Conversation with Uribe Dominguez

Title

Conversation with Uribe Dominguez

Description

Uribe Dominguez is a devoted leader in Ottawa’s Dominican community, and this interview details how he got where he is today. Born to a family of ten children in the Dominican Republic, Uribe started his life wanting to become a priest, so much so that he travelled to Canada to see Pope John-Paul II once he was an adult. Initially arriving on a short visa, Uribe saw Canada as a place full of opportunity for those willing to work for it and decided to stay. Eventually, he met his wife, and they had four children, raising them in Canada. Uribe takes great pride in the fact that his children are trilingual and speak English, French, and Spanish. Still a devout catholic, Uribe found that church was a valuable way to celebrate his community and soon represented Ottawa’s Dominican Canadians at functions all over Southern Ontario and Quebec. To this day, Uribe cherishes his community and wears Dominica’s colours proudly.

Date

2025-03-12

Format

MP3, 15 min 45 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Jennifer Tenasco; Ryan Lafleur

Interviewee

Uribe Dominguez

Transcription

Ryan Lafleur [00:00:00 ]: I'm Ryan Lafleur and my classmate is Jennifer Tenasco. We're students in Professor Weinstein's class on Latin American anthropology at the University of Ottawa. We're interviewing Uribe Dominguez, who is a leader in Ottawa's Dominican community, as part of our final research project. Let's jump right into it!
Ryan [00:00:20]: [We wanted to know about where you] come from and how that shapes your experience in the world. So, if you’re ready-
[00:00:26 Uribe Dominguez] So – wow. My name is Jose Dominguez. The community calls me Uribe. I came to Canada in 2000, wanted to be a priest. Sacerdote. I came to see the pope John Paul II, Juan Pablo Segundo en Espanol. [Spanish: he came on a 6-month visa initially for a period of 15 days. In those 15 days he saw a future where his family could prosper, in Canada. From a family of 10 siblings, his father died when he was 8. In Canada, he contacted his mother and said he was staying.] I called my cousin to say you have to come to Ottawa because I can't drive over there. So, remember, I just came for 15 days. So, I thought I forget everything, I came to Ottawa, stayed with my cousin. And that day I started to work. Every Friday they gave me $300. We're talking about 2002. $300 is a lot of money at that time, so every time I got the $300, I sent some to my mother. I gave some to my cousin to help with the house, you know. So, at that time, I met some girl. I still go to the church, but at that time this girl, [her name] she didn’t believe in Jesus Christ. [Spanish]. Didn't believe in Jesus Christ. So, we get married. She told me you have to go back to Dominica if you want me to help you. I say wow, how are you gonna help me? Because I get a lot of money here. And in Dominica, you don't get nothing. I don't know. Well, [she said] I work for the […] embassy. And I can’t get a boyfriend with no papers, so I start to study English. I know, I didn’t pay too much attention, so I went out to, like for two or three months in the Dominican. And then we get married. I go back 2004, 9/26/2004 – our anniversary. And then I start - then she gets pregnant. A baby comes now, she was 20 years old. Baby comes – so after two years together. We said, you know what we decided separate. Because I go every day. Every Sunday I go to church, I go to Granby, Pembrooke, every city, Montreal, I go to represent my community. In Ottawa, I go there to represent the community and the church. But she told me, oh, she doesn’t believe that. And I continue working hard for the baby. I tried to go back to the Dominican because when you don't have family at all here, or somebody to support you, it's like if you go in an airplane when it goes down. And then my mother said, no, you have to stay. You have to see your baby grow up. You have to be a man. At that time I was 27. Was 27 and now am 48. It’s more like 21 years ago. Something like that so, I say OK, so I stay here in Canada. Been in Ottawa for 10 years. I don't know, never [learned] the name, of my neighbor. I don't know if he talks or if he doesn’t talk because sometimes, I tried to say hi but he [is as responsive] as a cow. I was still here in Canada, still in 2006, I was still working for the Community. I made a Team, baseball team. That way we can go to Montreal, Toronto, Boston. From 2006 We go to Boston every May and [undiscernable], during some holiday here. So, we go there from 2006 to play baseball, to have fun, to meet some Dominican people, they come here to Canada in Labour Day in September. I celebrate the Independence Day from the Dominican Republic, on Mother's Day. I try to secure a lot of festivals for the community. I even had a diploma from the Prime Minister Trudeau. I have a diploma for different organizations. They gave them to me for the little jobs I do, you know. Sometimes I meet a lot of people on the street they don't even have home where I go. So, I bring them to my home. I try to find a place even in my car. I say OK, you can stay in my car for two nights in my parking over there, be quiet, because like I said, the first time when you arrive here, you want to go because you don't know nobody here. What do I say about my daughter, she's 25 now. She goes to college on the plane. She studies criminology. She works part time at the Parliament in the cafeteria. La vida is not easy. It's not easy. Like I said, say you want something, you have to work hard. Even when you have to do the task, if you don't know how to do the task, if you don't go to the right people, it's a problem, a big problem.
Ryan [00:06:53] You know, you covered a lot of the bases, so I'm just going to go over the list and probably a lot of them will already be answered from what you said. You're from the Dominican Republic, right?
[00:07:11 Uribe] Yeah.
Ryan [00:07:13] Yeah. And you came to Ottawa for – to –
[00:07:20 Jennifer Tenasco] Become a priest.
[00:07:21 Uribe] Yeah, to become a priest. Yes.
[00:07:24 Ryan] To become a priest.
[00:07:26 Jennifer] Were your children born in Canada? [00:07:30 Uribe] Yes, all of four. Yes, [they speak] English, French, Espanol. Yeah, all three. Yeah.
[00:07:35 Jennifer] Oh wow.
[00:07:37 Ryan] I have a hard enough time with English and French.
[00:07:40 Jennifer] Yeah.
[00:07:42 Uribe] Yeah, it's not easy, believe me. I went to Gatineau. Ten years, 10 years ago, and more. It's not easy. Oh my God.
[00:07:52 Jennifer] And you're part of the Latin American community.
[00:07:56 Uribe] Yeah. Latin Americans community, yeah. From 2003, I represented the Dominican community.
[00:08:04 Jennifer] Oh, that's cool! Do you have any celebrations?
[00:08:08 Uribe] Yeah. Last week we celebrated independence. We had to do it twice because we did it one time with the community with around 250 people, 55% Dominican and the 35 from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico. We have people come from Montreal. They come in like around 12 people coming there and they are not Dominican. They are Mexican. Yeah, because we that's the point. We try to know more, [not just] Dominican.
[00:08:41 Ryan] [Which values] do you hold most like close to your heart, I guess, as a member of the Dominican community in Ottawa.
[00:08:52 Uribe] The value of the of si siente is part of this community. It's big. Because when you see the Dominican people close to you, just the feeling in the heart. You feel the song. You feel, you know, you’re not alone in Canada, you know, because the Dominican people have something in common. Now, I called three people. Now, I call them and say, listen, I need rice, beans and plantain. And they bring, here, they bring right away. If I call and I need $1000 they gave me the $5000. Because we are close, the Dominican people. When we say I'm friends with you, no matter what. I'm friends with you. So, when I start to working with this community, I go to Toronto. I go to Montreal. And I don't want to say, but they're looking at me like I'm the boss. I'm not political. I don't like politics. The value, si siente, there again being in the community. It's like a feeling in the heart. And this winter, believe me 250 people in this party. Around 40-45 children. …She said my kids they don’t speak in Spanish, you know what I mean. So that's why I say my kids will speak Espanol and learn English. You know, because I told them you have to learn. I know in Canada we have a lot of opportunity, a lot of opportunity everywhere. Or like I say, when I'm close to the Dominican people. I don't know. I don't know if people know me every time I go to some activity, I go like looking like a flag of the Dominican Republic. I say thank you to Canada for everything they gave me, but I had to work a lot. I have to work here now, believe me. It's not easy. It's not easy when you have to pay the rent, to pay the insurance, the car, to pay the food, to do this and then you don't have to. You don't work at all. It's not easy. Let me tell you a story. [skip]
[00:11:33 Ryan] …And I wouldn't even call it a story, because it's truth, right. It's your life.
[00:11:37 Uribe] Yeah, it's true, I have friend, he said to me, from the Dominican, he said he’s gonna do a book with my life. We’re working on it.
[00:11:49 Ryan] So, what kind of food do you like to make or that that your family makes that like that reminds you of the Dominican Republic?
[00:11:59 Uribe] Here we don't eat, we don't cook anything Canadian. Every day in the morning we do tostada. Toastada is bread, it’s like a Dominican sandwich, we call it tostada. And pankun, Peso Harmon. You know. It's like a sandwich or we call tostadas every morning we do tostadas. Farina. I don't know if you know farina. It's like a – you know the corn? The maize, corn, the yellow.
[00:12:34 Ryan] Yeah.
[00:12:35 Uribe] We buy it in Paro la cabena, you know like. Chalk. Something like that. Flour. You know, we do flour with milk. And we're cooking that. We give it to the kids. I mean, rice and beans. We call it bandera. And now we do a lot of plantains, Frito Platonos and Cachao Mangoo. You have to buy the mangoo. You know? Mangoo. Oh, no.
[00:13:10 Ryan] Like the fruit mango?
[00:13:13 Jennifer] Oh, mango.
[00:13:13 Uribe] Mangoo, mangoo. Do you know – do you know mashed potato? Mashed plantains, mashed plantains.
[00:13:18 Ryan] Yes, ok.
[00:13:23 Uribe] We call that mangoo. Yeah. Not mashed potato. It looks like a potato. Mashed plantain. And you put salami, you know salami, yeah.
[00:13:41 Ryan] Salami.
[00:13:41 Uribe] Yeah.
[00:13:42 Ryan] Where do you usually shop for ingredients? [00:13:47 Uribe] International market it's in Montreal Road. International market. They have everything from Latin America. It’s a couple of Mercado Latinos. In Ottawa, Montreal Road.
[00:13:56 Ryan] So, we're going to move on to question 11, trying to be mindful of the time. But that was a great answer. How likely would you or your family be to use the website that we have to upload the interview? So once the interview is published, essentially how likely would you be to look at what we published, when we post on it?
[00:14:32 Uribe] You're gonna get like a lot of people. They wanna – I didn't even start to do it this morning. People start to call me. When will it go out? [unable to discern] So like I said before. A lot of people in the community they don't meet. I spoke with some of them already. And they want to know.
[00:14:51 Ryan] We have one last question and it's essentially; do you have anything at all that you would like to add?
[00:14:58 Uribe] Oh, what [do] I say to all the students. I am a student, I'm 48. Don’t ever give it up, you know.
[00:15:09 Ryan] We want to take this time to thank you. For the hour that we spent together, thank you for sharing with us.
[00:15:11 Jennifer] Thank you.
[00:15:18 Uribe] And I thank both of you and see you soon!

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