Jess Ibacache is an Australian-born Chilean curator, producer and arts worker. Her creative practice is driven by the need to generate more spaces and opportunities for the Latin American community in the Australian arts and culture sector. She is the co-founder of Yo Soy Collective, a not-for-profit organisation that celebrates the Latin American community in Australia.
Writer and researcher Suzanne Hermanoczki spoke with Jess about her familia’s migration story, building community and Yo Soy Collective’s plans.
Can you tell us about your family and how they got to be in Australia?
I’m the first generation of my family to be born in Perth, Australia. My family came over in the mid-eighties as refugees from Chile leaving the Pinochet dictatorship. My grandad was an activist and a miner, working in the mines in the north of Chile. Because of his involvement in the workers’ rights protests against the government, he lost his job. Afterwards, the government made sure that he couldn’t work anywhere. He was offered a humanitarian visa to migrate to Australia, but he rejected it because my dad didn’t want to go.
My dad was in his early 20s, studying at uni and had just started dating my mum. He didn’t want to leave her, but the family was struggling, and in the end my dad decided to go too. The family came to Perth on humanitarian visas along with a group of people my grandad worked with. Many came over on the same plane. There’s this really nice story of my dad’s brother who was a kid when all this happened – he met his future wife on that plane!
My family’s is a typical refugee story – going through the refugee process, staying at migrant hostels, then moving into public housing and public housing units. My first years were in public housing. Because of the shared experiences my community had (being from the north of Chile, coming over on the same plane, living in the same housing), all the Chilean migrants stayed connected. They even built a Chilean club in the 1980s, with a soccer club and activities for kids, like Latin dancing. Sadly, it doesn’t exist anymore, but it was all centred around celebrating and keeping the culture alive.
Tell us a little about yourself. What was it like growing up in Perth?
I grew up in a community surrounded by lots of family, cousins and friends who were also Chilean. It was a unique experience because I grew up speaking Spanish. My parents really wanted me to be a Chilean kid. But then, going to school in Australia … it was challenging being thrown into place and not being able to talk in English!
That’s when I developed that dual identity ‘complex’. On the inside I’m still very Chilean, like when I go back (home to Perth), my parents still speak to me in Spanish, but then I also have to exist on the outside. It was hard in the 90s, but I also realise I’m lucky to have grown up this way – to be connected to these two different worlds.
What happened to your mum and dad?
So, the story goes, my dad was in love with my mum. For two years, when he was in Australia, and she was in Chile, they wrote each other letters. They’d also get others to take photos of them and then they’d write messages on the back of those photos (they still have them). During that time, my dad worked, saved money, then went back to Chile and married my mum. They had a big wedding there (my mum is one of ten kids). Afterwards, she moved to Perth with him. Then, I was born and then my brother. It took another ten years before they could go back to Chile.
What was that experience like when you went to Chile?
The first time I went to Chile I was eleven. We stayed for six months. As soon as I arrived, I started speaking Spanish and forgot all my English!
I’d experienced Chile through stories and my community but it’s another thing to put my feet on the ground of the place I’m from. It was a special puzzle-piece moment for me and my brother (Ah! This is the way we are! This is what’s missing!). I knew myself better there and leaving has never easy. I’m hoping to go back soon.
How important is identity in writing, art and other creative representations?
Identity is a big part of how I connect to people. There are many stories about the migrant experience but not about our Latinx stories. I guess, we are a smaller community and in Australia we’re far away from what’s happening in Latin America. But we’ve seen how communities and spaces (particularly for Latin music) have opened up cultures. Still, we need more recognition for the work we’re doing. We live here. We are a part of society. We are a minority (about 1% of the population), but our stories matter. They are unique and different to the Latinx experiences in the US or any other western country. I think many people can relate to our stories – feeling othered, different, not being the main cultural identity, growing up in two worlds.
How did Yo Soy Collective come about?
In 2014, I moved to Melbourne, but I realised I really missed Latin stuff, my family, the food. I actively started to go to Latin and other events to meet people and creatives. This led me to this beautiful event by The Still Nomads, an African diaspora collective. I thought, ‘I want this, for myself and my community’, but it didn’t exist! I had to wait and meet the right people.
There are many stories about the migrant experience but not about our Latinx stories.
What really started the collective was meeting Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh, who is the other co-founder, and being introduced to other Latin people. I’d read Ruby’s piece Hoops (VICE) about her grandmother gifting her hooped earrings, which as a Latina I connected to. I got in touch with her (on Insta) because I hadn’t read a Latin-American writer from Australia. From that, we became friends. Later, around 2017-2018 we decided to form the collective.
Our first Yo Soy event was a live reading for the Emerging Writers’ Festival in 2019, which attracted a lot of writers into the collective. Our latest event was a workshop at the Melbourne Museum on International Women’s Day 2026 titled ‘Mija’ (‘mija’ being a term of endearment for Latine girls that celebrates Latin American women). The workshop was run by Ruby and it was connected to a book called Daughters of Latin America (2025). The readings were an inspiration for the collage component run by Denisse Sandoval.
What’s next for Yo Soy?
Yo Soy is now part of the Culture Makers initiative with Melbourne Museum supporting culturally diverse artists and arts groups. The story of how our collective began is now captured in a five-minute documentary, which is part of the Melbourne Museum’s permanent exhibition The Melbourne Story.
From something that began as grass roots, Yo Soy Collective now has five members: Jess Ibacache, Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh, Denisse Sandoval, Patty Abalos and Natalie Estay Valenzuela, and is a properly structured, not-for-profit organisation! The next step is to open it up to newer people. We want people to feel Yo Soy is a place where they can be, to come speak in English and Spanish or both!
Visit Yo Soy Collective’s website here: https://yosoycollective.com/