“In Canada you need a vehicle, a means, something that serves to unite the Hispanic community”
Pastor Valle Garay
PASTOR VALLE GARAY IS UNDOUBTEDLY AN ACADEMIC BEACON IN THE CANADIAN HISPANIC COMMUNITY. GARAY IS OF NICARAGUAN ORIGIN AND A GRADUATE FROM A NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES IN THE US AND CANADA. HIS STUDIES INCLUDE JOURNALISM, PUBLIC RELATIONS, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, METHODOLOGY AND SPANISH. PASTOR VALLE GARAY CURRENTLY TEACHES AT YORK UNIVERSITY.
He was Consul General of Nicaragua in Toronto at the time that the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) ruled the country, and now, since retired, teaches at York University and at Schulich School of Business for what he refers to as the simple “pleasure to teach”.
Poet and writer, he is one of the most respected Hispanic journalists in Canada, and also a distinct critical voice within the community. In a conversation with Mercado News he was asked to discuss his views of the Canadian Hispanic community.
“When I arrived some 40 years ago, there wasn’t even a Hispanic store, and now many exist across the GTA. The problem is that even though a fair amount of Spanish-speaking people have arrived in large numbers; particularly Chileans in 1972, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans in 80’s, the Hispanic Community continues to be fragmented,” reports Garay.
Answer: “I refer to all aspects, because within Nicaraguan groups, for example, there are groups who dislike the Sandinista National Liberation Front and there are groups that are supporters. The same is true of Salvadorans, because there are people who are in favour of the rightist Arena party and others who are against. Among the groups there are Chileans who are supporters of the Socialist Party and others who do not want to know anything about politics in Chile. These different political sentiments have only deepened the differences amongst us.”
In this logic, the scholar argues that this fragmentation represents an obstacle to further community development. “It’s a barrier between Spanish-speaking people in Canada. It does not feverishly exist with the Italians, for example, whom have their inner-cultural differences. We, while respecting the principles of multiculturalism, remain fragmented. There are Nicaraguans whom present folk dance shows, that are very nice, but those who attend these events are only Nicaraguans. Multiculturalism has served the essential purpose of keeping each of us identifying with our own countries and not joining nor fully identifing with the Latin American community as the nucleus, or Canadian society in general,” he says.
This multicultural policy promoted by Trudeau is a magnificent idea, but that has not yielded the desired results. “It’s a mechanism that keeps us in small ghettos. I am not among those who believe that Latin America will be a great nation, it will never be possible because of our own idiosyncrasies: neither a Colombian nor an Argentine wishes to be identified as the other. The idea of one great nation as envisioned by Simon Bolivar does not conform with the fact that we are too independent, too nationalistic, and too individualistic,“ he reports.
Question: What are your recommendations for the Hispanic Community to develop? “I think the only option we have is that we must strive and to learn how to better interact.“
This impedes further integration within the community “what is needed in this community is a vehicle, a means, something that serves to unite us as a group with a sense of purpose. So we can one day choose political representatives without saying “this candidate is Peruvian, this one is Guatemalans, etc.., This is the type of unity we ultimately lack within the Hispanic Community. “
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