Conversation with Paolina Valdez

Title

Conversation with Paolina Valdez

Description

This project is an ethnographic interview conducted with Paolina, a fourth-year Sociology student at the University of Ottawa. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, she shares her experiences of cultural adaptation, preservation, and connection as a member of Ottawa’s Latin American and Caribbean community. Through this interview, Paolina reflects on her heritage, the significance of food, music, and celebrations, and the challenges and opportunities of maintaining her Dominican identity while living abroad.

Date

2025-03-20

Format

MP3, 7 min 31 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Alyssa Amey; Elijah Dawson; Alexander Turner

Interviewee

Paolina Valdez

Transcription

Alyssa Amey: Today we are here to interview Paolina, a fourth year university of Ottawa student who is from the Dominican Republic, specifically Santo Domingo. My name is Alyssa. I'm here today with my team members, Elijah and Alex, to conduct an interview as part of an ethnographic study on Ottawa's Latin American and Caribbean communities. This interview is being conducted for Anthropology 3340 at the University of Ottawa. I will let Alex begin with the questions now.
Alexander Turner: So our first question to you is, what is your country of origin?
Paolina Valdez: I was born in the Dominican Republic. I lived there my whole life, up until I was 18, and that's where my family's from as well.
Alexander Turner: The next question is, what brought you to Ottawa?
Paolina Valdez: Um, I moved to Ottawa when I was 18 to start my university career, uhm, I wanted to move away first of all, because there were a lot more diversity in uhm careers when it came to sociology and communications, and because uhm I did want to apply an English uh study to my university career.
Alexander Turner: And—uh–do you have family here, and do you see them frequently?
Paolina Valdez: Uh…. no, my family all lives in the Dominican Republic, but I do visit them frequently—uhm–I see everyone back home, and I do visit a lot.
Elijah Dawson: Do you live in a Latin community or neighbourhood where people speak Spanish and or Portuguese and celebrate various occasions?
Paolina Valdez: So here, I do not live in a Latin neighbourhood, uhm, but I do know a lot of Latin people with whom I do speak Spanish whenever I see them… uhm I do sometimes celebrate some– uhm Latin occasions here that I wouldn't back home, like Cinco de Mayo and other stuff, uhm and back home, I do live in a completely Latin neighborhood and community where everyone speaks Spanish to each other, and we all have—uhm shared values.
Elijah Dawson: What celebrations are most important to you?
Paolina Valdez: Uhm for me, personally, and for most Dominican people, I'd say that Independence Day, which for us is the 27th of February uhm, is one of our most important uh—celebration—uh and other ones would be more connected to religion. So Easter Week, we never work. We never, we— everyone always goes on vacation, uhm, we also have Christmas is very important to us, and a lot of Saint days, we all have off.
Elijah Dawson: Can you describe a typical day in your community?
Paolina Valdez: Uhm, I'd say that usually we do have a lot of community connection. We do see our friends very often, at least once a day. I think that uhm, a connection with friendships, family members and just everyone around you is more typical in everyday life. Back home, uhm, we usually do uh–go out to eat more often— uhm to see people and to just like, hang out.
Elijah Dawson: How do you celebrate your heritage?
Paolina Valdez: I think through music, food and other things, I love listening to Spanish music whenever I miss home—uhm anytime there's a sunny day I feel connected to back home, and there's just a lot of practices that I apply in my day to day life that help me celebrate my heritage.
Alyssa Amey: So moving forward, what are some values that you hold most dear as a member of the Latin Caribbean community?
Paolina Valdez: Uhm I think, like us in previous questions, a community and a sense of uhm— connection is very important—Is very important value that we see a lot back home, that I think applying it to my life here has been good uhm, something else that I find very important is just a sense of like direction, connection uhm, that we don't see as much often here, but is very important for our communities back home.
Alyssa Amey: And what would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know?
Paolina Valdez: I think the warmth of the uhm, people back home, the how much people care, uhm if anyone asks for directions, they'll even take you somewhere. Uhm, I think those type of small acts really make a community uhm something else, I think, is just the connection with food and music that people have, even if you don't speak the language, you can feel uhm I think the feelings that people have over these things and the cultural significance of everything.
Alyssa Amey: Uhm also, what foods do you make that remind you of home and where do you purchase your groceries to prepare your traditional meals in Ottawa?
Paolina Valdez: Uhm, what reminds me of back home is eating plantains. I feel like that's something that we usually cook with a lot, like whether it be fried or uh— in mashed, like mashed potatoes, other foods like rice with meat and just other sides, I feel like, remind me a lot of back home. Sometimes I do grocery shopping in more Latin American markets, like the one in Byward and the one in Somerset. There's another one— uhm, but I do a lot of my purchases in normal grocery stores as well.
Alyssa Amey: Uhm, and moving forward, how likely would you and your family be to use the website we're creating for uploading your stories, and how would you use it? We would kind of like to better serve the community. So any suggestions from you about access as well as what should be posted would be greatly appreciated.
Paolina Valdez: Uhm… I feel like older family members would be more likely to use it, and maybe, uhm, my cousins and stuff to send my grandparents pictures or videos or memories of uhm, anniversaries or vacation and such uhm, I feel like that would be useful in that way uh, maybe more uhm, accessible it would be if there was a possibility to put in Spanish and English— uhm, if you could connect the pictures with uhm, your phone pictures, or if they were accessible, way to share images or videos with people that don't have access to maybe uhm, being able to download an app or such.
Alexander Turner: And uh finally, do you have any other comments or concerns?
Paolina Valdez: Uhm— I feel like Latin American communities have a lot to offer, uhm, globally and in Canada uhm, and that there is a lot of richness to all the great different cultures, and that we all have very big variety of— um— values and historical and political backgrounds.
Alyssa Amey: Well thank you so much for speaking with us.

Original Format

In person