Conversation with Gabo P.

Title

Conversation with Gabo P.

Description

Gabo, a Mexican immigrant who arrived in Ottawa at the age of 13, recounts his journey and the vibrant cultural tapestry he has embraced. His father’s employment with the Mexican Embassy facilitated their relocation to Ottawa, where Gabo has grown up immersed in a diverse society. Despite the distance, he maintains a strong connection to his roots by visiting Mexico City regularly and sharing his cultural heritage with his children. Gabo emphasizes the significance of celebrating Mexican Independence Day and the importance of honouring the traditions of the Day of the Dead within his family. He also highlights the traditional foods that continue to evoke a sense of belonging and foster his Mexican identity.

Date

2025-03-26

Format

MP3, 14 min 00 s

Language

English

Interviewer

Joshua Mascoll-Medeiros

Interviewee

Gabo P

Transcription

Interviewer: Hello. I am Joshua Mascoll-Medeiros, a student at the University of Ottawa, and today, we are conducting an interview with the Department of Anthropology and the university to get a deeper understanding of Latin and Caribbean heritage in the City of Ottawa and Gatineau. We are creating a web page using the Omeka tool that shares the stories of members of the Latin Caribbean community here in Ottawa, Gatineau, and to help newcomers and the members of the current community to have resources to find connections and understand the rich, diverse nature of the region. Today, I am with Gabbo. Hi, Gabo, how are you?
Interviewee: I'm good.
Interviewer: I want to thank you for your participation here for the interview with the university, and I would love to learn more about you today. Okay, of course, the main thing we're going to try and do today is learn about your culture and find out how you found living here in Ottawa and got to know and how, as a member of the Latin community, how has it been easy or difficult for you as well. So, first, let's, let's get started. Gabo, what is your country of origin?
Interviewee: So, I was born in Mexico, to be more specific, in Mexico City, I lived there until I was 13 years old, before migrating to Canada. Interviewer: And what brought you to Ottawa itself?
Interviewee: So, we ended up moving to Canada because of my dad's work. So, my dad has always worked with the Mexican government, and at the time in 2001 he got offered a position here in the Embassy of Mexico in Ottawa, and we decided to move.
Interviewer: Okay, um, do you currently still have family here in Ottawa?
Interviewee: No, not anymore. My family that was here was basically my parents with my dad's job. They ended up posting him back in Mexico. So, they moved in 2013 I decided to stay, and I'm here by myself right now.
Interviewer: You talked about how your family, some of your family, went back to Mexico as well. Do you see them frequently
Interviewee: I actually do. It’s quite nice. My mom and my dad tend to visit basically every year. They come in every summer, and they'll stay here for a few months, spend some time with me and my family. I've also had the chance to have other family members that have visited recently, such as my sister and my brother and some friends as well.
Interviewer: Oh, that sounds amazing. Do you live in a Latin community or neighborhood where Spanish is spoken often? Interviewee: It's hard to tell, I would say, yes. I live in the Gatineau side, about 10 minutes away from downtown. I would say, over the years, I've seen a bigger impact of the Atlanta community. When I moved to Canada, I went to high school here on the Gatineau side, and there was a huge Latin community within my high school. We had a lot of Spanish and actually Portuguese people as well. Growing up and not being in that environment anymore, I do often see people speaking Spanish or other languages around, like restaurants or even some of the like businesses that have opened as well.
Interviewer: So, are there any kind of celebrations or kind of festivals in the Gatineau region that can reflect Latin American culture for you? Interviewee: So, I think one of the most popular ones that we see on a yearly basis here in Ottawa would be Latin Sparks. That is, like a, like a kind of like an event that's been kept up year to year, where it brings all of Latin people from every other country. So, you'll see Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and everything like that. And they can tend to celebrate the culture a lot. I was more involved through the Mexican embassy with some of those events, as my dad was really involved. So, for the Me, the Mexican side of things, there is some that happened throughout the year that you know may vary, but you can often find them.
Interviewer: And is this something that you participate still to this day,
Interviewee: Occasionally, not as much as I used to. Generally, like, the biggest ones that we try to do is we celebrate our Mexican Independence Day in September. So, it is something that sometimes I'll attend to, if I have the opportunity to do so depending on when the event is held. Interviewer: So yeah, that kind of works great for the next question, because you talk about celebrating the Mexican Independence Day. Is there anything else that you do to celebrate your heritage here in Canada? Interviewee: So, I mean, we do the Mexican Independence Day, very well known to us in Mexico, we celebrate the day of the dead instead of Halloween. So that is something that culturally that I try to keep up every year as a parent with small children, I usually have been teaching my kids about it and can explain the differences. So, I would say that it's the second one that I celebrate quite regularly. Interviewer: Okay, now for myself. Of I don't really know much about the day of the dead. It's okay, if you kind of explain a little more about that. Interviewee: Yeah, so, the date of the death is kind of like a tradition that we hold in Mexico. It actually consists of two days, which is November 1 and November the second. It is a way for us to honor the tradition and in the past of our family members or friends or people that are no longer with us and that have passed away for us as part of our tradition. What we'll do is we'll create what we call an ofrenda, which is like an offering or a table where we can put pictures of those relatives or those persons that we want to honor, and we try to put things that they used to love, so whether it was like, you know, a shot of tequila, or like, their favorite dish, and we just kind of like put them overnight and celebrate their lives, like we try to not make it something that's sad, but more of, like a party, or, like, you know, something more festive Interviewer: that's wonderful, I guess we kind of talked about celebrations already, but is there one that is most important to you? Interviewee: I mean, culturally, the day of the dead is a really big one. I think it's also been really popular, you know, though, like, through the media and stuff like that. I feel like globally, it is a little bit more known now. And like I said, for me, the Independence Day is also a huge, huge one. As a Mexican, I think it's probably the biggest kind of holiday or celebration that we have in our country and in other countries. Interviewer: No, fair enough. The one thing I will also say from the next question is growing up in a neighborhood for myself where there were a lot of Latin communities as well as Caribbean communities, I understand that religion is one of the biggest aspects of culture itself. What are some of the values that you hold dear to yourself as a member of the Latin community? Interviewee: Well, I was going to say, I think I can definitely relate to your point growing up. My family and even Mexicans are known for being very, very religious. And basically, they're all Catholic, and they have a huge following. I wouldn't say, in my case, it's probably not as much like, like, I do consider myself like a religious person and whatnot, but if I come to think about it, for example, like my grandparents and my parents, that are people that tend to go to church like every Sunday and such. I do go occasionally, but I'm not there like all the time.
Interviewer: Yeah, I understand, um, now again, I know you and I were talking beforehand, the part of food as a part of culture is enormous for myself, coming from a Caribbean background. I know when I grew up seeing my mom and my grandmother cook traditional food was always amazing. The house smelled amazing. It was always fun to be a part of and also learn that itself is there, like, a certain type of food that reminds you of home back in Mexico City?
Interviewee: Oh, yes, 100% I think that's probably like my favorite part about my culture. Mexican food has a huge variety, and I feel like there are always so many dishes that remind me of home specifically, like if I were to tell you one of my favorite ones, obviously, like most people associate Mexicans and eating tacos and such. My favorite one, I love posole. It's kind of like a soup that has a lot of condiments and things like that. Very traditional to eat that when we celebrate Independence Day, for example. So, it kind of ties in with our celebrations and whatnot. But there is tons and tons of food that I like, but I would say those are probably like the two most common ones that I can always fall back to as my comfort food. And, you know, I can find any time.
Interviewer: Fair enough now being in the Ottawa Gatineau area, do you find that it is easy to access these kinds of ingredients people make the food you talk about? Interviewee: I would say, yes, one of the things that I love about this area is that over the years, there's been more and more access to those resources. So when I originally moved to Canada, I found it was kind of a bit difficult to find some of those ingredients. But over the years, that has changed. You can often find a lot of like the vegetables, or like the peppers or whatever you may need, at local grocery stores or even some independent, like small businesses as well. I do find that there are a lot of Latin and Caribbean stores as well where you can actually go and get those ingredients from back home that are being imported and made accessible to you. There are definitely a few stores that are frequent, often to get those things for whenever my mom or I are cooking at home. So definitely very, very accessible.
Interviewer: One of the last things, like one of the main. Things I want to talk about as well, is what would you like the community to know about this interview process? And I've understood that. We’ve worked together, we've played sports together as well in the local sporting community here for newcomers, or for anyone from the Latin community in the Caribbean community, they want to be able to kind of feel that sense of community itself. What do you think it's something important to know itself Interviewee: well. For me, I think, like coming to Canada, it was always a bit of an unknown. You don't know what to expect. What I love about Canada is that people are very embracing of other people's cultures, and, you know, they're always kind of like willing to learn. But you will also find a lot of people that you know have done the same, the same thing, and have immigrated. So I find it's a bit of a mixture of a huge Latin community that's present in Ottawa from all kinds of backgrounds, but at the same time, yes, like having Canadian people embracing it, it's always really nice, because they're always open to trying new things, you know, for you, to teach them and whatnot. So I think that's kind of like my favorite thing about the Latin community and the Canadian community, how they come together. Interviewer: Yeah, it's always great. The one thing I will say is the main reason why we're doing these interviews itself is to kind of make that resource for the Latin and Caribbean communities to understand that there is a lot of culture here. And not only that, but there's a sense, there's a way to create the sense of community in Ottawa itself. And so I think for the University of Ottawa, one of the main things we're trying to do is create this web page with Omeka to ensure that they have access to this. It's something that we do we hold very dear to ourselves, and we hope that this becomes a bigger, wider range of resources. So that kind of grows over the years. And I kind of talked to you about Omeka in this website they were creating. Is this something that you'd find that yourself or you would show to your family or friends? So, they can kind of get a better idea for people who maybe don't necessarily feel that connection right now in the auto Gatineau area?
Interviewee: Yeah, I think it's, it's a great idea. Honestly, having those resources, kind of like all centers in one place, can be really helpful for someone that may be looking to come to Canada, or, I even think, through the university, someone that may be an international student. I definitely think it's a great resource. Sometimes, you know when, when you're looking into those big decisions, you have to look everywhere and kind of put the pieces together. So having it all centralized would be phenomenal, and I think it would be a good resource for everyone. Interviewer: Oh, perfect. I think the last thing I really want to talk about here is kind of getting your feedback or suggestions. And what I mean by that is using this resource like we're saying. It's very new. It's the first year that the university Auto has really done something like this, and we kind of want to know, what do you think would make this a more accessible resource for people of Latin and Caribbean descent, in the sense of, how do you think it should be portrayed, or how do you think it should be shared in a way to kind of outreach for the most amount of people itself? Interviewee: I mean, obviously, yes, I just mentioned, I think it's a great resource to have on the website, kind of, it's hard to think about it, but I would say, like shining a spotlight on it, especially for, as I mentioned, things like international students would be, I think would be a great idea for us itself, like it's just a way for us to understand how you as a lab member feel about kind of these kinds of resources itself. We know this is a great interview, and I learned a lot about you, and I hope that your listeners will be able to hear more about that as well and use this as kind of a way to understand that connection there is in Ottawa.
Interviewer: I would like to thank you so much. Are there any last things you'd like to say at all? Interviewee: No, thank you for your time. I appreciate you. Know you're taking the time to learn the community. Like I said, the presence is huge, huge here in Ottawa, and I find that sometimes, like, you know, we have all those events, but there's never really a spotlight or something that kind of brings everything together. So, I can emphasize enough how good of an idea this is.
Interviewer: Thank you so much. Okay, Gabbo, you have a great day. Thank you.

Original Format

In person