Conversation with Sandra Carranco

Title

Conversation with Sandra Carranco

Description

Sandra Carranco, a Bolivian immigrant with a PhD in physiotherapy, relocated to Ottawa from Mexico due to political instability in Bolivia. Encouraged by her brother-in-law, she sought safety and economic stability in Canada. Despite initial challenges like language barriers and professional setbacks, Sandra adapted and became an educational assistant. She is deeply committed to preserving Bolivian culture in Ottawa. Sandra co-founded a women’s group that plays Pasanaku and organizes cultural events, including Bolivia’s National Day and a Christmas celebration, emphasizing inclusivity. Sandra uses food as an essential vessel of her cultural heritage, seeks ingredients for traditional dishes, and passes cultural values to her children. Sandra’s story illustrates the resilience of Ottawa’s Latin American communities and her desire to change perceptions of Bolivia and Latin America.

Date

2025-03-10

Format

MP3, 29 min 13 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Jaspreet Basi ; Rony Matni

Interviewee

Sandra Carranco

Transcription

Rony Matni: [00:00:00] Hi, my name is Rony Matni
Jaspreet Basi: and my name is Jaspreet Basi.
Rony Matni: And we are student in anthropology at the University of Ottawa, anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbeans. And today we have the pleasure of interviewing Sandra Carranco.
Jaspreet Basi: This interview is a part of an ethnographic exploration of Ottawa's Latin American and Caribbean communities, where we aim to gain a deeper understanding of cultural heritage, traditions, and the lived experiences of individuals within these communities.
Jaspreet Basi: Sandra, thank you for taking the time to share your story with us today. We're excited to learn about your background, your journey to Ottawa, and ways in which you celebrate and preserve your heritage. Let's get started.
Rony Matni: So let's start with our first question. Um, so what is your country of origin?
Sandra Carranco: I am from LA Pass Bolivia, south America.
Jaspreet Basi: Perfect. What brought you [00:01:00] to Ottawa, Sandra?
Sandra Carranco: Uh, well in my twenties I immigrated to Mexico. The political situations that my father was involved in politics in the sixties in Bolivia, and then I moved to Mexico and I went to university there. I have a degree in physiotherapy and a PhD degree in physiotherapy for with respiratory problems.
Sandra Carranco: Then I work there. And then I got married there in Mexico. I lived there for 12 years. Then, um, we had a great life with my husband in Mexico, but the economical situation for some people that they start to rob people and that happened to us in our house. They robbed us [00:02:00] and it was scary. Then we decided to move and my brother-in-law was, is married with a Canadian woman and he says, oh, I am moving to Canada.
Sandra Carranco: Let's go to Canada. Because it's hard to take care of our kids and this economical situation that they takes our money, it's better to move. Then I was, no, I am not moving to Canada. Uh, I have here my work at university, at my, at the office, and I know that if I go to Canada, it will be hard for me because my English is very poor.
Sandra Carranco: Then we decided to move back to Bolivia. Then my husband and my two kids, we moved back to Bolivia. We. There for four years, but unfortunately, you know, because of my father Political's view, he was assassinated. Then we said, this is scary, and my brother-in-law was already living here in Ottawa. Then he says, no, come, come to Canada.
Sandra Carranco: Then we decided we apply and we had our um. Uh, visa, our resident visa. We apply in, in LA in Bolivia, and we got our residency. Then we came with residency here to Ottawa and we joined my two brothers-in-law because at that time, my two brothers in law were living here and it was great because it. Nice to move to a new country and have family.
Sandra Carranco: Then for us was easy. My husband, my husband was able to find a job, but for me it was difficult. Because I knew that it, it will be very difficult to go back to my physio in Bolivia. I was a professor at the university too. I have my own office, but we said it's risky and safe to live there. Then I said, okay, I have a new start and I have, my children were young.
Sandra Carranco: They were five and seven years old. Then I said, okay. I will be here learning English, and I start to take English lessons. Then I met, I met in my English lessons with some, uh, Latin women. We get together. It's nice, but I, I had this comfort of having my, my sisters-in-law, my brother's in-law here. It was easy then.
Sandra Carranco: Mm. Uh, I start working as a [00:05:00] breakfast lady in the school where my kids, uh, were assisting at Holy Cross. Then I said, no, I have to go back to university back. I love my physio. Then it, it was hard because then I think it was 2002. That all the high tech here in Ottawa was failing and my husband was working in high tech then we were without jobs.
Sandra Carranco: It was hard. It was not easy. But then we were resilient and we went. We did what we did. Now I work as an educational assistant for the Ottawa Catholic School Board. I love my job. I am not a physio here, but I use my knowledge and I love to work with, uh, children with disabilities. Then it is a blessing to work with them.
Sandra Carranco: Um, my mother and my sister came from Bolivia to live here. Then I had a great support family and when my kids were young, it was great to meet other Mexicans families. And then my brother-in-law and a group of Mexicans, they decided to have, uh. Uh, Spanish school for our kids because we had a lot of kids.
Sandra Carranco: [00:07:00]Then the University of Mexico, they have here a building where they teach Spanish and they open the doors for us to teach our kids Spanish and Mexican history. Then we, I joined that group of parents, my kids every Saturday were receiving Spanish lessons and, uh, his history lessons. Then it was great to be part of that community and, um, we love it about that.
Sandra Carranco: Then, um, I, uh. With my mother. My mother was a social person, and uh, she was old. I, right now I am 60. Then my mother was in her eighties when she was here, but she loved to have people around her. And we find a group of Bian, the Bian community here, where are we from? And we joined that group. And that group became our big family because I am married with a Mexican [00:08:00] and I live in Mexico for 12 years.
Sandra Carranco: But it's different when it's your own culture, your own people. Then, um, we joined the Bian community. We are few people here, and then my mother was always inviting the ladies to her house because she loved to cook and she was most of the time by herself at home and we were working. She had her own place with my sister and then.
Sandra Carranco: One of the ladies in our Latin community, uh, told us, oh, why we don't play the Bian game called Paku. And I said, oh, I remember when I was young. Maybe my aunt was the one that was playing a pasanaku . And what is pasanaku , a game from the [00:09:00] Andes. We are from the Andes community. We're from the mountains in Bolivia, but in reality, in Bolivia, everybody plays this game.
Sandra Carranco: And it's a game that pasanaku , that indigenous world means passes between us and, um. And I said, oh, I don't know the rules of this game because I left young, not as an adult from Bolivia, and this friend explained me the rules and say, okay, I will organize this group of women. Then I called the women from my community and I said, Hey, I will organize
Sandra Carranco: I am organizing this game called Paco. And um, do you want to join? And this game is based on trust because money is involved in this. Then, um, the ladies came to my place and um, we decided, I [00:10:00] think this group was started nine years ago and uh, I think we started with $50 or $30. Then the of. Is really based on trust, but is a social event more than the money.
Sandra Carranco: And then every, um, we get together and we draw the names of the people that want to play the game because it's the whole year. It, it's not, uh, one time then it, it is with commitment. And then we draw the names and the person that gets the first name, she hosts a dinner, and then we all bring the money and that person receives the money of the people participating.
Sandra Carranco: Then after [00:11:00] dinner, we decide to draw again. Then the next month, then we decide really that. We do a draw and every person is assigned to, um, a month, then we get together once a month and we give our money. But this, it is a win-win situation because we receive our money when we are award, when it's our turn, but instead of the 30 or $50 we receive.
Sandra Carranco: 300 we're 10 participating people. It, it's an interesting game, but the most important part is the social because we host the dinner and we try to do bivian things, things that reminds us from our country or things that we usually don't eat every day. And because we are now 14. Women playing this game and we get [00:12:00] together and we are from different parts of Bolivia, then it's interesting to know what they eat in other parts of Bolivia even.
Sandra Carranco: We are from the same country. We get together, we, we eat, and we usually invite our kids too. If they want, my kids are old, they will not join. But this group, we have people that is in their thirties and my mom that was in that group, she was in her nineties. The needs a diverse group and
Sandra Carranco: we. We created this group because the majority of the women, they don't have families here. Like I was lucky to have my Mexican family, my mother and my sister here, and, but they, all of them, they don't have families here. [00:13:00] Then we became a big great family. We love each other, we respect each other, and we never had problems and.
Sandra Carranco: How I get involved because of that, because we like it to, to be involved. And I was always volunteering to, to the, uh, there was, when I arrived, there was already a group of Bian, the bian community, but it was a little bit, um, different because no one. Uh, the problem is that a lot of people lives Bolivia because of political problems in the sixties, and then it was a group a little bit difficult to join because they had their own political views, very strong political views.[00:14:00]
Sandra Carranco: And then we were like, are we in that kind of group? Or we want a, a group that everybody, um. Everybody thinks about our heritage. It was a mix and at the end we, my husband got involved and it was interesting because of this political views, the leader of our community, no one not, no one wanted to be a leader of the Bolivia community.
Sandra Carranco: Then my husband as a Mexican, he says, oh, I will be, because before we had, uh, the wife of one of our friends, Bivian friends, a Canadian, she was the leader of our community, a Canadian woman. And sometimes we laugh about that because she had her own views, but. [00:15:00] They were Canadian views, views as a Bolivian.
Sandra Carranco: Then my husband joined the group and then, um, it was more a Latin group now, and then we decided with this group of friends that we decide we had the paku. We said, we don't need a leader for these things. We want to get together. We wanna dance to eat our food. Then my sister. Um, another woman, Elia Ru Ris and myself, we decided to be the leaders of our group and we decided to will not ask money for the group.
Sandra Carranco: And we, we organized two events for our BIAN community. The. Bian Day, that is in August 6th and for Christmas, we organize these two events. One is outdoors [00:16:00] that every, we usually get together at the Vincent massive park, or we go to a park and everybody brings food and we get together, we eat, we dance, and everybody goes back home and we don't judge anyone that is.
Sandra Carranco: If you have potatoes to bring to the, to the party or you don't have anything, you are welcome to come. And we created this very strong community. We are like 50 people. But counting our husbands that are not bolivians and we help each other and we have a Facebook group that, um, if people need help from the Bian community, we are there to help.
Sandra Carranco: We have a WhatsApp community that people can ask. [00:17:00] And um, on December we have this Christmas party, but. It is a wonderful party because we have a woman, Maria Teresa Boso, that she loves the dances and she teach the kids dances and they perform. For us, but because we are like a family, we join the party.
Sandra Carranco: The we, we usually go to a, a community center that they have a stage. Then the kids feel like stars dancing with the Bian costumes and we, we love that.
Sandra Carranco: Do you have any questions because I didn't stop.
Jaspreet Basi: That's okay. Thank you for sharing such an amazing story. Um, actually, Ronnie had one of the questions that he wanted to ask.
Rony Matni: That is right. So first of all, wow, that's a very, very interesting [00:18:00] story. Thank you so much. So you mentioned that you do have family here in Ottawa and Canada in general.
Rony Matni: So do you see them frequently or No.
Sandra Carranco: Uh, yes. Yes. Mm. We get together, um, once a month for the birthdays. We usually get together for the birthdays and, um, they, but they are my husband's size, the Mexican size. Okay. And the bian side. Unfortunately, my mother and my sister, they passed away in the last five years.
Sandra Carranco: Then they were my only bian family here. But not only I am wrong because my cousins that I grow up, we grow up together in Bolivia. They live in Toronto. When I feel homesick, really bullied, I'm homesick. I [00:19:00] grab my car and I go to Toronto, and usually we go four times a year at least to see them.
Jaspreet Basi: Wow. That is, that is really cool.
Jaspreet Basi: Um, and I know you mentioned that you live obviously in Ottawa through your story, but do you live in a neighborhood or a community that is Latin where people speak either Spanish or sport Portuguese and celebrate various occasions?
Sandra Carranco: No I don't live in a. Community.
Rony Matni: So next question. Um, so what celebrations are most important to you and are they celebrated in Canada?
Sandra Carranco: Yes, the, the, I mentioned you that we have as a community to celebrations [00:20:00] and it's the Bian National Day. That is in August 6th. But, um, our government change in the last, uh, 20 years and they have a new date that it's, I think March 24th, uh, because we, we had, uh, indigenous president and it was good because he included all the communities in our country.
Sandra Carranco: But the truth, because we. Came here. We don't celebrate that day. We only celebrate the August 6th. And that reminds us, um, and in Bolivia, they celebrate August 6th too. And remind us all the festivities that we have on that day because it's a very civic. Event, and we [00:21:00] remind us when we were young, where we will go to March with our uniforms and the food that they give us.
Sandra Carranco: Mm-hmm. Then we celebrate that and at Christmas to get together because the majority of us, we are Christians, but the truth, our group have different religions. But we celebrate Christmas.
Rony Matni: Perfect. Thank you.
Jaspreet Basi: What are some values that you hold dear? Um, you hold most dear? As a member of like the Latin and Caribbean community,
Sandra Carranco: uh, I think we bring, um. We love to live in community and we live to trust each other and we love to be together.[00:22:00]
Rony Matni: Perfect. So I know you said a lot already about this, but what would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people here to know about?
Sandra Carranco: Um, well I have two children and I love that they both speak Spanish fluently.Because we come from a Spanish speaking and I want them to.
Sandra Carranco: Go to Bolivia or Mexico and be able to know how we act in our country that it's different here. Like, um, sometimes they feel shy because in Bolivia when we greet, we give the person a kiss, even if, if you don't know that person. And then I, wow. They are like, no, but that's our culture because we trust people.
Sandra Carranco: It is a trusting thing even when you greet. [00:23:00] Then, um, for me that is important that my kids know our roots, how we act or why we have these thinking that it may be different than other people, or why we have these values or why it's important to us to take care of each other, take care of our parents. All those things are very important for me.
Jaspreet Basi: Thank you. What do you, what foods do you think remind you of home and is there anywhere in particular that you purchase groceries to prepare traditional meals from specifically?
Sandra Carranco: Yes. Now we that the, we, we have a. Very open, uh, market Now that we can find foods that, uh, remind us of our countries. I usually go to [00:24:00] the Latin stores.
Sandra Carranco: There are Mexican Latin stores that we can find, and Peru is a big country with, uh, a lot of food, heritage and Bolivia and Peru. One day we were the same country. Then we say we. A lot of the food that we eat in Bolivia, they eat in Peru too. But we have our own food of course, that it's different and, um.
Sandra Carranco: Some of them, we can't find it. And we have a special pastry, it's called Nia. It's an empanada filled with, uh, meat, meat and vegetables. And it's, um, cooked in the oven. It's, it is, um. A pastry that eats juicy. It's not a dry feeling then it's hard to make [00:25:00] because the dough has to be very special to hold the juice of the empanada.
Sandra Carranco: Then we are, we're fortunate that people likes to cook and we have, uh, excellent, um, person that cooks those for us and we buy from her, from our community. And, uh, another food that we can't find here in Canada. We eat, uh, dried potatoes. It's called Juno, and they are dried in the Titi kaka that it's called. It has a special process and it's, um. It's a different taste. And in Bolivia we have 300 varieties of potatoes then with a lot of potatoes and they are different. [00:26:00] Mm-hmm. Is that question.
Rony Matni: Yeah. So you've shared a very beautiful and profound story about your life, your family's experience, and the challenges that you faced along the way that we will be uploading to our website.
Rony Matni: So how likely would you and your family members be to use the website you are creating for uploading yours and many other stories, and how would you use it?
Sandra Carranco: Mm. I think it's interesting to have this website not only for us. We already are here. Maybe we will not use it a lot, but it will be a good link to say to the young people in our community that to learn what we brought here, what brought us here, and how we share our heritage. 
Sandra Carranco: But I don't [00:27:00] know if I will. Yes, I will use it with my community. We will put in our, uh, bian group. Then if someone is interested, it'll use it.
Rony Matni: Perfect. So Sandra, we truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences, insights, and perspectives with us today. So your story provided valuable understanding of the Latin American and Caribbean communities here in Ottawa, and we are very grateful for the opportunity to learn from you.
Rony Matni: But before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to add, perhaps a final thought or message you'd like to share? Sandra Carranco: Um, I would like to share that, um, we are a vibrant community. We have people from different, uh, economical with different, um, views [00:28:00] that we came from our country and, uh, we invite them to go and visit our countries.
Sandra Carranco: They have beautiful natural resources. Um, and I would like people to, to don't see Latin American, like a third world. I don't like that because we have so much natural resources. Maybe not manage perfectly, but if people goes to our countries and visit us, it's wonderful.
Jaspreet Basi: Oh, once again, thank you for your time and being a part of our project.
Jaspreet Basi: We also want to extend our gratitude to our professor, Dr. Lori Weinstein in the University of Ottawa's Anthropology Department for guiding us in this important discussion. And we hope this conversation contributes to a greater understanding and appreciation of the rich [00:29:00] cultures and traditions within Ottawa's, Latin American and communities.
Jaspreet Basi: Thank you.
Rony Matni: Thank you so much.
Sandra Carranco: Your welcome