Frosty Festival Memories Project: Introducing our new team member Mariana

We are excited to introduce the newest member of our team to you. Mariana Esquivel Suárez is joining us to work on the Frosty Festival Memories project. She is conducting oral history interviews with members of our community to help record the intangible cultural heritage of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival. 

Mariana Esquivel Suárez

Mariana Esquivel Suárez is an MA student at the Department of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).  

Mariana moved to St. John's from Mexico City in 2018. Ever since then, she became interested in the province's history and supernatural folklore. She has presented her research at the American Folklore Society and the Folklore Studies Association of Canada.

What are you most excited for about this project?

Getting to know the community better and being inspired! Since I moved to Newfoundland, I have discovered how important community involvement is and how people in this province are eager to get involved with events that foster a sense of camaraderie. The Frosty Festival is an awesome example of how a grassroots event can become something so big and beloved by the community. By talking to the founders of the festival and the people involved with it today, I get to see how a tradition was born, passed on, and transformed. That is so unique!

What is the most interesting thing you have learned so far?

Honestly, so many things! But probably the history of Mount Pearl. Through my interviews, I've learned how people from Mount Pearl have worked so hard to build a community and foster a sense of belonging. I've also learned a lot about the Frosty Festival, of course. As someone who has never experienced it, I am now eager to participate in it, especially the Irish pub nights; some of our interviewees have made them sound amazing!

Do you have a favourite quote from one of the interviews you have done?

"You don't get to arrest a Premier very often!" Mr. Blair Patrick told me this amazing story in which he and Joe Bennett dressed up as officers and arrested Premier Brian Peckford as a joke in the middle of a hockey game! It sounds like that edition of the Frosty Festival was a lot of fun!

We are so glad to have Mariana on the team and we can't wait to share more of her interviews with the community.