Conversation with Natalia Proano Gallegos

Title

Conversation with Natalia Proano Gallegos

Description

Natalia is a nineteen-year-old student originally from Ecuador. She arrived in Canada when she was around twelve years old. Natalia first arrived in Winnipeg and then, later on, moved to Ottawa. Due to growing up in Ecuador, she feels very close to her Latin American culture. During this interview, Natalia will talk to us about the process of coming to Canada and telling us about her culture and identity.

Date

2025-03-13

Format

MP3, 20 min 4 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Maria Proano Gallegos; Perlene Tshibaj Kawen Karumb; Maya Norgaard

Interviewee

Natalia Proano Gallegos

Transcription

Maya: Hello to our listeners. Today, we're going to be conducting an interview with Natalia as our interviewee. My name is Maya, and I'm going to be interviewing along with Perlene and Maria.
Maya: Natalia is from Ecuador, and we're going to be asking her about her culture and her Ecuadorian identity. This is for the anthropology of Latin America and Caribbean in ANT 3340 at the University of Ottawa. Today is March 13th, 2025. This interview is going to be in English.
Maya: And… All right. I think we're good to begin. We're going to be rotating the questions between the three of us.
Maya: So, I'll go ahead with the first question. Natalia, what's your country of origin?
Natalia: My country of origin is Ecuador. I was born there and I stayed there till I was 12 years old. Then, I moved to Canada.
Perlene: So, I will go with the second question. What brought you to Ottawa?
Natalia: What brought me to Ottawa was mostly my family, my brother. I was living in Winnipeg, and my brother wanted to study in the uOttawa, so then we thought that we could all move into Ottawa so that we can be closer to my brother and also to my sister. She was also going to study in uOttawa.
Maria: What brought you to Canada then more specifically?
Natalia: We brought me to Canada was the situation of my country as well as my family financial situation. My brother was 17 at the time, and so he was about to start university, but my family coudn’t afford university, so we thought of kind of Canada because the school is has really good schools and it's and it's free as well as there's more help with studying in university.
Maya: Do you have family here and do you see them frequently? 
Natalia: I have my whole like nuclear family here, my, my siblings and my parents. And I also have an uncle that he came after us moving in Canada. And, um, I also have another uncle that he came here, but he's in Quebec, so I don't see him frequently as I see my other uncle that he came to Winnipeg with us and then later on to Ottawa.
Perlene: Do you live in a Latin community or neighborhoods where people speak Spanish and/or Portuguese and celebrate various occasions?
Natalia: I don't live in a neighborhood where there's a lot of Spanish … Spanish people. Although I do have some neighbors that are Latin. And I… I don't have a community as much as like in my in my neighborhood. But I do go to a Spanish church where everybody is a Spanish, so I… I live there more. The community of Latin.
Maria: What celebrations are more important to you?
Natalia: I'll say Christmas… ‘Cause it's really important to me as, as well with the religious aspect to it. I'm Catholic and it also has a really good memories, especially with my, in my family. We used to do really, like, big parties and we used to stay up till like 3:00 AM and it was, like, the whole day. So it's definitely no, I definitely say, Christmas.
Maya: Can you describe a typical day in your community? Natalia: I… I think a typical day. Well, I… I wouldn't sure of that question because I think yes, I have a, have a, background of like Latin America, but at the end of the day it is a normal culture, and like I guess like a typical day for, for me is also a typical day for any Canadian. So… I'll say maybe like. Like, reframe the, like the question, because we are all human and, and we all like do typical day stuff like eating and buying food and then going to school and then working, and taking a shower, so yeah.
Perlene: How do you celebrate your heritage?
Natalia: I’ll say I celebrate… I’ll celebrate my heritage mostly with other people, like sharing my, my culture and, and like teaching other people my culture as well. And, also especially with like dances, or with history facts, or with food. I think a way of celebrating my my culture is when I, and I cook meals that are from, from my, my culture or when I speak Spanish with other people. I think that's a way that I can celebrate in Canada, my culture.
Maria: And Speaking of culture, what would you say are some values that you hold the most dear as a member of the Latin American community?
Natalia: I think some values I don't… I don't see my values being related as my, my origins, but I do see my values more related to religion. And it is true that most Latin Americans are Catholics. So, I'll say I can see the link there in like Catholicism, but my values are really… I think, I think I think one of the Latin American values actually is really that I've seen a difference here in Canada is like family. In Latin family from my culture, family is very important and we are very united in family rather than here. I feel like I see more separation, like it's normal to… for kids to eat alone or for parents to not, like, do their thing. But in in Ecuador it was all very like… Very related, very united. And it was like it was like “I” don't have a problem. It's not like my mom's problem, but it's like my problem as well. So yeah, I think that that can be considered as a value.
Maya: And what would you like to share about yourself or your community that you think is important for people to know?
Natalia]: I would like to share that… That the way… That the way that you know there's, there's so much there's there is violence in in my country, it's not it's not necessarily for like a cultural thing but it's more because people they don't have accessibility to food or to do work, and so they they're more, like desperate, and then they start like robbing. But the culture itself, it is a very beautiful and very like has good values of like… Love and like respect, but it is hard to, to live all of that in a country where it's so hard to, to afford basic things and to have a normal life like with work and in school.
Perlene: So what food do you make that reminds you of home, and where do you purchase your grocery to prepare your traditional meals?
Natalia]: One food that I make that reminds me of home is this thing called Majado, is mostly with plantain. And I think like any superstore, have, has plaintain, luckily. And so I always I, I have no problem with finding mostly, my, like, the food. There's also some Latin markets in Gatineau that I've, I've gone to, where like, I can purchase also, like, corn because here the corn is very, like, more sweet. But in my country we have like… Corn that's more salty, I guess. And so, I love that corn. And so I, yeah, I go to Latin stores too to… To have that.
Maria: Awesome. Thank you so much. How likely would you now say you or be to use the website we are creating for uploading your stories? And how would you use it? We would like to serve better the community, so any suggestions from you about access, as well as what should be posted, would be greatly appreciated.
Natalia: I think you can post… Yeah, I think it's really good to post something related to culture so that people can know more about other cultures. I think we live in Canada and it's a very cultural country where there's a lot of countries, and, and it's, it's very important to to learn each other's history and, and cultures to grow more.
Maria: Are you likely to use the website then?
Natalia: Yes, I think I'll be likely to use the website to learn more.
Maria: Okay, awesome.
Maya: Okay, and I think just for our final question here, um, are there any extra, like, comments or concerns that you have?
Natalia: No, I think I'm good. But if you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Maya: I think earlier you mentioned, okay, so we're actually at 10 minutes, so plenty of time. But, I think earlier you mentioned at the values question that there was, like, dances that you do. Could you talk more about that?
Natalia: Yes. In my, in my country is very, is the dance aspect to… It's very related to festivals, and the aspect of festivals is like again very related to religion, to religion. So when there's like, for example, we have the day of La Mama Negra, which means it's the day of, firstly, the Virgin Mary. And so for those festivals, there's a lot of dances, and, the, the different dances they also have different like, like persons, like there's dances where… It's like a man dressed up as like this, like, like the devil. It's called like the Diablo Huma. And it's very colorful, and they do specific dances and they also have, like, a whip. They say whip? Yeah, they have a whip. And so they, they do dances. It's mostly like jumping. And there's also we have also like the we call them like the clowns and they have, they’re like dressed-up like clowns. And they also like, go around and dancing, and people also like dance there. And it's like a whole, like, festival with, like, a bunch of dances are, are happening and also people there are like celebrating and dancing as well.
Natalia: And yeah, I think it's, I think music also is, is very related to… To culture. Sure.
Maria: And I wanted to ask you more about you, a little bit when you arrived to Canada. What were some of those cultural shocks that you lived through? How was that transition from coming from Latin America to Canada?
Natalia: I think, I think there was definitely very like, cultural shocks. I'll say the the most like impactful one for me, was just how people used to socialize in Ecuador. When we say hi, we mostly like give like a hug or like. Kind of like, yeah, it's we're very like close to one another, right. In Canada, people don't leave themselves with hugs or people don't really like, talk too much, with like, strangers, but they make whether, like, if there was a new kid, everybody would come up to the new kid and, like, talk to them and try to include them in, like, any group. And also like in Ecuador, you know my school like nobody was alone. But when I came to Canada, I found out that, the culture was like, more of like an alone culture. People were doing their thing and they were not like talking to others as much like they have their little like group of friends. They will not go to talk to other kids, and it was, it was just very like, more like closed up and more like cold.
Natalia: And so that really shocked me because, like I was, I came to my school and I was new and like, nobody came to talk to me. So I like it was just, it was really very shocking because I wasn't used to that. And I also wasn't used to how people… For example, like in Ecuador, it's really easy to make friends that you talk to someone once and then like, that's your friend. And then you, you hang out with that person, right? In Canada, like, you can talk to someone once, like in school, I will talk to someone and then the other day it was like we didn't even know each other.
Natalia: So it was all very hard. It was also really hard for, for me, because I… I didn't know, I didn't know English coming here, so I had to learn English and also like, how to behave in, like, this new culture, so that was definitely a hard time for me.
Maria: So, in, in these times, would you say that it was kind of key to find people from your same culture. How, where, did you find that support and how do you manage that?
Natalia: Yes, I tried that in my school, though I didn't. There weren't many kids that, they weren't Latin. But I did find kids that they were immigrants as well, like me, and they were mostly from African countries. And I found that their culture was very more similar to mine because they were like, more open to talk or they were like, more like they were like, I don't know, more loud like… And yeah, more more.
Natalia: It was for me at the time it was, it was much easier to make Africans friends, than, than the other kids cause, I don't know, at the time it was hard now, no. For me it's like it's the same, I can… I know how to… Make friends in all cultures, but at the time I also wanted someone to relate to that, it was… It was, yeah. I definitely had friends that were more like immigrants.
Maria: That's very understandable. I can imagine that it's extremely important to find that community to rely on. Where is that community now and how do you find that, kind of like, community, where you fit in, where you can relate to that Latin American culture?
Natalia: I have. I've made friends that were Latin and my best friend, she's Colombian. And so I talk to her, I, I found a lot of like support just like she, she understands my culture and then we can go to, like, dances together. And she knows my music and she knows how to dance like in my country. And also like we cook the same food. But I've also found community in other cultures here in in Canada.
Natalia: Yeah. Like, like I've said, now that I speak English and I'm I'm like familiar to… To more like the Canadian culture and to other cultures, and I have friends from here that are also, like, very Canadian and I'm experiencing that now that it’s easier for me to socialize and I also have friends, yeah, from all over.
Maria: That's wonderful. Thank you, Natalia.
Natalia: You're welcome.
Maya: All right. Just one more question, just to end us off. You mentioned that Christmas was your favorite holiday. Are there any, like, stark differences between, like, Ecuadorian Christmas in Ecuador versus like Canadian Christmas? 
Natalia: Yes, I think, I think it's hard for me to really tell the difference ‘cause, in Christmas, even now that we're in Canada, we still like celebrate in an Ecuadorian way with my family. But I think still like, main, is like in, in Ecuador, we stay… It's a very, very late Christmas rather here. I think people go home and like, go to sleep after Christmas.
Natalia: But yeah, in Ecuador is like the whole day, the whole night. It's like we party a lot and we do dances, there's like, a lot of food, especially, like, supper. And even in the morning, like, it starts from the morning and it ends, like, really, really late.
Maria: Right. And we're talking about the 24th, right? Just to be specific, you celebrate Christmas on the 24th? 00:17:50
Natalia: Yes, yes, that too. I celebrate Christmas on the 24th from the morning. And then at 12:00PM we, everybody would give a hug because we're, like, now it's like kind of like Christmas, but it was already Christmas in the morning. But we give a hug at 12:00PM and then we stay up, till like the night of the, or like the day, during the night of the 24th. And then the 25th, we're like super tired because like… We partied all night on the 24th. So the 25 you were mostly like in bed. Like, really tired. Like opening gifts. But yeah, it's mostly that the 24th, it's like really big.
Maria: And also you, you were mentioning that Latin American countries being mostly Catholic, would you see the difference in the Christmas back in Ecuador being concentrated more in their religious aspects rather than here, where it has been taken out of the religious aspect?
Natalia: Yeah, I see it, especially in like, the city in Ecuador. Everything is also decorated with, like, the, how we say, “pesebre”, the Nativity. And there's like, a big like Mountain in Ecuador, El Panecillo, and at the top they used to have really big… Like silhouettes of the Nativity and like, was like, with the Virgin Mary, Jesus. And they're like, they also, the three kings. And it was like really, really big. You could see, like, from really far. And like, like in all the streets, also like, nativities and like little angels and like also the songs related to Christmas in Ecuador there is a very religious aspect to it. I will hear like songs are… It's, it's more like… Like, um, like Christmas. Different Christmas.
Natalia: So yeah, I, I definitely saw the change because back home everything was like we will sing songs, they will like, celebrate like the Nativity and here the Christmas it was more like different. Also more, like, stronger like, with Santa Claus and everything.
Maria: Well, thank you so much, Natalia, for this wonderful interview. It's been great chatting with you.
Natalia: Thank you.

Original Format

In person