Internship Spotlight: Mariana Santibanez Rosales - Place Diver‐Cité ‐ Maison des Amériques

Thanks to the generous donation of Ms. Wendy Patton Keys, through the Wendy Patton Keys Arts Internship Award, I was able to join La Maison des Amériques and LatinArte this summer for a three-month internship in their social outreach and events department. I am very grateful for this opportunity, and I greatly appreciate Ms. Wendy Patton Keys’ kindness and dedication in supporting students to work in human rights and community-based projects. I’m an international Sociology student at McGill University, with a double minor in Communication Studies and English Literature. My field of interest lies in grassroots organizations, community building, and social organizing. In particular, I strive to get involved in projects that represent the perspectives of women and migrant populations, as their experiences directly relate to mine as a Mexican researcher and woman.

LatinArte and Maison des Amériques are two organizations that have long created spaces of security and empowerment for Latine immigrants in Montréal, and I had hoped to get involved with them in any possible capacity since I arrived in the city four years ago. This summer, they offered me the chance to support them in an ongoing research study under the direction of Professor Victor Armony at UQAM. This study aims to create a profile of the experiences and challenges faced by recently arrived Latin American immigrants in Montréal. The objectives of my internship were to familiarize myself with the process of conducting sociological research in a professional setting, create meaningful connections with the community, and learn how grassroots organizations operate to best represent the needs of the group they’re serving.

Maison des Amériques aims to become the central meeting and welcoming point for the incoming Latine community to Quebec. They strive to facilitate the process of interaction and integration into Canadian society by creating ties between Latines. They offer a wide range of services and events, ranging from social orientation, cultural activities, to entrepreneurship development workshops. Their most renowned project is the annual LatinArte festival, which showcases the work of hundreds of visual artists and musicians. Within this organization, my central duty was advancing the profile of recently arrived Latine migrants, which entailed collecting data, conducting interviews, and recruiting respondents for the survey. I was also in charge of establishing connections to other Latine organizations, and most importantly, creating ties with the community through participating in cultural events, workshops, and talk groups. Finally, I was able to support the execution and planning of events, especially as they pertained to the eventual publication of the study during the celebrations for Latin American Heritage month.

My academic background in Sociology and social organizing ensured I was able to conduct the necessary research, and allowed me to build bonds with other associations and the community based on a careful and dedicated interest in documenting people’s well-being and experiences, without judgment or patronization. This was the highlight of my experience: being able to provide a listening ear to the needs of my community and capturing these sentiments to produce beneficial and tangential change.

While it was challenging to conduct the survey and interviews in certain situations, like when I was alone on the street or in a crowded event, I was able to gain the courage to walk up to people and open up conversations with them, even when they didn’t lead to a direct response in the survey. There was an added level of challenge to this, as one has to consider that migrant groups, particularly those recently arrived, often feel as though they will be put at risk if they disclose any personal information. However, learning to navigate these challenges and ensuring the respondents felt safe and informed when completing the survey was greatly rewarding. Furthermore, I’ve come to realize that having these conversations with them, even when people preferred not to engage, was valuable to me as a Sociologist.

I’m delighted to have put to use all that I’ve learned throughout my experiences this summer to write a research paper based on the “profile” generated by the study. Under the supervision of Professor Eran Shor, I aim to explore the most prominent challenges that Latine migrants face in Montréal and propose solutions at a local level, based on community-building and raising awareness. This internship has reaffirmed that I’ve chosen the right area to dedicate myself to, and has inspired within me an optimism and responsibility to the communities I belong to. Seeing both the direct impact of the immense labor that goes into grassroots organizing and the urgent need for it in people’s lives has inspired me to keep pursuing projects that will protect my local communities and allow us to build a future together.

Finally, I’d like to mention how the Wendy Patton Keys Arts Internship Award allowed me to finance my lodging and transportation during these past three months and provided me with the proper resources to conduct the survey. Thank you so much to Ms. Wendy Patton Keys for enabling me to pursue this immense opportunity!