Grand dossier
Ligia Legault, one of the very first Colombian-born Montrealers, recounts her immigration story and speaks about her life in Montréal.
Ligia Legault, née Ligia Elvira Chavez del Valle Mac Ausland, is one of the first people of Colombian origin to have settled in Québec. She currently lives in Montréal.
Ligia Legault’s story begins in Colombia, where she met a Canadian man whom she went on to marry. When her husband had to return to Canada for business-related reasons, she stayed on for several months in Colombia.
On July 20, 1957, Ligia Legault arrived in Montréal through a family reunification process. The plan had been for her to settle in Toronto, where her husband was from, but his tragic death in an accident would change the course of what was to come. After spending a year in Toronto, she returned to Montréal with her infant daughter, where she met her second husband and settled for good. Despite the difficult circumstances in which Legault found herself on arriving in Canada, she eventually found a place to call home in Montréal and built a life in the city with her husband and four children.
Legault’s passion for helping others has always been a big part of her personality. It has led her to get involved in many different causes. On arriving in Montréal, she became involved with a wide variety of social, community, and humanitarian initiatives in her new city and also back home in Colombia.
In this video Ligia Legault recounts part of her path to immigration and the causes she is passionate about.
