Conversation with Saelle Pierre

Title

Conversation with Saelle Pierre

Description

Saelle Pierre is a twenty-three-year-old who profoundly values her Haitian heritage and strong family bonds. She immigrated to Canada in 2009, an experience that shaped her appreciation for both her roots and her new home. Raised in a close-knit household, she was taught resilience, unity, and the importance of cultural identity. For Saelle, family extends beyond blood ties, encompassing the broader Haitian community, with whom she shared traditions and fostered a sense of belonging. She is passionate about preserving her heritage and ensuring future generations remain connected to their culture while embracing new opportunities in Canada.

Date

2025-03-15

Format

MP3, 10min 33s

Language

English

Interviewer

Stecy Leconte

Interviewee

Saelle Pierre

Transcription

STECY LECONTE: Hi, my name is Stecy Leconte and I am here with Saelle Pierre. She is 23 years old and apart of my Haitian community in Montreal, Quebec. She came here when she was seven years old with her parents, her big brother, while her mother was pregnant with her younger brother. Hi Saelle, how are you?
SAELLE PIERRE: Hi Stecy, I'm good and you?
STECY LECONTE: I am fine. I would like to ask you a question about your Caribbean heritage and your community here.
SAELLE PIERRE: Sure, let's do it.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, so first question, where were you born in Haiti exactly?
SAELLE PIERRE: I was born in Port-au-Prince.
STECY LECONTE: Oh, so the capital.
SAELLE PIERRE: Yes.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, what brought you here to Montreal?
SAELLE PEIRRE: So, I was living in Haiti and my dad was somewhat politically involved. Because of that, we received some threats to our lives and we had to leave the country to seek for asylum in Canada. So, that's what brought us here in Montreal in April of 2009.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, and when you came here, did you have family here?
SAELLE PIERRE: I didn't and still to this day, I don't have any blood relatives. But, you know, people from the community, friends we've made along the way that now are family-like.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, do you live in a Haitian neighborhood where you speak Haitian Creole normally?
SAELLE PIERRE: I do not. I don't live in a Haitian community, but I have, I go to church on Saturdays and my community at church is mostly Haitian people. So, I can find myself speaking a little bit of Creole at church, but not too much. But, there's a lot of songs, sometimes the preacher will be Haitian and they'll, you know, they'll speak Haitian Creole throughout the service. But, that's where I'll say in my community I speak the most Creole out of the house.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, and what celebration from your Haitian heritage is most important to you?
SAELLE PIERRE: I would say January 1st. It might be a bit cliche, but it's, you know, the Haitian Independence Day. So, we drink the Soupe Joumou to commemorate our ancestors and their bravery. So, a little history, maybe background, like in 1804, they, my ancestors, fought the white colons and the soup was something that was forbidden to the slaves. So, now as a gesture of freedom and resilience, we now, we know like we can drink this soup too. So, it's important as it is a very like impactful event in Haitian history and it's like a small token of remembrance. Something I definitely want to pass down to my children.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, that's very great. So, can you describe me a typical day in your community?
SAELLE PIERRE: I don't know if there's a typical day in my community, but I will say maybe for Saturday, today, wake up, probably go to church, the gym, come back home, take a nap, eat, and then the day goes follow. I wouldn't say there's like a typical day in my Haitian community that's like, I don't know, particular to Haitian people.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, how do you celebrate your heritage? Like on a regular basis, like how do you celebrate it?
SAELLE PIERRE: I think, how do I celebrate my heritage? I think by trying to excel and to be authentically myself in the spaces where I can be, you know, to remember that I am my ancestors wildest dream and I am Haitian always and forever. And, you know, maybe try reading some books from Haitian authors. I, you know, read some books on the revolution from some Haitian authors, like I know Daniel Laferrière. He's a prominent author in the Haitian community. Maybe Haitian dish that I can try and learn from my mom, but I feel like I've been saying this for way too long. And maybe listen to some Haitian music sometimes. Maybe that's how I can celebrate my heritage the best.
STECY LECONTE: Okay, that's good to know. What are some values that you hold most dear as a member of the Caribbean community? And if more specifically, Haitian?
SAELLE PIERRE: So I would say Haitian people are very resilient people. Strength is valuable. Solidarity is valuable. I think even in our flag saying, it's something about in unity, there's strength or something like that. And courage is a value that I hold dear. Authenticity and just our cultural pride, like Haitian people are like one of the proudest people I know. So that's something I still hold. And I don't know, it runs through my blood.
STECY LECONTE: That's great. I'm very, very happy to hear that. What would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know?
SAELLE PIERRE: Something, I don't think it's about my community, but maybe about me, that being an immigrant, I think it's important because often as immigrant, it's somewhat hard to kind of fit in with a new culture. But it was also something about not being able to, I entirely relate to the culture back home. What is home and that does shape your world vision and somewhat you as a person. Like if I talk to my cousins that might be still in Haiti, they have a different maybe world vision than what I have here. But maybe sometimes, let's say my parents, because they came here much older than what I was. I was seven. So I had time to change my mind frame and be more assimilated to the culture here. But if you listen to how they talk, even they're still different than my cousins that are still in Haiti, that are much younger. That could be my age. But because they still grew up there and they still live there, they see the world differently. So, I think sometimes we might be ashamed of the stigma that comes with being an immigrant or being an asylum seeker, but it also makes us who we are today.
STECY LECONTE: Well said, well said. What food do you make that reminds you of home and where do you purchase your groceries to prepare your traditional meal?
SAELLE PIERRE: The food, I would say today, I feel like the food, the ingredients we need to prepare some of the cultural food are kind of pretty much everywhere. Sometimes, I will say though, when it's January 1st and we do have to prepare the soup, the past few years I've kind of been on duty to get the ingredients to get the soup together. And there's also, there's like some ingredients. It's now, it's my mom makes me go to like four different stores and I'm on like, like a baby on the phone and I'm like, I can't find it. And she's like, pass me the phone to somebody that can help. And it's like, you know, sometimes they don't know, we don't know the words. Like it's the same ingredients that we, that other cultures use, but we don't know the words. So they sometimes all go through different stores. Like I don't go to like the main stores, like Loblaws or like whatever. You have to go to like the ethnic stores. Sometimes it's not necessarily Caribbean, but it can be like Arab store or like Asian store. Yeah, Asian stores or like a Latin store. Some of the food, there's Haitian mac and cheese, there's plantain, you know, there's different kinds of rice that we have, rice and peas or diri djondjon even for that, the key ingredient is like mushroom. So it's like dried mushrooms. And sometimes, well, not sometimes, but it's not on the grocery store that we typically go to, but you have to go to like a certain specific store to get the ingredient from, to make the rice. So yeah.
STECY LECONTE: Okay. And like you said, that you need to go somewhere specific. Do you have somewhere specific that you go to, to get those ingredients in Montreal or because I know you live in the South shore. So do you have to travel far to go and get what you need?
SAELLE PIERRE: Oh, well, not, not, not anymore. I'll say maybe probably maybe 10 years ago when we just moved in the neighborhood, probably yes. But I still remember there was still this local Haitian store that actually would sell these things. But nowadays I must say, and even in the South shore, there's more stores where they have like more ethnic stuff. And I think that's kind of what led us to kind of go to a different ethnical store. Like sometimes you won't find it, you won't find a Haitian store, but you'll find like a, I don't know, a Mexican store. So they have some similarities or you'll find like a Haitian store that has what you need. But I will say like maybe 10 years ago, for sure, maybe you'd have to go to Montreal to probably get some of the ingredients. I remember we, we just got like a, the meat store in the South shore. At first we had to go like to, I don't remember the street name, but you had to go before in Montreal to go get that.
STECY LECONTE: Well, thank you so much Saelle for giving me your insight of how you connect to your Haitian community. And yes, this was a nice conversation. Thank you so much.
SAELLE PIERRE: Thank you for having me.

Original Format

In person