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International Women’s Day: Fabiola Faubert

Aerobics and dance instructor
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Fabiola Faubert

For International Women’s Day, we talked with some amazing women around the Cariboo Chilcotin. There are enough incredible women in this community to fill several books, but please read on for International Women’s Day series on just a few of them.

Fabiola Faubert loves to dance, and she loves her family.

It’s the latter which brought her from her home in Sinaloa, Mexico, to Williams Lake.

She says her granddaughter was about to be put into foster care.

“I felt really sad, and I wanted to do something,” she says. “I came here in 2016 in the summer, and I decided to stay for her, because she is my granddaughter.”

Her son and brother both lived in the community previously, and she had come originally in 2015 to help her brother with his children, she says.

Now, she lives here with her three children, as well as her grandchild.

Read more: International Women’s Day: Ashlee Hyde

In Mexico, women are very involved in the lives of their extended family, she says.

“My mom, she was a mom to my kids also, and here it is different,” she says.

Arriving in Williams Lake, she felt somewhat isolated, she says.

“When I got here I wanted to do something, so I started selling tamales at the Farmer’s Market.”

She says she looked forward to that portion of her week, because she would be sure to see people then.

Faubert’s background is both Mexican and Canadian - her father is Métis from Ontario. Life was difficult in Mexico, she says. Something that tourists don’t often see.

At home, she says she taught English at a private school, as well as her own dance classes.

“I’ve been dancing for 27 years. In Mexico I have my business and I have a lot of certifications: zumba, Latin fusion, so I said well, I am going to try to do that here also and teach people how to Latin dance.”

Read more: International Women’s Day: Sonya Littlejohn

For just under a year she’s been operating Aerobics Dance Fabiola, where people can take drop in dance classes in a variety of styles.

“When I hear music, I feel my body want to move. I love to move my body and I like to teach people - I have all my life.”

She says she enjoys watching different people socialize in her class, and that she aims to bring a little more colour to the Cariboo, particularly in the winter.

“We want to energize this town.”

Read more: International Women’s Day: Sunny Dyck