The smell of home-cooked meals with reminders of Haiti, the weight of expectations, and the quiet struggle to belong — for Quebecer Jimmy Suzan, these memories shape the pages of his latest work.
Suzan is the author and illustrator of “Migrasyon”, a graphic book that tells the story of Haitian migration to Montreal in the 1970s. The book draws directly from his parents’ journey, who fled dictatorship in Haiti in search of a better life.
“Migration is about the migration of Haitians in the 70s in Montreal fleeing the dictatorship that was there at the time in Haiti,” he said. “And so, it started with my parents, basically. Like, the struggles… and the sacrifices they had to make to give us a better life, the generation that was born here.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Suzan grew up surrounded by the sacrifices his parents made — even if they rarely spoke about them. As he got older, questions about identity and belonging began to surface.
“It’s very, you know, you come upon in your life trying to question who you are, where you’re from,” he said. “And in hindsight, I was like, I had no idea who my parents are.”
He recalled that there were few photos or stories from his parents’ early lives. That silence stayed with him.
“I just wanted them to know that their journey, the whole migration and the whole initiative is not in vain,” he said. “I wanted to say thank you and wanted to pay tribute to that sacrifice.”
Writing Migrasyon was not easy. Suzan said the process brought back powerful memories and forced him to reflect on similarities between his life and his parents’ experiences.
“It’s very personal, you know, and kind of revisit, you know, your childhood with these people that are your parents, like they’re everything and what you go through with them. And, you know, I try to make a link between what they went through and what I went through in my respective life and see if there’s some similarities in there. And there were quite a few. So it’s kind of reliving a couple of, you know, highly emotional moments.”
He said the book became a way to connect generations — not just within his own family, but for readers as well.
“I was just trying to do my best to tell their story and hopefully get other people from my generation and maybe younger to get their parents to talk and to have that open conversation about the subjects I bring out in the book,” Suzan said.
For Suzan, these conversations began with his mother — with a little help from Kahlua.
“Oh my, it was, well, in the book, you know, it’s pretty straightforward. First of all, she’s like, ‘what do you want to know these things?’ And then she hung up and I was like, what?”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jimmy suzan (@jimmysuzanart)
A post shared by Jimmy suzan (@jimmysuzanart)
He had to find a way to get her to open up. “I’m like, what is my mom like that makes her talk and won’t let her stop. And the answer was Kahlua. Just a little bit of Kahlua made her slowly start sharing childhood stories.”
Suzan recorded and took notes on the conversations. “I’m like, this is gold. It kind of started this whole Sunday coffee thing we used to do to share stories, and we kept tabs on each other. It brought us closer — we were pretty close, but that’s a little extra.”
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jimmy suzan (@jimmysuzanart)
A post shared by Jimmy suzan (@jimmysuzanart)
Migrasyon uses illustrations and a graphic format to make difficult stories accessible. Suzan said visuals helped soften heavy moments.
“I wanted to find a different way to tell a story and to make the hard parts like, you know, hopefully the illustration stuff in the below,” he said.
He created nearly everything himself — from the cover and design to the colours and illustrations — working closely with his publisher to refine the final product.
Since its release last October, the response has been overwhelming. Suzan said it has helped quiet years of self-doubt.
“Professionally, it, it gives me some much needed credibility,” he said. “When you get the public to react that way, it’s kind of validation.”
He said people now approach him to share their own stories, which he finds deeply moving.
“People are actually telling you and sharing their own stories, which is really touching,” he said.
Readers have told him the book encouraged them to speak with their parents, sometimes for the first time. “It’s a shared experience, you know,” Suzan said. “Some of them have their kids read the book, my daughter read the book and she doesn’t want to give it back, and I have to buy another copy. It’s very touching to get all that feedback. A lot of people share their stories, very personal, and I’m very grateful, it’s very humbling to read that.”
Suzan spent more than two decades working in graphic design and advertising before fully committing to his dream of storytelling.
“It means that when you try for long enough to make your dream happen, you stick around,” he said. “Don’t despair, don’t lose hope. It actually can happen. It has happened and I’m still working on believing it because it’s very much a dream come true for me. So it means the world to me, you know. It’s the first one, hopefully of many.”
“This is a dream of mine and, you know, finally get to make it happen. I finally found people that, you know, can help me, you know, move forward. So I’m really looking forward to like coming out with some new stuff and it’s definitely like the direction for me.”
Suzan hopes the book inspires others to explore their heritage, share stories, and honor the sacrifices of past generations. For him, Migrasyon is more than a book — it is a tribute to his parents, a bridge between generations, and proof that stories long left untold still matter.
