Conversation with Jorge Garcia

KEVIN (0:00): Hello, my name is Kevin and joining me today for this interview are Julie, Ralph, Thomas and Tristan and we're all very excited to do this interview with you and get to know a little bit about yourself and kind of your experiences as a Latin American living in Ottawa and thank you for being here and taking time out of your day especially on such short notice. 

Mr. GARCIA (0:21): No, no, that's okay. 

KEVIN (0:25): Yeah, to start off, what is your country of origin? 

Mr. GARCIA (0:33): Country-wise or ethnicity?

KEVIN (0:35): I guess where you were born, like country of origin.

Mr. GARCIA (0:38): Well, I was born in El Salvador. Okay. That's in Central America.

KEVIN (0:46): Yeah. Next question, what brought you to Ottawa? 

Mr. GARCIA (0:51): Well, at the time when I moved to Canada was because our country was at war so we had to flee the country. 

KEVIN (1:06): And do you have family here and do you see them frequently? 

Mr. GARCIA (1:13): Yes, my mom lives here. I see my mom almost every day. I have a son too, that he lives here. Actually, he doesn't live with me. We are divorced so but I can see him anytime we desire. It's not a problem with that. 

KEVIN (1:40): And for my last question, do you live in a Latin community or neighborhood where people speak Spanish or Portuguese and celebrate various occasions? 

Mr. GARCIA (1:53): Not really because like Ottawa has grown a lot. Before, when I got to Ottawa, yes. Now, I don't. I live in a different environment. It's more multicultural. Basically, I live in a French-Franco-Ontarian neighborhood. 

KEVIN (2:20): Yeah.That's all the questions I have.

TRISTAN (2:24): All right. So, hello. I'm going to be continuing with the next three questions. So, you mentioned the community that you live in. Would you be able to describe just like a typical day in your community? Is there anything special about it?

Mr. GARCIA (2:38): Not really. I believe it's just like any other community. When people wake up, they have to go to work. There are lots of kids because they have to go to school. Construction, renovations, just a typical daily day, I believe.

TRISTAN (3:00): Okay. So, off of that, are you able to describe, if you do at least, any ways that you celebrate or kind of maintain your cultural heritage throughout your daily life?

Mr. GARCIA (3:15): Daily life?

TRISTAN (3:16): Yeah.

Mr. GARCIA (3:17): Well, basically, we try food-wise. We try to eat more of our Latin communities' meals, especially from El Salvador, like rice, beans, and specialty food. Because now, with technology, you're allowed to watch channels from other countries. So, you can just download or get an application that will allow you to see the channels of your country. That is a big difference, especially for elderly people that don't get acquainted with the language. So, yeah.

TRISTAN (4:04): So, with food, also, is that the only kind of tradition, or are there holidays or other traditions that are kind of more meaningful to you? 

Mr. GARCIA (4:20): As a Latin community or directly based on my country?

TRISTAN (4:25): Both as a person and as a community, I guess. 

Mr. GARCIA (4:29):
Well, here in Ottawa, we celebrate the Latin community with the Latin Festival in September, in which all the Latin communities participate. Okay. And there is a very different environment because you get to know different communities from all around Latin America. And you see the diversity that is in Ottawa, a thing that you don't see on a regular basis now. And the Government of Canada declared the month of October, I believe, the month of the Latin heritage. So, all the month of October is being celebrated the Latin American heritage here in Canada. 

TRISTAN (5:19): Awesome. Thank you very much. Those are the questions that I had.

Mr. GARCIA (5:22): No problem. 

JULIE (5:24): All right. So, I'll go ahead and pick up off there. So, I just wanted to ask, as a member of the Latin Caribbean community, what values are most important to you? 

Mr. GARCIA (5:38): From the point of view of the Latino community or personal ones? 

JULIE (5:45): You can do both. 

Mr. GARCIA (5:45): 
Okay. Personal ones are the ones that we try to merge in the Canadian society, learn as much as we can to be part of the Canadian society, independently in which area you are. Because here in Canada, you have, or in Ottawa, I must say, you have the French Canadian heritage area where most of the people speak French, like Quebec province and things like that. So, it all depends where you are. We try to merge in that environment so we can learn why and where and things that we can do to be part and help the community and be helpful for society, ourselves. And that teaches us to grow as a Latino community here in Canada. That's one of the things that I see. Personally, I try to keep myself merging in not forgetting my roots, even though I'm in Canada. I'm part of the Canadian society now. Now, I have learned a lot about the Canadian society. What's the French? What's the English side? Why is it so important for the French constitution when they say that this is a country that is bilingual? When in certain parts of Canada, that bilingualism doesn't apply. I don't know if I understand myself when I say that. 

JULIE (7:47): I understand.

Mr. GARCIA (7:50): Okay. So, that's one of the things that I personally try to understand. Since I would love to learn French, but sometimes things of life doesn't give you the time or the laziness of me doesn't let me do it. But yeah, it's nice to know all that and where are the roots of Canadian society. All like that. 

JULIE (8:20): Yeah, of course. And then my next question kind of branches off that as well. It's just, what would you like people to better understand about yourself or your community? 

Mr. Garcia (8:36):
About the Latin community, it's very interesting because when I said the French Canadians and I said the English-speaking peoples, French Canadians are more not friendly, but they want to know more about other cultures. The English Canadians, they are very reserved. They want their space. So, even though they are opening more because the multiculturalism in Canada is so big across the country and the majority of immigrants who speak Spanish, we are in this English-speaking section, not in Quebec. But even then, you can see the difference between the communities. But in the last 10 years, I believe there is more opening from the community, from the Canadian society in the way of how they see the Latin American peoples. They are starting to understand the reasons why we came here. Some came for work, other ones came because their life was at risk in our countries, so we had to flee. So, there are different environments now. And that's one of the things that make us, sometimes we deal with those demons when we come here, and we confront a different society, different way of seeing life, from the point of view of how we see it and why we came to this country. So, I would like them to understand that even though we have years of living here, we have to deal with those problems that we carry on because of why we are here.

JULIE (10:58): Perfect, that was amazing. I'll go ahead and pass it on to the next person. 

RALPH (11:03): Hi George, my name is Ralph and I'll be picking up from where Judy left.

Mr. GARCIA (11:07): Okay Ralph, nice to meet you. 

RALPH (11:08): Nice to meet you. So, just like yourself, I also migrated here with my family about 10 years ago. And one of the things I like the most about back home is the food. So, my question for you is, what foods do you make that remind you of home and where do you purchase the groceries to prepare the meals?

Mr. GARCIA (11:34):
Like I said before, there is rice, beans, we prepare it in different ways. There is the specialty food like pupusas, tamales, and cow tongue, other kind of food that we do. And you couldn't find them before. 10-15 years ago, you couldn't find them at the store. Now, like I said to Julie, now that societies, Canadian society and a lot of immigrants here are seeing that there is a market for it. Now, we start to find all that kind of food in different stores, like Chinese store, Indian stores. There is some Latin stores now opening in Ottawa and across Canada. So, the market is getting bigger because they see there is a market for it. And that's where we get our stuff. Like we try to keep, in the daily basis, we try to keep our food just reminding us our roots. And don't take me wrong, it doesn't mean that we don't eat Canadian food or American food. We always do that. But it's a thing that we try to keep our meals back to our roots. 

RALPH (13:03): Yeah, thank you very much for your answer.

Mr. GARCIA (13:05): Okay. 

RALPH (13:07): I'll pass it to my teammate.

TOMAS (13:11): Hi, so I'm Tomas and I'd like to ask you a question about the interview transcript. So, if you consent to it, the interview will be uploaded. The transcript for the interview will be uploaded to an online database where people can look through it and read it. And what I wanted to ask is, how likely would you or people you know, be to use such a database and read through the stories that are uploaded there? 

Mr. GARCIA (13:44):
Well, if you make it to the public and you publish in your Ottawa U website that these studies are being done, and people like from El Salvador, United States, or any other parts of the world are allowed to go and see how the specifically, let's say, Latin community is developing here in Canada, and how we feel and how we are grateful of this nation to give us the chance to keep living, finding a better life like we're going to have in our countries. I think so it's a good work that you guys are doing, because it helps not just Canadians, but other countries to realize that maybe mistakes or maybe mistakes that we as an immigrants did when we came to this country. The way we see society, the way we mentality that we took with us here, now make us a life. So, that especially right now with the world that we are having all across the world, you know, so for these refugees, that will make a difference in making decisions of how they can prepare better and try to realize that there is big difference when you come to a country that when you don't speak the language, you know. So, that's a very helpful tool as long people know how to use it. 

TOMAS (15:39): Yeah, okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. Yeah, it is publicly accessible. I think you asked that near the beginning of your answer, but so as a final just note, do you have any other comments or concerns or something you'd like to talk about? 

Mr. GARCIA (15:54): Well, basically, I just would like to say thanks to the team that put all this together and you guys that are doing it. So, I don't know if I will be more helpful to you like later on with more other questions or that will be the end or how this is going to proceed. So, I'm here to try to help you and I really appreciate what you're doing and if I can help you with anything, answering more questions, I'm here to do that. 

TOMAS and JULIE (16:35): Okay, thank you so much.

Mr. GARCIA (16:37): No problem.