Conversation with Alicia Lopez de Ferro

Title

Conversation with Alicia Lopez de Ferro

Description

Originally from Argentina, Alicia has lived in Canada with her family since 2011 and in Ottawa since 2016. When she first moved to Canada, she was welcomed by the Argentinian Manitoban Association in Winnipeg, which helped ease her transition to Canadian life. Over her time in Ottawa, Alicia has brought together nearly two hundred Argentinians. She has found joy in connecting with them, whether through watching soccer matches, celebrating Mother’s Day, or coming together for other meaningful events. Her passion for community has helped others feel a sense of community and belonging far from home. Aside from her involvement in her community, she has also enjoyed integrating herself into Canadian culture, from learning how to skate to camping to going to Cabane à Sucre. Today, we sat down to ask a few questions about her experience moving to Ottawa and explore more about her Argentinian culture.

Date

2025-03-18

Format

MP3, 18 min 13 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Eden Piché; Annie Cable; Owen Brasi

Interviewee

Alicia Lopez de Ferro

Transcription

Eden: “Hi, my name is Eden.”
Owen: “My name is Owen.”
Annie: “And my name is Annie. And today we are hoping to get a better idea of what it is like to move to Ottawa from Latin America. So we sat down with Alicia, who's been living in Ottawa since 2016 and in Canada since 2011. Originally from Argentina, Alicia has played an instrumental role in building the Argentinian community here in Ottawa and bringing together many different families and individuals to connect and celebrate their shared culture.”
Owen: “My first question to you is, you mentioned that you're from Argentina. Can you delve into that a little bit? Which part of Argentina are you from?”
Alicia: “Well, I am from the north of Argentina. It's called Tucumán. It’s a small province that is basically in a valley. It has mountains. And during the wintertime, we have snow. But in the city, there is no snow at all. It is very dry. Yeah, basically a small, small province.”
Owen: “And it's in the north?”
Alicia: “In the north.”
Owen: “Cool. You also mentioned that you came to Canada in 2011 in Winnipeg.”
Alicia: “That's right. Yeah, yeah.”
Owen: “What brought you to Ottawa five years later?”
Alicia: “My husband's work. He's a computer engineer. He got a good offer from a company here in Ottawa and we decided to move at that time. Yeah.”
Eden: “You've been here since 2011. You said it was because of your husband's job. Do you have any other family here? Are you here with your husband in Ottawa or...?”
Alicia: “Basically, we don't have an extended family here. We are just my husband and my two kids. They are Canadians. However, the good thing about being Argentinian is that we are very tight. We have a very close community. When we came to Winnipeg, 2011, AMA, that is AMA, that is an association from Argentina, gave us support. Basically, we came to Winnipeg to explore. That's true too. We like Winnipeg, believe it or not. We love Winnipeg, we love the people. We feel really welcomed in Canada. And after that, of course, it's an opportunity. And my husband decided it was a good opportunity. He asked me and said, you know what? Yes, we can move to Ottawa. Why not?”
Eden: “And do you see often your extended family that are still in Argentina? Or do they come see you? How does it work?”
Alicia: “Yeah. We go to Argentina. We went to Argentina two times. But usually I’d like my family to come here to visit, especially my mom. We have small families. I have only my mom, my sister, and they came to visit two years ago. But the idea was trying to bring in here, basically just to bring in here. But of course, with older people, it's like difficult to adjust to the weather, the language and, well, she's coming back and forth. That's it.”
Owen: “My next question to you is, do you live in a Latin community or neighborhood in Ottawa that speaks either Spanish or Portuguese and celebrates occasions that are...”
Alicia: “No. We live in a mostly English-speaking community. We live in Canada. And basically, no. One thing is we are happy or we are proud, we are Argentinians, but at the same time, we live in Canada. We blend in with the community. We go for sugar bush, Halloween, Thanksgiving, that's maybe celebrations we don't have in Argentina or gatherings. And that is basically important for us. We blend it into the community. No, no, we have few, actually I don't know any neighbors that speak Spanish first. However, I created, because of the situation that I like to be with other Argentinians and help others, when I came here, I discovered that there was no association—Argentinian association—or gatherings from Argentinians. And during the pandemic, I created the Argentinian community here. We are right now like 200 people. Oh, yes. It is a huge amount. And yes, we gather together. We are known for our barbecues. We gathered together for Father's Day, Mother's Day, and we got that. We have Children's Day as well. The idea is we are here alone as a family, but we have an extended family. That is going to be friends, and because my kids don't have cousins or aunts, and it's better having a community than that speak the same language. And well, that's it.”
Eden: “Since we spoke about celebrations, that differs from Argentina. What celebrations are the most important to you?”
Alicia: “We think, aside from soccer, I think it's going to be Father's Day, Mother's Day, Children's Day, and the end of the year celebrations, like we gather together. But especially now, usually we gather together and talk a lot.”
Eden: “Just need to gather together. And you also said that you blend in very much in the Canadian society. But is there a typical day in your community when you gather with the association?”
Alicia: “No, not really, because, again, the idea is having connection between the other families that are alone here. We gather. For example, Argentina has the immigration influence from Italy or Spain, Spaniard. And we gather to have pasta, for example. Different kinds of pasta, all kinds of pasta, or pizza. Our pizza. Kind of thing like that. But special celebration, no, we don't do that. However, if it is soccer, maybe we can gather together. We go to Little Italy, that we have a small place where we can gather. And yeah, no, especially no. I don't know if that answers your question.”
Eden: “Yeah. So you don't have any way to celebrate your heritage or…. You like soccer and that's about it?”
Alicia: “No, no. No, we don't.”
Eden: “So the way you talk about your heritage from Argentina is by talking about it, saying I'm Argentinian and just gathering together and creating an association and spread the good words about Argentina.”
Alicia: “Basically. For now, it's not an association, it's just a group of people that gather together. The idea is having an association like a formal gathering, but for now it's just a group of people that gather together just to share our values, our food, and something like that. “
Annie: “I guess that's actually a great segue, because I was going to ask you, what are some values that you hold most dear to you as a member of the Latin American community or Argentinian community?”
Alicia: “I think it is hard work. We are very flexible. For example, gathering with other Canadians are, you know, like we are living here. But again, trying to be flexible. We can show you our culture, but that doesn't mean that I can't, I'm trying to change it anyway. And again, I'm living here. I like having, you know, going to the sugar bush and beaver tails and everything else. And maybe hockey. But yeah, that's basically what we have.”
Annie: “What would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know?”
Alicia: “Well, for me it's really important that Argentina geographically is in South America, but we are isolated from other countries. The way that we are isolated is we have the mountains, we have the highest mountains in all America, and then we have deserts and they have the jungle. That means that we are separate from Brazil or other countries because of the geographic limits. And that's why we are kind of having our own, not just culture, but food. We don't have the resources, for example, from tropical fruits. Our fruits are different. Why? Because we don't have that, like, climate. We have snow. We have ski resorts. And we gather together because we live, like a kind of small island, we can say. And even our language, Spanish, is Argentinian Spanish. If I talk with other people that speak Spanish, they know that I'm from Argentina. The pronunciation is distinctive, we can say.”
Annie: “So I guess you'd say that the most important thing for people to know is that you're Argentinian first.”
Alicia: “Yes, absolutely. Because of course, they try to gather in general, all together say, oh, yeah, spicy food. No, we don't eat spicy food here in Canada. You eat spicier. They say, “no, it's mild. No, it is not mild. It is really spicy.” And sometimes I cry because it's spicy. In Argentina, it's all on pepper. Be careful with the pepper because come on. Yeah.”
Annie: “I totally agree. What foods do you make that remind you of home and where do you purchase your groceries to prepare your traditional meals?”
Alicia: “We have barbeque that is basically meat. The cuts, you know, like you have different variations of meat. It's different from country to country and from province to province in Argentina as well. Usually bought meat from Montreal. Otherwise we have, it's called croissant, Argentinian croissant. It's like cabrioche and pastry. But it's really kind of sweet. But it's Argentinian. We have only one person who does it here. It's in our community, but no, it's not common.”
Annie: “And where do you go to? So you said you buy your meat from Montreal, but is there anywhere in Ottawa that you go specifically to buy?”
Alicia: “No, no. If you want to do the real one, the same way we do it, no. Not, really. But the meat here is really good. It's really good. No, no, no. I like it.”
Owen: “My next question would be, how likely would you and your family be to use the website that we're creating, Omeca, for uploading your stories? And how would you use it? How would you interact with it?”
Alicia: “That is interesting because I like genealogy. And the point is, just for fun, I was using one of the websites that is available. It's free. And I couldn't get to my great grandparents because it was during the war in Europe and when they immigrated to Argentina. Well, you know, we don't know exactly. However, with my husband, it was easier and I could gather all the information, like getting back in time and getting the certificates and everything else. And because of that, at that time, we got citizenship from Italy as well. And it's amazing the things you can do. But it's going to be nice not just having the certificates, but actually how they live. They were happy, not happy. They missed their families. Because usually at that time, when you immigrate somewhere, maybe you never go back or you never know about your family, your parents, your friends, what's happening with them. And it's interesting. Going back in time, my descendants, we're going to see, oh, look at that. Look at grandma. Something like that. I think it's going to be a nice resource for the future generations.”
Owen: “Absolutely. And that's kind of our whole idea of this website, where people look back and reflect and try to meet other people as well.”
Annie: “And better understand the experience of moving to Ottawa from places in Latin America, Argentina included.”
Alicia: “Thank you.”
Annie: “So then our last question was, did you have any other comments or concerns or anything that you wanted to bring up that maybe we didn't touch on or?”
Alicia: “No, I think it's, I'm curious to know the other stories because as I said, well, I am really proud that I'm from Argentina, I moved to Canada, everything else. I'm also interested in other perspectives. My experience was good. I interacted well when I was in Winnipeg. I created a Spanish conversation group. And we do back and forth English-Spanish, and they learned a pronunciation there, Argentina. From Argentina. And I had a good experience. I didn't have any problems saying I miss my country or no, no, I feel home. Actually, if you ask me, I miss Winnipeg. It’s like my hometown because they welcome me really well. And even during the pandemic, I started learning French as well and they helped me with my French. I passed the test.”
Eden: “Good job.”
Alicia: “Merci beaucoup. But again, it is... I’m interested in those stories that maybe they are not as good as mine. I have the opportunity to learn and to study here as well. And I'm happy. Everyone is happy in my family. But no, it's not always the same story.”
Annie: “Yeah, well, I think that once we have all the other interviews uploaded, you can definitely go take a look and hear some of the other ones that will be there.”
Alicia: “Absolutely.”
Owen: “I just had one more question”
Alicia: “Sure.”
Owen: “If that's okay. Do you still go back and forth to Winnipeg and visit some of your friends?”
Alicia: “No, but we are in touch. Because, during the pandemic, it was a time that you can connect via Zoom and we did it and was good because again, once one of my friends came in to Ottawa and I was able to go and show Ottawa as a, you know, like I'm living here, I can show you everything. It was nice, it was really nice because it is… the main thing is giving back. I got too many things, not just for the city or everything else, it's from people that I'm really grateful. And I think that's why I'm happy with Winnipeg, I'm happy with Ottawa, and I'm happy here.”
Eden: “I think I'll add one more question.”
Alicia: “Sure.”
Eden: “What do you like the most in Ottawa or just in Canada?”
Alicia: “One thing that I love is about the mountains. That you have a lot of mountains around Canada. When I was younger, I used to go to the mountains, spend time camping. And here you have those things too. You can go camping and spend time, you know, like in parks. I love that in the wild part. The other thing I love is the architectural part. It's beautiful. And you go, and last week, there was a March break. We were tourists here. We got with the kids. We went to the museum, the Nature Night Museum. And we tried to discover things that you take for granted. You're from Ottawa. Maybe you don't go and see the different parts of Ottawa as a newcomer or a new person here. And that's what I love about here. I learned how to skate a little bit as well. I haven't gone yet because of my kids. I know that it is. But we tried to discover again Canada and Ottawa of those small things seen with new eyes.”
Owen: “Were you here during the World Cup as well?”
Alicia: “Of course. We gathered together. There were a lot. We went to the Parliament building, I remember, with our flags.”
Owen: “Oh, good.”
Alicia: “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, of course. Yeah, we gathered together even now. There are more games and we gathered together.”
Annie: “Thank you so much for coming here to chat with us and to tell us a little bit more about your experience living in Ottawa and in Winnipeg.”
Owen: “Thank you very much.”
Eden: “Yeah, thank you very much.”
Alicia: “Thank you.”

Original Format

In person