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Lets discuss the influence of Middle Easterners in our countries in terms of culture and genetics.
Here is a couple of articles that I found to be very interesting. Arabs Making Their Mark in Latin America: Generations of Immigrants in Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico By Habeeb Salloum. “Nashara al-Islam bi-khawafiq al-alam” [“Islam spread under waving banners”]. I could not believe my eyes as I read these words etched in Arabic on a church bell preserved in the Palacio de la Inquisición in Cartagena, Colombia’s foremost resort. It was dated 1317 A.D. and presumably brought to this former Spanish colony by early settlers from the Iberian Peninsula who thought the inscription was only a decoration. Little did they realize that this remnant of the Spanish Moors, who had been forcibly converted to Christianity then shipped to the Spanish colonies in South America, was a statement of pride by a defeated people. Thinking of this bell as I walked down Avenue Saint Martin, the main street of Bocagrande, Cartagena’s tourist section, the sign “Heladeria y Repositeria Arabe” caught my eye. Excited, I entered the tidy-looking ice cream parlor. “Are you an Arab? Do you have Arab ice cream?” I asked, first in Arabic then in English. The girl behind the cash register shrugged her shoulders, not understanding a word. In the ensuing days of travel through a number of Colombian coastal cities I found that the bell with its Arabic inscription and the sign “Heladeria Arabe” truly reflected the remains of the converted Moors, exiled to the colonies, and the Arab immigrants who had come in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both groups passed on but left their traces behind. During the first years after the Spaniards landed in South America, a fair number of the settlers were former Muslims of Spain who had been required to convert to Christianity. A hundred years after their conversion, they were still not fully accepted as true Christians, and many of them were sent to the new Spanish colonies. Still yearning for the life of their ancestors, they preserved a good number of traditions inherited from their Arab forefathers. Hence, when the first immigrants from the Greater Syria area came, they found a people with which they had much in common. At the turn of the century, the Syrian newcomers, mostly from a peasant or working class background, landed on the shores of a land still living in the medieval world. With hardly any roads or the other amenities of our modern age, these first immigrants used the coastal rivers as roads to trade with the inhabitants of the primitive and isolated villages. With great determination, hard work, and the mercantile traits which they had inherited from their forefathers, they prospered and eventually opened their own businesses in Colombia’s Caribbean coastal towns. Due to their resourcefulness, those who settled in the villages of the countryside were admired and respected by the local inhabitants. However, in the cities, the locals derogatorily called the Syrian newcomers “Turcos,” looking down on them while envying their success. When the Syrians made some money, most brought brides from their homeland. Only a minority wed Colombian women, including a few from the Guajira Indian tribe. Trying to improve their lives in a land beset by feuding, revolutions and poverty, they had little time to teach their offspring about their Arab culture. In the subsequent years, due to their work-filled lives, the Arabic tongue was almost lost to the Colombian born generations. The society to which the Arabs came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries reinforced the almost total loss of the language. The church was all-powerful and every inhabitant had to fit into the narrow view of the Spanish-Catholic world of that time. I asked George Baladi, a longtime immigrant living in Cartagena, if there were any Muslims among the early Arabs in Colombia. He replied, “I am told that five Muslim families from Tripoli, in present day Lebanon, had come with the early immigrants, but they all had to become Christian.” Baladi, one of the few who has preserved his heritage, and is the representative of the Federacion des Entidades Arabes en Las Americas in Colombia, went on to say that in earlier times one had to be baptized to work and to become a Colombian. Hence, Muslims had to hide their identity. Only much later laws gave freedom and equality to all creeds. Today, there is no problem for people wishing to live under the religion of their choice. The earliest known Syrian immigrant to Colombia is believed to be the Damascene Salim Abu Chaar who arrived by ship in 1885; a good number of others soon followed. The second wave came in the 1920s. The descendants of these first two waves of Syrian immigrants are now involved in every facet of Colombian life. Many are well-educated and they can be found in all professions. A few hold high positions in the armed forces, while others are pillars in the business community. In the political arena, the Arab immigrants have also left an impressive mark. Gabriel Turbay ran for president in 1946, and Julio César Turbay Ayallah, born to an Arab father and Colombian mother, served as president of the country from 1978 to 1982. When first elected he is reported to have stood up in Parliament and declared that he was proud to be of Arab descent. At any one time, there are from 20 to 30 members of Parliament and the Senate who are of Arab origin. It is estimated that there are over a quarter of a million Colombians of Arab descent — almost all tracing their origins to Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The vast majority live along the Caribbean coastline; Barranquilla has the largest number of Arabs in the country. Since it is a large commercial center, it drew many Arab immigrants who have built a huge community center which is the envy of the other communities. One of the oldest of the other communities is in Cartagena, 136 km to the west of Barranquilla. In this city, once known as the “Gateway to El Dorado,” there are only about 2,000 Arab Colombians, but they are very influential. Even though they are a small minority in a city of 900,000, a good number of the these emigrés and their descendants are prominent in all its avenues of life. In this city, the Arabs have built a center, called Club Union, reflecting the unity of the Syrians and Lebanese in Cartagena. With restaurants and numerous recreation facilities, it offers a home away from home for the residents of Arab origin. The Arabs are the only organized ethnic community in the city and, according to Elias Daffach, owner of the restaurant La Olla Cartagena, they are well respected by the other Colombians. In spite of their small number and almost total assimilation, the Arabs have left a significant mark on Colombian society. In every city where they reside, restaurants and cafes proudly display the nameRestaurante Arabe or Comida Arabe. The Arab dishes, kubbah, shish kabab, taboula, tahini, and all types of pies stuffed with cheese, meat, sweets, and vegetables are well-known among the Colombians. Many Colombians have come to think of these delicacies as their own foods, and a good number of these dishes are sold frozen in almost all markets. Strangely enough, even though the Arab immigrants’ descendants have lost their tongue and most of their traditions, they still form social clubs, and about 25 percent marry within the Arab community. ARABS IN VENEZUELA I feasted in the restaurant of the Centro Sirio Venezolano (Syrian Venezuelan Center) on the tastiest kababs which I had ever eaten. The cook, hailing from Aleppo, had done a superb job. No meal, even in his home town, could have been more satisfying than this dinner in one of Venezuela’s top resorts. All around me in the outdoor restaurant and by the swimming pool, about 1,000 out of the 8,000 Arabs who reside in the town of Puerto La Cruz and the adjoining city of Barcelona were eating and playing backgammon, bingo, cards or dominos. Others were watching Arabic videos or chatting while all around, masses of children played and shouted. Above this din, I could barely hear the taped voice of Umm Khalthum, singing of a lost love. This vibrant community had built the most magnificent of all the clubs in Santa Cruz. Unlike in many other urban centers where Arabs have immigrated, in this town the Syrian community had founded a home where they could meet, socialize, and at the same time keep their heritage alive. Credit for the effort and success of establishing the top ethnic center in Venezuela—some say in all of South America—is due, in a large part, to a few dedicated men, mostly from Aleppo, Syria. They were mainly part of the huge Syrian migration to Venezuela which took place during the oil boom of the 1950s. These newcomers scattered throughout the country and are the core of today’s 400,000 Syrians living in Venezuela. Almost every town and village which had missed having Arab settlers from the earlier immigrations, which began in the late 1880s, now has at least one Arab family. They have joined the approximately 500,000 prior immigrants and their descendants, reinforcing Arab culture amongst the older Arab community which had been almost totally assimilated. The center, even though it was almost entirely built by the Syrian community, accepts membership from all Arabs, regardless of their country of origin or religious affiliation. Arab students, not only from Puerto La Cruz, but from other parts of the country, are given free membership. LEBANESE IN MEXICO Arabs who emigrated in the early 1900s from the Ottoman province of Syria, part of which is now Lebanon, to the Yucatán, then a poor area of Mexico, had primarily come from poor villages themselves, and, like their compatriots in the other parts of the Americas, began their lives in the New World as peddlers. Remarkably, soon after reaching Mexico’s shores, they did well. Today, about 30 percent of Mérida’s commercial life is controlled by the descendants of these early Arab immigrants. However, the vast majority have totally assimilated into Mexican society and retain virtually no connection with their Arab past. Despite the prevalent assimilation, a good number of these former Syrian-Lebanese have preserved a pride in their heritage, and today form a close-knit community. Even though a fair number only retain the food of their forefathers and a faint recollection of their ancestors’ origins, they are the driving force behind the Lebanese community and its impressive club. The Lebanese in Mérida organized in the latter part of this century. Their first community center was a rented hall on 63rd Street, in the heart of town. Later, a number of the affluent members donated money to build a clubhouse on the outskirts of the city; the center is now the attractive and prestigious Lebanese Club, drawing the admiration of all Méridans. I spoke with Michel Jacabo Eljure, whose father emigrated from the district of Qura, located in present-day Lebanon. He is a retired businessman who owned a ranch in the Yucatán. He spoke Arabic well and was familiar with the history of the Arabs in Mérida. According to him, even though the Lebanese were only 1 percent of the city’s 1.5 million population, they controlled 30 percent of the commercial and industrial establishments. As for religion, he explained that the Lebanese were originally evenly divided between Maronite and Orthodox Christians. Today, they are all Roman Catholics with only about 20 families still practicing the Orthodox rites. From time to time, a priest travels from Mexico City to administer to these few families’ needs. With the tolerance of peoples to others in mind, I asked Michel, “Why is it that in countries like Canada, multicultural societies are encouraged and here in Mexico it’s total assimilation?” He replied, “Our society is montholitic. We want everyone to be Roman Catholic and speak Spanish. In our community only about 20 people still read Arabic.” He continued, “As for our food, it’s another matter. Even a great number of the non- Lebanese in Mérida cook in their homes our kubbah, grape leaves and other Arabic foods. At least we contributed some of our heritage to Mexico - now our beloved homeland.” This essay appeared in Al Jadid, Vol. 6, no. 30 (Winter 2000) http://www.aljadid.com/content/arabs...ela-and-mexico >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mexican writer searches for the 'Arab' in Latin American culture By Nagham Osman Traveling to Morocco was a starting point for Mexican writer Alberto Ruy-Sánchez who, for the past few years, has been tracing out a new map, one that would bring Mexico closer to the Arab world. A novelist and a non-fiction writer, poet and essayist, Ruy-Sánchez gave a lecture at the Naguib Mahfouz Hall of the new Egyptian Writers' Union headquarters at the Citadel last week to an audience of writers, journalists and professors. The focus of his lecture centered on how Arabic culture has permeated Latin American literature. The revelations and thorough observation of Ruy-Sánchez s studies is the product of years of research aimed at exploring the little-known history that binds those two civilizations together. The event was part of the inauguration of the new headquarters. Over the span of two hours, many examples highlighted Ruy-Sánchez's findings. Culture and literature are sometimes synonymously used without giving much weight to one another. The title of the lecture, "The Arab Expressions in Mexican Culture, was a reminder that present culture still carries much weight in relation to the history and civilization of every nation. Ruy-Sánchez, who is also the editor-in-chief of the prestigious magazine Artes de Mexico, spoke of his experience on his trip to Morocco. Observing handicrafts and ceramics miles away from his homeland, he realized the striking resemblance between these ornaments similar ones in his country. When he found out that the art of Baroque has originated from Arabesque, he also discovered the close connections between Mexican and Arabic art. This was the starting point of his lengthy endeavor to unveil the links between the two cultures. Ruy-Sánchez explained how Mexico and Peru have more similarities with the Arab world compared to Argentina and Chili, whose cultures have been primarily influenced by Europe. The larger part of the lecture, however, emphasized the linguistic exchange, which has eluded people on both sides of the ocean. Mexicans don't know that words like "mandil (handkerchief), "zeit (oil), "berka (pool) for example are in fact derived from the Arabic language. Words in the fields of textiles, ceramics and construction also originated in Arabic. For Ruy-Sánchez, language figures heavily in his writing. "The duty of any writer is to write the best he can, he told Daily News Egypt. "If someone is a talented storyteller, they can tell any story. He added that a writer should pay attention to the quality, the form of writing more than the reality he sees around him. This is one of the reasons why "poetry can get into a dimension of reality unlike other forms. Born in 1951, he received his PhD in 1980 from the University of Jussieu, Paris under the directorship of Roland Barthes. Upon reading history books as a kid, he was overwhelmed to find that Arabs who had lived for over eight centuries in Andalusia, were still referred to by historians as "colonizers. He eventually deduced that it would be irrational to reside that long there and be called "colonizers. At the end of the lecture, he pointed out that the Spanish invasion of America would never be fully understood until the Arab-infused psyche of the invaders at that time is studied and acknowledged. Diwan bookstore hosted writer Ruy-Sánchez the next day, where he briefly discussed his works and novels, which are filled with themes drawn from Arabic literature. Fascinated by the mysticism of Arab culture, the novel "Los Jardines Secretos de Mogador (The Secret Gardens of Mogador), for instance, speaks of the conflict between "One Thousand and One Nights' iconic characters Shahryar and Scheherazade, reversing roles whereby the woman demands that the man tell her stories of the Secret Garden. Arabs living in Mexico though do not share the same experience that Ruy-Sánchez had of rediscovering his culture in a distant land. "Now there are second and third generation Arabs. The first Arabs who came are not there anymore. http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/mex...n-culture.html >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Famous Mexicans of MENA ancestry: ![]() Carlos Slim Helú (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾlos esˈlim eˈlu]; born January 28, 1940) is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who is currently ranked as the richest person in the world in 2012. Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940 to Maronite Christian parents Julián Slim Haddad and Linda Helú, both of Lebanese descent. ![]() Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault. Hayek was born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, the daughter of Diana Jiménez Medina, an opera singer and talent scout, and Sami Hayek Dominguez, an oil company executive who once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos. Hayek's father is of Lebanese ancestry. |
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Jaime Camil Egypt descent
![]() Saca Palestinian descent Sandy Lebanese descent ![]() and etc ---------- Post added 2012-05-14 at 22:42 ---------- Syrian family in Brazil (1924) ![]() http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_diaspora |
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There are many Latin Americans whose second genetic component is MENA after Euro. Plenty of descendants of Conversos and of Moriscos who are still pretty much like their ancestors genetically (though not culturally) with a few minimal added flavors.
I would say that their contribution to Latin American in numbers far outweighs the contribution made by inmigrants who came in the latter parts of our History (XX Century), like the Palestineans, Turks and Jews in P.R. I say this not to diminish their contribution but to recognize the contributions Conversos and Moriscos who came earlier have given our countries. The quality of the latter inmigrants is supreme though. I very much respect and love their positive (always positive) impact on P.R. society and feel very related as they are also my kin. |
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I consider Jews, specially the ones I descend from (Sephardi), MENA as they have always had ties with North Africans (Moroccan Jews and Iberian Sephardi Conversos are actually quite close genetically) and the Near East or Middle East proper. Even the 2% to 5% of Ethiopian admix present in Sephardis and their New World descendants.
---------- Post added 2012-05-14 at 16:20 ---------- Ashkenazis may not be considered MENA. |
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Could you do a thread on Jews and their influence in Latin America?Or do they go under "Middle Eastern" influence? Please read this: Crypto Jews in Mexico/North America ''There are three distinct historical components to colonial roots of crypto-Judaism, largely restricted to Spanish-held territories in Mexico, each with distinct geographical and temporal aspects: early colonial roots, the frontier province of Nuevo Leon, and the later northern frontier provinces. The crypto-Jewish traditions have complex histories and are typically embedded in an amalgam of cryptic Roman Catholic and Judaic traditons. In many ways resurgent Judaic practices mirrored indigenous traditions practiced loosely under Roman Catholic veil. Early colonial period - 1500s In the early days of the European colonization of Mexico, crypto-Jewish conversos from both Spain and Portugal migrated to the Mexican port of Vera Cruz as well to Mexico City (the revitalized Tenochtitlan), a Spanish-controlled colony that was thought to be more lax in inquisition-related matters. Many of the immigrants from Portugal were secondary immigrants from the Jewish Expulsion in Spain of 1492. However, a later similar decree was also issued in Portugal in 1497 effectively converted all Jewish children, making them wards of the state unless the parents also converted. Therefore, many of the early crypto-Jewish migrants to Mexico in the early colonial days were technically first to second generation Portuguese with Spanish roots before that. The number of such Portuguese migrants was significant enough that the label of "Portuguese" became synonymous with "Jewish" throughout the Spanish colonies. Immigration to Mexico offered lucrative trade possibilities in a well-populated colony with nascent Spanish culture counterbalanced by a large non-Christian population. It was largely thought that inquisition-activities would be lax given that the lands were over-whelmingly populated by non-Christian indigenous peoples. So many perceived crypto-Jews were going to Mexico during the 1500s that officials complained in written documents to Spain that Spanish society in Mexico would become significantly Jewish. Officials found and condemned clandestine synagogues in Mexico City. At this point, colonial administrators instituted la Ley de la Pureza de Sangre (Blood Purity Laws), which prohibited migration to Mexico for New Christians (Nuevo Christiano), i.e. anyone who could not prove to be Old Christians for at least the last three generations. During this early time the Mexican Inquisition was formally instituted to insure the orthodoxy of all migrants into Mexico. The Mexico Inquisition was also deployed in the traditional manner to begin ensuring orthodoxy of converted indigenous peoples. The first burnings or Autos da Fe of the Mexican Inquisition were largely targeted at indigenous converts convicted of heresy or crypto-Jews convicted of relapsing into their ancestral faith. Except for the province of Nuevo Leon, the early migration of crypto-Jewish converts did not continue unabated past the initiation of the Blood Purity Laws. Nuevo Leon - 1590s to early 1600s The history of the colonization of Mexico can be described as a northward expansion over increasingly hostile geography well-populated by hostile tribes and loose confederations of indigenous peoples. This expansion was largely financed by the exploitation of mineral wealth, the exploitation of indigenous peoples as labor in mines and the establishment of ranchos for livestock. One troublesome region was a large expanse covering the North-Eastern quadrant of the current geography of Mexico. Chichimec, Apache and other tribes had proved resistant to Christianization and "settling" and in general were perceived to render the frontier (frontera) a lawless and unsettled region. Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva was a Portuguese royal accountant and a New Christian, who received a royal charter to settle the large expanse of land in the hostile frontier, named Nuevo Leon. Significantly, Carvajal y de la Cueva received an exemption from the King of Spain to allow any New Christian to participate in the settling of this region. This exemption allowed an increased number of peoples to come to the hostile region while doing so with immigrants that were legally barred from entering Mexico elsewhere. Carvajal chartered ships from Portugal and the passenger list is thought to have consisted exclusively of New Christians. With Carvajal as governor the colony was based in the city of Monterrey, currently in the state of Nuevo Leon. Within a few years, reports were filed in Mexico City claiming specifically of Jewish rites being performed in the Northern Province and of lax Christianization efforts to convert heathen indigenous peoples. The governor, his immediate family members and others were called to appear before the Inquisition in Mexico City. They were arrested and jailed. The governor subsequently died in jail, while his family members were rehabilitated. One of these was Anna Carvajal, a niece of the Governor. She and others were eventually caught again and sentenced to a burning at the stake for relapsing. The governor's nephews changed their name to Lumbroso. One of these was Joseph Lumbroso, also known as Luis de carvajal el mozo, who is said to have circumcised himself in the desert to conform to Jewish law. His memoirs, letters and inquisition record survive. Two other nephews also changed their names to Lumbroso and became famous rabbis in Italy. During the time in which Governor Carvajal was in office, the city of Monterrey became a target of migration by other crypto-Jews feeling the pressure of the Mexican Inquisition in the south. Thus, the story of Nuevo Leon and the founding of Monterrey is significant for openly concentrating a crypto-Jewish community from all parts of Mexico. Such Jewish communities did not exist in Mexico until the immigration of Ashkenazi communities in the late 1800s and 1900s. Former Spanish-territories in the southwestern U.S. 1600s-1700s Due to the activities of the Mexican Inquisition in Nuevo Leon, many crypto-Jewish descendants migrated to other frontier colonies further west to the trade routes passing through the towns of Sierra Madres Occidental and Chihuahua and further north on the trade route to El Paso (Texas) and Santa Fe (New Mexico), and somewhat less in California. In the former Spanish-held Southwestern United States, some Hispanic Roman Catholics have stated a belief that they are descended from crypto-Jews and have started practicing Judaism. They often cite as evidence memories of older relatives practicing Jewish traditions. Skeptics of the authenticity of the Jewish ancestry of Latinos of the Southwest argue that these remembered traditions could be those of Ashkenazi, not Sephardi, Jews and may possibly be constructed memories due to suggestion by proponents. It is also argued that the Jewish traditions practiced by older relatives were introduced by groups of Evangelical Protestant Christians who purposely acquired and employed Jewish traditions as part of their religious practices. Current times Recent genetic research, however, has shown that many Latinos of the American Southwest are indeed descended from Anusim (Sephardic Jews who were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism). Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Jews possessed the male-specific "Cohanim marker" (which in itself is not necessarily endemic to all Jews, but is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests), and 30 of 78 Latinos tested in New Mexico were found to be carriers. DNA testing of Hispanic populations also revealed between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexico, south Texas and northern Mexico have a Y chromosome that traces back to the Middle East. In northern Mexico, Monterrey, the capital city of the State of Nuevo León, that shares a border with Texas, is said to contain descendants of Crypto-Jews. Monterrey was founded by Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva who although had converted to Roman Catholicism, in 1590 was accused by the Spanish Inquisition of heresy. It was officially found that members of his extended family had reverted to Judaism and he was exiled from the territory then known as New Spain. A large portion of his extended family, 121 people, was executed in Mexico City in 1596. They included most of the original settlers of Monterrey. The State of Jalisco also has several cities with large numbers of Anusim, mainly Guadalajara, Ciudad Guzman, and Puerto Vallarta, although a steady influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe during the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s into Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Veracruz is also widely known. Today, there are between 150,000 and 180,000 Mexican Jews, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Researchers and historians say that number would rise considerably if Anusim (or Crypto-Jews) were included in those estimates.'' http://www.amijewish.info/crypto.html Sculptures of Luis de Carvajal & Diego de Montemayor, Crypto Jews founders of the City of Monterrey in Northern Mexico. ![]() ![]() |
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I consider Jews, specially the ones I descend from (Sephardi), MENA as they have always had ties with North Africans (Moroccan Jews and Iberian Sephardi Conversos are actually quite close genetically) and the Near East or Middle East proper. Even the 2% to 5% of Ethiopian admix present in Sephardis and their New World descendants. |
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