebrate too many other ones, like Christmas. Just different people, different group of the people. Because I know religion, mean, so we never celebrate any like a Christmas or all this stuff.

SABRINA

Easter, you don't celebrate Easter. Okay.

EDUARDO

This Easter and Christmas start coming new. It's something [entirely] new to our culture.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

Because years ago in my time, imagine I left Cuba 26 years ago.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

It was totally different.
Even [to] be part of the religion, it was a complicated.

SABRINA

Really?

EDUARDO

Yes.

SABRINA

How come?

EDUARDO

Yeah. The government always was follow[ing] the people.
It was kind of religion or any kind of culture you want to be part.The government always follow these people, making it like really difficult.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So that's just one of the reasons that my family never, I'm coming from the really poor family, farmers.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

We was living really far away in the city and the farm. So we moved to the city, years, many years after the revolution went in Cuba in 1958. So my grandpa, my grandparents moved to the city and bring my father and my mother. And we started, okay, you know, start living over there.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So really, the more important, for us, really, really, the more important [celebration] it was a new year. And Christmas, but then Christmas, we [don’t call it] calling Christmas. We call the day for the king.

SABRINA

Oh, okay.

EDUARDO

So, it was today. So, it was the day your mother and your parents, it's the same time as Christmas, by the way …

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

…but with different name.
I think [it was] the government, [that] changed that.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So, you know, [its] not going to be Christmas, may go call like a political, or we go be today, [going to call it] the day for the kings, kings day.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So you go to the store and you [are] allow[ed] to get a three different toys. One I[‘m] going to say A, B, and C.
A, it was the best toy, medium toy, and really bad toy.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So you [had] the opportunity, and your family had the money you can buy in the store.They give you a coupon, like in Cuba you use like a book for the food and  everything, [so it] be controlled.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

And you have a kid, how many kids or brothers, and you have it, they give you the amount, the store you can receive. Not free, you pay a little money that's [fine], but they control that. So that's the day, it take you on this day, but that’s the day your family can go to the store to buy the toy. So you go there and you select the toy you want. It [the coupon] give you all. You have three options here, A, B, C. A is the best toy, a little bit more expensive, B, medium toy, and C, the small, like a little bit nothing. So, most of the time, A would disappear because everybody wanted the best toy, or maybe not the toy you want to, but... at least it was something, to play in the street after. But that's the way it was. Everybody was happy in that moment because, you don't see too much, you just leave it in this bubble, [with this] the information.

SABRINA

Okay. All right. So back in Cuba, can you describe a typical day?

EDUARDO

Typical day in Cuba?
[Overlapping yeah from SABRINA]
A typical day in Cuba is fantastic. Cuban people love, love music.

SABRINA

Yeah.

EDUARDO

We love party. We like drink a lot. And play dominoes.

SABRINA

Dominoes?

EDUARDO

Yeah. You know dominoes?

SABRINA

Yeah.

EDUARDO

Yeah, like play not [like the] Chinese one, because Chinese [you play] with thousands, dominoes with 10 pieces, each one. And it's really, really, really very...very common.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

Every day, doesn't matter what time, the day or the night, the people play domino.

SABRINA

Really? Okay. And what's, you mentioned drinking. What's the Cuban drink?

EDUARDO

Well, no, the Cuban drink, the [most] famous is Havana Club.

SABRINA

Oh, the rum.

EDUARDO

The rum, Havana Club. And beer, called Crystal.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

And...the other beer is like [what] we call it the people beer, like the population beer, because it was cheap.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

It don't have a name, just, beer. And that is very common because we celebrate, I'm sorry, we celebrate to carnival.

SABRINA

Yes.

EDUARDO

Once a year, we do carnival, big carnival. Every city celebrate carnival for four or five days.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

I mean, different cities even do a big competition. Like it's more the town is more in this carnival, big competition. Because if we, for example, my city… the city is divide[ed] by neighbors, okay? This, for example, here, some here, another one down, whatever. We divide like this and we fight it with, no fight, but in the carnival, you know, to try to be better building, better carnival, better dances…

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

…better music. And so you are possibly saying be in the street. So all the car or whatever you're building, you go there. And it's a group of the people [that] say like whatever is the best one.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

And to that neighborhood, it give a gift for like a helping more like a material thing like that to this neighborhood. Like [if its] select[ed], oh, you win. So, your neighbor, you got to have the, we got to offer more cement for helping in the competition, but it help the neighborhood, of fixing the neighborhood. So, the people [were] really into that. The carnival is very, really, really good. And my city is in, normally is in August. And…it's really very good. Carnival is something crazy [but] not like in Brazil.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

But it's something really like it, pick a day with eight, three days before they continue, the people bringing to that. And music, a lot of music is super loud, a lot of people in the street. Like you can even walk there.

SABRINA

Wow.

EDUARDO

And it's music and it's food too, a lot of food. The food is pork. Sandwich, the pork sandwich.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

A lot. And that's, and that’s so far.

SABRINA

Well, that's very, very interesting.

ANNIE

I have a side question.

SABRINA

Go ahead.

ANNIE

Do you celebrate Carnival here in Ottawa? Do you go back to Cuba to celebrate at all?

EDUARDO

No, no, I really am. I not do too much activity in really in Canada. I concentrate more in work. Because I [am] the first one I [to] get out, well, my niece was the first get out from Cuba. But practically when I come to here, I come by myself and I have my family over there, my father, my mother, my sister were there. And practically what I did was just more concentrating, helping over there. So I was more working and less party. So that's the way I can help in financially give a better life. And I did. I did to the end. My parents died some three years ago. And I decided to bring my sister because the situation in Cuba every day was worse and worse and worse. So I bring my sister and now she's doing very good here. We have started all this paper, immigration paper, everything go very good, everything [is going] the way you’re supposed to. And just, we're waiting for get approved. But she will have permit to work. So that's fantastic.

SABRINA

Oh, that's very exciting news.

EDUARDO

Very exciting news.

ANNIE

So you don't feel that much pressure anymore that you're now that your sister is here to work?

EDUARDO

Yes. Oh my God.

ANNIE

It's a big relief.

EUDARDO

It's a big relief for me because I'm very [a] family person. I'm family person. So even when I was going to eat a steak, I was thinking twice. I said, oh my God, I don't understand, my parents don't have it. So that's making me really very sad inside. That [we] cannot give you that opportunity today. So, I said, you know what? I'm working double hard…

ANNIE

Yeah.

EDUARDO

…send the money, and I did. And not just me, a lot of Cuban people, wherever in the world [they are] living, is doing that. It's helping the family. And even now, the only one I have is just a cousin there. Not every month, but around every two months, I send money to him, I send food. I send on website, I send the food from the website. So at least to have a little balance, make it a little bit better, because the situation in Cuba is worse and worse. So I try to make… it a little bit better

SABRINA

And so you mentioned family, but what are other values that you hold close? So you said family was very important, but what other values?

EDUARDO

Family value, you mean?

SABRINA

Just values in general, like loyalty or community.

EDUARDO

In the community?

SABRINA

Sure.

EDUARDO

Ah ugh, if you remember this, I'd be more than 26 years since [I left] the conflict, okay? In Cuba, the value is, loyalty is very important.

SABRINA

Loyalty?

EDUARDO

Loyalty is very, very important in the family.  

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

With the people around, not too much, because the government create this psychological scene, the everybody is spy [spies] everybody.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

So you need better be careful around with people, you know? So more it was family, keep everything in family, not too much friend.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

But we have a good friend. I have a good friend there…

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

…but I don't know. It's like this kind of value is just more loyalty to the family. And the friend close, you need to really be good friend. Because what I say, it was difficult, what I say, go do anything or even go out even. You need to be there to understand. It's like in this neighbor, we have two or three people, it's a spy to the police or to the government. So we need to be careful with everything.You cannot even say nothing bad because it could be controlled or be, you know.

SABRINA

Yeah, and you mentioned before about pork, ahh um, sandwiches.

EDUARDO

Yeah, the food, yep.

SABRINA

What other foods do you have in your culture, but also what you make here? Like, do you make the same type of foods or…

EDUARDO

Okay, so that's a big change for me, because, okay, in Cuba, a common food is rice and black bean.

SABRINA

Rice and black beans? Okay.

EDUARDO

Yeah, and pork as a meat, because it's the more easy. In Cuba, it was—you know, it was allowed to buy meat, like a beef, any kind of beef, was allowed to have it.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

But the common one was pork, fish, chicken. That was the common food. Everybody's eating food for everybody in Cuba. And that was, I grew up with this. And it's a plate called arroz congri, the combination of the rice and bean, but cook[ed] together. So, it give[s] it different… texture, different. In the plate, [it] look[s] even different. Because you cook the bean first, and after you cook the rice, and after you cook it again together. So, it give[s] it different really look and taste. It's a number one plate in Cuba.

SABRINA

Okay, and do you still make it here?

EDUARDO

I make it not too much. What happened to me, I come to this country, and I married to [an] Arabic woman.

SABRINA

Oh, okay.

EDUARDO

So I was eating Arabic food for 25 years.

SABRINA

Oh, wow, okay.

EDUARDO

Yeah, so I practically left behind my culture. I ended more in her culture. She wants to cook, so you need, you don't complain.

SABRINA

You don't complain, yeah.

EDUARDO

So you eat what she cook.

EDUARDO

Yeah, and all the time I go there. Before, I was traveling more to Cuba every year. Just the last two years, with all this situation, economic situation in Cuba, a lot of problems in Cuba, I stopped two years, [since] being in Cuba. The last two years, 20… in the '24 and the '25, and 2024, 2025, traveled to Cuba. But all the years before, I go to Cuba every two years, and take all my family, my cousin, his daughter, bring to the hotel, give them the best I can opportunity to enjoy a hotel. Because I can't-- I need to go with money from here, like the US dollar, most of the time, to give you a proper vacation. I enjoy that. I enjoy helping. And I'm helping my friends, too. I'm close friends every time I go, and we're coming together. And that's the reason I enjoy Cuba, because I still have a really, really good friend there.

SABRINA

Okay.

EDUARDO

I go there, and we're coming together for three days straight. And it's, you know, it's good. It's good talking. I have a story there, you know. I remember when I was younger.

SABRINA

Yeah, that's very, very nice. And yeah, so you find family is quite important to you, you hold that very close.

EDUARDO

For many Cuban, Cuban people, very family…

SABRINA

Yeah.

EDUARDO

…very, very family. But for me, I don't know. I'd be, I always a family person.

SABRINA

Okay, that's nice. It shows in your character. In your character, too, I find when you talk to me and other people, it's the way you talk.

EDUARDO

Yeah, no, I'm very family person.

SABRINA

Well, that concludes the questions that we have for you. For you. But do you have any comments or questions for us while we're here?

EDUARDO

Questions?

SABRINA

Related to the project.

EDUARDO

Related to the project. Okay.

Really, I don't know what kind of…

SABRINA

You don't, you don't, you can say no. You can say you don't have any questions and that's fine.

EDUARDO

Well, really, I don't have right now my mind questions.

SABRINA

That's okay, yeah.

EDUARDO

Just say it's my life, be a good, person.

SABRINA

Well, we really appreciate your answers, and we want to thank you for, for discussing and talking to us about your culture. So thank you, Eduardo.

EDUARDO

Okay, I don't know. I know you know, I don't say too much about my culture, but.

SABRINA

No, no we got it. You did a great job.

ANNIE

Yeah.