Liandymary Jimenez Otero

Local business owner, singer, healthcare worker, and event planner, Liandymary Jimenez Otero speaks about the importance of creating welcoming places that feel like home. Her interview partner for the evening is in the previous episode!

You can read more about the project, about Wordcrafters in Eugene, about our sponsors and community partners, and send in your own Lane County, Oregon stories at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org.

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

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 You're listening to StoryHelix, intertwining
 stories past, present, and not yet imagined
 
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 in Lane County, Oregon. What's
 up earthlings? I'm Leah Velez, and
 
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 I'll be your host. The stories that
 follow are raw footage. So let's open
 
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 up our ear nuggets and give these
 community submitted stories a listen.
 
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 Hi, my name is Liandy and I live
 in Eugene, Oregon. After living in
 
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 Puerto Rico for my whole life,
 I decided to take a road trip around
 
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 the states for almost two years.
 Casualities of life, an accident came
 
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 to place in Utah, in Zion way of Zion in Utah, and meeting some
 
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 people from a city of Utah I
 became to connect with a house
 
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 outside of Pleasant Hill, Oregon,
 and that's how my adventure begins. Living
 
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 in Oregon since then, and naturally, after I live in Pleasant Hill for
 
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 so long, I decided to move
 down to Eugene-- Downtown area. And I'm living
 
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 here, I believe, for six years
 now. I was just mostly hoping for
 
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 a different perspective of the United States
 in general,  just coming from an American
 
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 Colony. How living in a
 colony changed my perspective to live in Eugene
 
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 and like how the opportunities and
 helping me to grow personally, coming from a
 
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 different background.  It's totally different than what I'm
 used to.  Eugene... It's... they're very friendly
 
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 with me. I never encountered really
 a hundred percent rejection of the community at all.
 
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 I think the community are being like
 really lovely and nice and sweet towards
 
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 me. But obviously integration, from the
 first part, before I became to do my
 
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 own thing. And of course I
 have those moments of being rejected or like
 
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 they don't know where I'm from, or
 they have a hundred questions to ask me
 
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 just because of my color, or my
 accent, or things like that. And that's
 
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 kind of the experiences...compared to what
 I'm used to back in the island,
 
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 just because everybody looks different colors, different shapes, and we don't ask those
 
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 type of questions. But when you
 came to places like Eugene that is totally
 
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 not diverse at all and you have
 so much ideas and so much abilities to
 
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 bring an open mind to another city, just your, your mentality just switched.
 
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 That's one of the first challenges just
 to become part of a place. If
 
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 it keeps feeling welcoming, but
 at the same time, opens the perspective in
 
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 the mind of people that are not
 used to dealing with other cultural backgrounds,
 
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 to like learn and teach them and
 kind of like redirect that thinking and just
 
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 giving a different feedback, to not, you know, not judging anybody,
 
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 because I'm not that type of person
 honestly, but I like to teach and
 
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 make people conscious of what one thing
 can mean... and that's probably when I first came
 
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 to Eugene, people eventually open
 their minds, and I think Eugene is pretty
 
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 advanced and developed and open minded to
 accept different backgrounds and
 
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 integrating them. And I've been feeling great since then. I mean I love the community and
 
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 the community's really helpful and it's always
 opportunity. It's always somebody that wants to
 
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 back you up and give you some
 ideas and help you out to grow personally
 
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 in any other areas-- can be
 work related, personal, friends, family.
 
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 They are reserved, but eventually, I
 feel really accepted, and I kind of
 
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 like it. Me being living here
 for so long makes me don't give up
 
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 and Eugene because I want to help
 those are like recently moved here with the
 
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 same background as me, to help
 them to, you know, open their
 
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 minds and and feel Oregon as a
 home, same as me and specifically,
 
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 just being a Spanish speaker, I
 will be helping communities from different backgrounds to
 
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 feel welcomed in Eugene and be able
 to, you know, grow their businesses
 
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 or their small crafts or whatever they're
 doing, to have their voice heard.
 
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 I'm starting to working on that in
 the community. Plus I'm running my Etsy
 
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 shop. One of my missions
 on that is to grow tropical plants and
 
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 collect different species that I grow through
 the years, doing that as a hobby,
 
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 of healing, when people can
 connect with nature and and healing some
 
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 traumas and like, became more relaxed
 and in years like this, when we
 
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 still dealing with the pandemic and such.  I help the community with the tropical
 
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 music as well, with Salseros
 Dance Company doing the Descarga 54 band.
 
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 And it's been a really challenging time
 for Descarga in specific, just because the pandemic
 
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 stopped us completely for almost two years, to not do nothing, pretty much
 
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 just listening the songs and just being
 trapped at home. In my case, just
 
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 being the main singer of the band,
 not even seeing my band members.
 
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 Or hanging out with them for
 periods of time. When the connection and the
 
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 bond in between us became so close,
 because when started doing music and help the
 
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 community with it, people know you,
 and they expect you to be with them
 
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 and sometimes it's just a challenge to keep
 those interactions, but at the same time letting
 
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 them know that we're still here and
 we just want to keep safe. And
 
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 now we're back to action again.
 We are planning to play some Merengue that
 
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 I'm kind of happy about. My
 Dad is Dominican and my Mom is Puerto Rican,
 
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 so I grew up with Merengue
 at home and specifically all the bandoneón (?)
 
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 that is going to be in one
 of the songs that we're going to play
 
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 and I grew up with all that bandoneón. That was really traditional to
 
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 just clean the house a Sunday,
 Seven AM in the morning, your
 
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 mom is blasting the radio with bringing
 all that bandoneón and you're just like
 
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 you have to clean the bathroom.
 And my grandma and my mom and my
 
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 aunties and my dad... I grew
 up with music. And part of cooking for
 
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 our culture was like singing at the
 same time, and sometimes those can 
 
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 tress meat, and you can grow up
 like singing and dancing at the same
 
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 time in your kitchen, since you was
 like two years old and you don't even
 
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 remember or you don't even notice.
 Making people feel the same way I feel
 
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 if they're coming from a Latino background, coming to a Friday night to Salseros
 
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 and enjoying a song like,
 oh my God, I remember when I
 
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 was doing the vacuum and like Whoa, that song came to my mind.
 
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 WHOA. Go back to childhood and
 remember those good moments when you're already. You
 
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 know, eighteen hours away from
 home. Those moments of a song of
 
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 three minutes can just bring you home
 when you are not in your home and
 
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 you create that environment. It's a
 sense of community that makes you feel home
 
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 and make you feel welcoming and appreciate
 in different levels, you know, because
 
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 the ability of others, blend with your
 abilities at the same time, and like all
 
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 combines in one song for three
 minutes.  You finally have some moments of be
 
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 part of it. It's weird because
 the community is not gonna go towards you.
 
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 It's something that just comes from yourself, or like how creative you are
 
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 and like how your developed. But,
 you know, it's those childhood memories of
 
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 like keep doing the things that make
 you happy and make you joyful. And
 
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 as soon as you find your outlet, or
 where those communities are, and you start to
 
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 engage with them, then you kind
 of like say, well, you probably
 
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 will think that those communities are not
 there, but they are, and they're really strong
 
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 and when they discover you, or you discover
 them. Oh, it's such a good
 
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 idea. Everybody's learning together and I
 think helping the community, accepting my roots,
 
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 and like being proud of them, even
 when I'm far away from home, helps
 
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 me to interact with the community and
 help the community in many ways, because
 
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 I think they feel the same way. You know, when you live around
 
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 on the population that is like more
 than sixty percent white with a different mentality,
 
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 your own traditions, and roots, and environment come into question. And it's very interesting
 
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 to go back to the basics, and
 enjoy, and reconnect, and really become convinced of your
 
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 own and where you come from and
 why are here and what is your purpose
 
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 in life. Thanks for listening.
 You can find us wherever you listen to
 
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 your podcasts. If you've got your
 own Lane County Story to tell, we'd
 
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 love to hear it at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org