An interview with Daniel Salas-Gonz谩lez, a Killam scholar and Social Anthropology PhD student studying the political economy of the Cuban transnational community.
Q: Why did you choose 国民彩票?
I first came to 国民彩票 for five months in 2012 on an Emerging Leaders of the Americas Program scholarship, and I loved the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
国民彩票 has one of the longest standing and most important exchange programs with Cuba. So I had met some people who had been in contact with 国民彩票, and Canada was my first choice in terms of going abroad. I wanted to explore the opportunities for professional improvement.
Q: Would you have come to 国民彩票 for your PhD if you had not first spent time here as a visiting researcher?
I had the chance to glimpse what I would be experiencing. Probably yes, I would have applied for the PhD and done all the rest, but it is four-to-six years of my life. And I came with my wife so I had to convince not only myself but also another person.
Q: How have you found the move to Halifax?
For me the transition has been very smooth. As smooth as it can be as I had been working, and the rhythms of working are different from those of a full-time student. There was that first shock of getting into the discipline, of reading and writing against the clock. Get to classes on time, stay up all night writing your response, all of that. But after a month I was loving it so much. I was feeling that I was doing what I love the most.
My wife and I love the city, we love the people. We haven't really had bad experiences at all. It is a different culture and language. The better you can speak the better you can interact and get along.
Q: Are you liking Canada?
Canada is a very pleasant place to live. It is not very challenging, people don't expect you to change to fit, and they are very helpful, supportive.
Coming from a different culture you see things that Canadians don't see as you are coming from a different perspective. I noticed the distance in interactions in the sense of physical space, of not touching, for instance. When I was getting used to it I felt that it was kind of a cold environment, but this is not right, people are not so much cold as respectful of each persons鈥� space and body and the distance between individuals.
Q: And winter?
We did our best to survived it, like the rest. Last winter was, according to most people, the worst ever. But when I came here three years ago people were saying the same thing! So it looks like there might be a pattern. Being my second Canadian winter, it did not lack a certain charm of novelty, at least for the first couple months, I have to say.
Q: Have you always been an academic?
I was a Journalism major in Cuba, teaching in the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana. What interested me more than anything else was telling peoples鈥� stories. I wanted to be a novelist when I was younger and that is why I went to journalism school.
Along the way I found myself drawn to pursue a career in an academic area rather than as a reporter. Not to mention that journalism in Cuba is not the best profession to practice. I was lucky enough to stay in the University of Havana in different roles and eventually to be a professor of journalism. I taught from 2007-2014, with minor interruptions, and at the same time I was working at several journals.
Q: What does your experience as a journalist in Cuba bring to your research?
I am concerned with intellectuals and the public sphere, and with the democratic potential that the formers could bring