Generalities on Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism at the institutional level is an answer to the presence of diverse cultures in this country (Canada) brought here by an immigrant labor force vital to development, the economy, and the standard of living.  Immigration contributes also to a marginal unemployed work force that maintains a supply of labor with prices under the prevalent wages that causes a subsequent lowering of wage rates[i]. A possible alternative to multiculturalism would be proposing the full assimilation or integration of minorities, something that cannot be put into practice by law, decree, or regulation. Another alternative would be keeping the immigrants within a separate, incomplete sphere, or lacking status, with no chance of becoming full citizens—creating, thus, the future possibility of marginalization and riots a la française. Multiculturalism as policy takes into account the gradual and protracted process of integration of ethnocultural minorities and tries to establish or promote a cultural environment in which the ethnic immigrant can live and work at ease. It is a transitional, semi-environment of filtered and partial mores, culture and uses from the original country/community that lasts a variable length of time--a buffer that would last until the newcomer or his descendents are integrated to the main, mainstream society.

The inclusion of the dimension of heritage in this framework acknowledges that the integration/assimilation to the host/patron/employer country/society is a lengthy and continuous process. It also acknowledges that the flow of immigrants favors specific regions or countries with respect to others, with the subsequent presence of some precise original cultural elements. [GE1] Because the new Canadian citizens are not likely to shed the old customs and language and put on the new ones in spite the best of their intentions, the original culture and languages are thus accommodated in the partial habitats of the personal, family, or community life of the immigrants. Or we should call them newcomers, to encompass the neighboring and overlapping category of refugee. Multiculturalism applies primarily to newcomer communities and their most cohesive manifestations. At a given moment multicultural policies and programs gave some space to literature, or ‘ethnic literature’ as a community activity. But, even when funding is or was given to publish, present, or promote individual authors, it has been based on the supposed usefulness of their projects to the integration of their community into Canadian society.

The Chilean case: the example of Cordillera

Chilean publishing in Canada started with Ediciones Cordillera, who received its first official funding from Wintario for the publication of two bilingual books of poetry[ii]. These publications were followed by the first anthology of Chilean literature in Canada[iii], whose funding was obtained from the Multiculturalism Directorate of the Secretary of State Department, through the Latin American Children’s Fund--an incorporated non profit organization. What is distinctive in these first publications is the presence of an avant garde element, an unusual component of what is expected and presupposed of an exiled Third World literature. This element was perceived and acknowledged in Canadian literary criticism[iv]. The presence of this component is due to the facts that avant garde was a part, even if not a prevalent one, of Chilean poetry, and in the aftermath of the 1973 coup d'état, Chilean literature had become practically a national literary institution in exile, of which the Chilean writers and poets published by Cordillera were more or less a part. This avant garde component was present among other elements that fulfilled the thematic expectations relative to the encounter of the newcomer and the host society and his adaptation/acculturation to it, along with the themes of commitment and nostalgia, that can be expected in a literature of a politically exiled community[v]. Since its beginning in the late nineteen seventies, the instances of Chilean literary activity and publishing in Canada were part of the exiled Chilean community. The attitude of Chilean exile towards literature, especially poetry, was shaped from its ideological and cultural origins in a Chilean leftist framework that traditionally viewed culture, both high and popular, as having a relevant role in the political praxis. At the same time, the Chilean authors in Canada were somewhat connected with the Chilean literary/political diaspora in the rest of the world. They published in their magazines and attended some of their events, while following the political and cultural developments of their country of origin[vi]. In this way, the bridging with the host society was a somewhat marginal concern given the commitment of these authors to the Chilean situation, expressed in activities of solidarity together with the Chilean community; the insertion as writers in the Chilean exiled literary institution, and the exposure of the Chilean authors to the Canadian public as exiled Chilean writers and poets, careful about keeping their difference. The institutional multicultural contribution to these endeavors was mainly through direct funding, not only to the publishing—basically printing—of Chilean authors in Canada, but also indirectly to special issues of Canadian magazines and to the organization or attendance of authors at certain events[vii]. But the start of Cordillera’s publishing activities antecedes this support, or any institutional support. Its first publications were produced combining the input of the Chilean community, the Chilean authors living in Canada and Chilean counterparts in Chile and other places[viii].

Officially, the Chilean exile came to an end with the plebiscite that ended the dictatorship and instituted a controlled democracy[ix]. But the impact of this plebiscite on the Chilean writers in Canada was not an instantaneous assumption of the role of ‘ethnic writer’. The variable connection of the Chilean writers with other ethnic writers of “literatures of lesser diffusion”[x] and the Canadian mainstream literary world had been present since the inception of Chilean literature in the country. Their presence and the presence of other Latin American communities and writers, exiled or not, had produced the existence of an emerging Latin American writing, to which the Chilean input has been decisive due to its more collective--and to a certain extent ‘militant’-- approach. The relationship between Chilean writers and other ‘ethnic writers’ and their vehicles and organizations was not the product of a given Canadian institutional politics. It was a matter of a certain general environment in the country that not only allowed, but also encouraged this sort of relationship, in a time when the Chilean ordeal had gained significant attention around the world. But these interrelations were also implicit in the underlying multicultural reality and message of a multicultural national policy. Its discourse was and is one of integration in diversity, and its implicit goal, its “utopian horizon”[xi], was that Canada was gearing towards a culmination, estate or situation of multiculturality, equity and equality.

Through the resources available from multiculturalism, certain events or publications had an easy and accessible venue and some “ethnic authors” were/are adopted by publishing houses or appear in specially funded issues of magazines. But in the times of Cordillera, it was more of a quantitative rather than a qualitative contribution. The funding of the printing of literature in languages other than English and French made resources more readily available to materially produce these books. These first books published by Cordillera in bilingual version attempted—maybe unconsciously— to reach at the same time the Chilean cultural/political exile, the Chilean nation, the Chilean community in Canada and the Canadian public and media, and they were inscribed also in the literary careers of the authors, basically in reference to their insertion of Chilean literature. Those books were discussed by literary critics in Canada and in the Chilean literary/political diaspora. In Canada, the books published with multiculturalism support, as well as other books published by Cordillera and other publishing houses, were seen as the works of “neo Canadian” or “ethnic” writers. In other parts of the world they were received as works by Chilean authors exiled in Canada.

Context and assumptions

Therefore, in the case of Chilean exiled literature, the support of multiculturalism was a partial facilitator of a process already under way. This support was not directed to distribution and commercialization, always lacking in the Chilean publishing endeavors in Canada, as in other cases of ethnic literatures. In the case of the emergent Chilean publishers, Multiculturalism support was limited to the material production of the book on a case by case basis, but didn’t go to funding the operations of a small publishing house, for example. Other limits of multicultural policies were linked to the context: the assumption of a free-market economy and a religious ideology  were more easily welcomed and supported, not only by determined policies, but for Canadian mainstream society in general. It cannot be otherwise, since these two features are essential and defining traits of this society[GE4] . The unrealized and maybe unrealizable utopia that underlies the notion of a multicultural society necessarily has a limit, since a state of total equality and equity among genders, races, beliefs and languages is not possible in the context a country with a given mainstream culture and “official” languages English and French). Another limit would be that a free market economy with an implicit religious world conception (basically protestant) is a basic given fact to which there are no feasible alternatives. But those boundaries are taken for granted and operate in an implicit way. They do not become subject of open discussion. To all that we can add the official languages issue. So, some cultural manifestations would tend to be more welcomed and supported than others, and these implicit (and maybe consensual) choices are the same that establish a two tier hierarchy of Canadian and ethnic writers, besides the presence of the writers through books in the marketplace.  On the other hand, multicultural policies reflect a certain multicultural state of things, a certain mentality at least among the elites: the Chilean writers have established literary, political and social links, as individuals and as group, with Canadian writers and publishers.

Conclusion

The situation of a diverse collective of permanent newcomers that never get fully integrated calls for certain thematic subjects that the ‘ethnic writer’ is supposed to deal with[xii]. These elements are present in the work of the Chilean writers, but sometimes their perspective from the point of view of exile has produced works that were also appreciated in Chile and the Chilean diaspora. The connection between Chile and Chilean writers in Canada, which was also important for a great part of the Chilean community, had made them conceive their work partially in terms of the continuation of a national literary history, not of the reiteration of an open ended tale of encounter and integration/ assimilation, that nevertheless is present in their work. This connection with Chile is also an element --maybe the most determinant one-- of their variable and fluid identity. Most of these writers would choose to identify themselves as writers in the Chilean realm, preferably in Chile, where at the end the definitive nomenclature of Chilean writers would be established.

As Chilean literature in Canada developed over the decades, it was perceived by Chilean writers that in Canada the metropolis--colony dichotomy is somewhat reproduced or replicated and the horizontal connections among newcomers communities with cultural and linguistic affinities are to a certain extent political.  On the other hand, the demography guarantees the presence and development of Spanish-language literature in this country. The advent of writing in Spanish made in Canada--with its own outlets and events and an incipient market--provided a place for Chilean writers and editors. At the same time, the advent of the new TICs has given them more independence with respect to their social and physical environment and increased their presence in Chile and the Hispanic world. What these latest developments will mean to multiculturalism, multiculturality, the Hispanic and Chilean culture and writing in Canada in general, is still to be seen.