Conversation with Diego Martinez

Matt Leclerc (00:00:00): Hello, my name is Matt Leclerc. 

Amy Biegler (00:00:03): My name is Amy Biegler. 

Adam Kallali (00:00:04): My name is Adam Kallali. 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:06): And today we're going to be conducting an ethnographic interview of a person of Latin American descent for Dr. 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:13): Weinstein's class, Anthropology 3340, the Anthropology of the Caribbean and Latin America, on behalf of the University of Ottawa's Department of Anthropology. 

Amy Biegle (00:00:26): We are conducting this project for the Anthro Harvest website, which captures all the Latin American stories from Ottawa. 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:34): Today, we are going to be interviewing a dear friend of mine, Diego Martinez. 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:39): How are you, Diego? 

Diego Martinez (00:00:40): Hey, good. 

Diego Martinez (00:00:40): How are you? 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:41): I'm great. 

Adam Kallali (00:00:42): So Diego, you already signed a consent form, but we just wanted to let you know if there's any questions that you're uncomfortable with or anything you don't want to talk about, just let us know. 

Diego Martinez (00:00:51): Okay, sounds good. 

Diego Martinez (00:00:52): I'm good with everything. 

Adam Kallali (00:00:54): Perfect. 

Matt Leclerc (00:00:54): All right, I'll start with the first question then. 

Matt Lecler (00:00:57): What is your country of origin? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:00): I'm from Mexico. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:01): Where specifically? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:02): Mexico City. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:03): Mexico City. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:04): All right. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:05): What brought you to Ottawa? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:08): Well, I moved here when, well, I moved to Calgary when I was really young because my dad found a job in oil and gas. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:15): And also it was a good choice because Canada is a much safer country. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:20): But I came to Ottawa just to study in university and because I have family here too. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:27): So I live with my uncle. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:30): What do you study? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:31): Civil engineering. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:32): Civil engineering. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:33): All right. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:34): So as you already explained that you have your uncle here, but do you have any other family and how often do you see them frequently or? 

Diego Martine (00:01:40): Yeah, well, my uncle and my cousin, they live here. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:44): So I see them about every day. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:46): Yeah. 

Matt Leclerc (00:01:46): Do you live with them? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:47): Yeah. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:48): All right. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:49): Yeah. 

Amy Biegler (00:01:51): Nice. 

Amy Biegler (00:01:51): So what part of Ottawa are you from then or even Gatineau? 

Diego Martinez (00:01:55): Well, actually we live in Gatineau. 

Diego Martinez (00:01:57): So we live in Chelsea. 

Amy Biegler (00:01:59): Okay. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:00): It's nice, area. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:01): And yeah. 

Amy Biegler (00:02:03): Is there a very big Latin community or neighborhood where people speak Spanish? 

Amy Biegler (00:02:07): And do you, if yes, do you celebrate different occasions or? 

Diego Martinez (00:02:12): Well, I have seen a few Latin American people at the cafe nearby. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:19): but we there's I wouldn't say there's like a lot of big community there community there. 

Amy Biegler (00:02:25): What about in Ottawa? 

Amy Biegler (00:02:26): Do you find yourself like in a bigger community here or is it like kind of the same? 

Diego Martinez (00:02:32): Well, I'd say I have met a lot of people at uni that were Latin American, but yeah, I'd say it's pretty big here. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:41): Actually, I have met a lot of Spanish speakers, Latin American people in 

Diego Martinez (00:02:48): my entire university time here. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:51): So now that I'm in 4th year, I've met, I have a friend in my class. 

Diego Martinez (00:02:57): He used to be my roommate, for example. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:00): He's from Columbia. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:01): And a lot of other friends that I've met in university. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:06): So yes, I'd say it's very, it's definitely there at the community. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:12): So yeah, it's great. 

Amy Biegler (00:03:14): Awesome. 

Amy Biegler (00:03:17): And what would you say 

Amy Biegler (00:03:19): what are some important celebrations that you celebrate? 

Diego Martinez (00:03:26): It's a big deal. You know, you get the whole family. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:35): Like my family, my parents, they live in Calgary. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:38): Like they'll fly here. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:40): Maybe we'll all go to Mexico. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:43): to see our other relatives like grandparents and stuff like that. 

Diego Martinez (00:03:46): It's just to see them at least once a year, and share, a good time. 

Amy Biegler (00:03:54): Nice. 

Amy Biegler (00:03:55): Can you describe a typical day in your community in Gatineau? 

Diego Martinez (00:04:00): Sure. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:02): Well, a typical day is, well, it's a really nice neighborhood. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:07): I'll say 

Diego Martinez (00:04:09): If I'm not at uni, usually I'd go down to, go to the cafe or the gym nearby. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:14): And there's a lot of French speakers there, but also, English speakers. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:19): And like I mentioned before, I have met a few, like very few Latin American people. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:24): So, yeah. 

Amy Biegler (00:04:26): Do you yourself speak French? 

Diego Martinez (00:04:28): Yes. 

Amy Biegler (00:04:29): Okay, that's really nice then. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:30): Yeah. 

Amy Biegler (00:04:31): Awesome, thank you. 

Adam Kallali (00:04:33): Cool. 

Adam Kallali (00:04:36): So how do you celebrate your heritage? 

Diego Martinez (00:04:37): I think that there's many ways that I celebrate my heritage. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:40): It's one of the big ones is, well, I got to speak Spanish, right, at home with my uncle. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:47): And I did learn through like my parents. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:50): So I also speak Spanish with them. 

Diego Martinez (00:04:52): So every day we just like, we speak Spanish or we will watch, you know, Mexican cinema or something like that, something to keep the 

Diego Martinez (00:05:02): I guess the heritage, going. 

Diego Martinez (00:05:05): And also another thing is like the food. 

Diego Martinez (00:05:08): Also, we like to make a lot of Mexican food, every week. 

Adam Kallali (00:05:13): Nice. 

Adam Kallali (00:05:15): What are some values that you hold most near as a member of the Latin of the Latin American community? 

Diego Martinez (00:05:23): The values I'd say that my community shares a lot would be 

Diego Martinez (00:05:33): I think that we, really, we like to share, we like to spend time together as a family. 

Diego Martinez (00:05:40): we like to stick together A lot. 

Diego Martinez (00:05:42): But another thing is we really enjoy, just the culture, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:05:50): Whether it be with cinema or with the food or history, we, like to, just like, 

Diego Martinez (00:05:59): share also music and stuff like that. 

Diego Martinez (00:06:01): So I think those are really the values that I grew up with. 

Adam Kallali (00:06:06): That's interesting. 

Adam Kallali (00:06:08): What would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know, people who may not be as familiar with the Latin American community? 

Diego Martinez (00:06:16): Well, I'd say if you want to familiarize yourself, whether you are 

Diego Martinez (00:06:23): Latin American or not, just go to a country in Latin America that interests you, that, okay, hey, maybe, I don't know, maybe not Mexico, or I want to go to Peru. 

Diego Martinez (00:06:32): I heard they have this or that, the food or the landmarks or something. 

Diego Martinez (00:06:37): And really just, I don't know, maybe you can do an exchange, like study there or spend a few weeks there and really get to know the language too, if you don't know Spanish or whatever it is. 

Diego Martinez (00:06:49): Just go there and meet people. 

Diego Martinez (00:06:52): or be with your family if you have any. So yeah. 

Adam Kallali (00:06:55): Is there anything particular that you think is important for people to know? 

Adam Kallali (00:06:58): Just in general that you feel like you'd want everyone to know about the community. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:03): Okay, so I'd say that something people have to know is that, when 

Diego Martinez (00:07:10): When we have moments like, what's going on in Mexico right now, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:07:13): Pretty much the cartel, it's controlling everything. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:16): The country's so corrupt that they're pretty much rebelling. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:20): They're saying, hey, listen, we're the ones who are running things here. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:24): It's really something that people from my community have been dealing with or trying to deal with right now, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:07:32): So people just should know that 

Diego Martinez (00:07:38): we have a lot of great things in our cultures, great, really interesting art and music and, contributions to humanity. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:47): But we also have this side that we can't really, like ordinary people can't control really what's going on with all this corruption. 

Diego Martinez (00:07:56): So it's just really disappointing to a lot of us. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:01): But 

Diego Martinez (00:08:02): just if you plan on visiting Mexico anytime soon, just be very careful. 

Amy Biegler (00:08:07): Yeah, of course. 

Amy Biegler (00:08:08): Just like anywhere you travel, there's always risks, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:08:11): Yeah. 

Amy Biegler (00:08:12): Do you have any family living in Mexico currently? 

Diego Martinez (00:08:14): Yes, my grandparents. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:17): They actually have witnessed a lot of destruction, actually. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:21): So they see just, cars and stores being destroyed. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:27): I was actually in one of the stores in Mexico that was one year ago, like it was perfectly normal, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:08:34): I remember I was buying a donut or something like that. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:37): We were on vacation. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:38): And now, like I just found out that very same store, like someone threw Molotov cocktails in there and like, it just burned. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:44): So yeah. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:46): my God, it's not good. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:47): It's like a convenience store. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:49): Yeah, it's destroyed now. 

Amy Biegler (00:08:50): The world is like falling apart. 

Diego Martinez (00:08:52): Yep. 

Matt Leclerc (00:08:52): What foods do you make that remind you of home? 

Matt Leclerc (00:08:55): And where do you purchase your groceries to prepare your traditional meals? 

Diego Martinez (00:09:01): Well, there's a few stores in Gatineau, like Adonis. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:05): They have the good tortillas, you know what I'm saying? 

Diego Martinez (00:09:07): So you can make good quesadillas. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:10): What else? 

Diego Martinez (00:09:12): Like a tortilla soup is always good. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:16): Just tacos, birria, whatever, barbacoa. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:23): That's good too. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:24): But yeah, my uncle's been teaching me how to cook that. 

Amy Biegler (00:09:28): Nice. 

Amy Biegler (00:09:29): Next question. 

Amy Biegler (00:09:31): How likely would you and your family be to use the website we are creating for uploading your stories? 

Amy Biegler (00:09:36): So as I mentioned earlier, Anthro Harvest. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:41): I think that they would be, they would, it would be likely that they use it, especially my dad. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:48): He's really into, helping people in my community and in politics too. 

Diego Martinez (00:09:56): So I think he would definitely participate in it. 

Amy Biegler (00:10:00): Awesome. 

Amy Biegler (00:10:00): That's good to hear. 

Adam Kallali (00:10:02): Yeah, we want to know how we can better serve the community. 

Adam Kallali (00:10:06): So any insight would be really helpful. 

Adam Kallali (00:10:08): So thank you for that. 

Adam Kallali (00:10:10): And finally, do you have any other comments or concerns that you'd like to voice? 

Diego Martinez (00:10:14): I think that just know that we're just like any other like community really. 

Diego Martinez (00:10:19): Like it's, we're really like a mixture of a lot of cultures and we're not really like just one thing. 

Diego Martinez (00:10:29): Like we've been really kind of mixing for like hundreds of years, right? 

Diego Martinez (00:10:35): So we can't really be labeled as much, I guess. 

Diego Martinez (00:10:41): So yeah. 

Diego Martinez (00:10:43): I think that I'd like to share, speaking from someone who's not very connected to that, the way of life in Mexico is to really get it. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:00): 

If you aren't like me, like if you're like me that you didn't grow up in Mexico, but your family is Mexican or wherever, Latin American, I'd say really try to connect with that side of you to really understand different ways of life, different, the way people live, the way people interact and try to go back to that country and just really soak it in because it's, you might find something really good there. 

Adam Kallali (00:11:30): I think it's a really good insight. Thank you. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:32): Know, I think it's great what you're doing. I really admire the effort you're putting into trying to create a platform for people to tell their stories. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:42): And thank you for having me. 

Matt Leclerc (00:11:45): All right. 

Matt Leclerc (00:11:45): Well, thank you very much for your time, Diego. 

Matt Leclerc (00:11:48): We appreciate it. 

Matt Leclerc (00:11:49): And your answers were great. 

Matt Leclerc (00:11:51): And have a nice one. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:54): Awesome. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:54): Thank you so much. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:55): Thank you. 

Adam Kallali (00:11:56): Take care. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:56): Awesome. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:57): You too. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:57):  Bye. 

Diego Martinez (00:11:58): Bye. 

Amy Biegler (00:11:58): Bye.