THE ARABIC IMMIGRATION TO
ARGENTINA
Spanish English Arabic
Nobody definitely abandons their land, their family or
their friends because of an adventure or any other rea-
son.
The Arabic immigration toAmerica and specially in Argentina started in 1850.
Nevertheless, the massive migration begins by the end of the XIX century. During this times happened the first repression to the Christians of the Ottoman Empire, which was commanded by the Sultan Abdel Hamid II. For that reason, most of the migrants came from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. These people were arriving to a new world, a very far away and strange one with respect to the language, customs, habits,food, etc. They were not concerned with either a proper cultural background or an economical budget. For some, their a goal was to remain in that land for several years while saving money and then return to the born place. In that place they would get in contact again with their family. But things happened the other way round. They remained in this country and over here they married people who didn´t speak their language. So then and after the birth of their sons and daughters the immigrants started getting closer to this land. Most of them succeded in the economic side of the story because they were very honest and reliable people. By the end, they could achieve social stability and not feel bad because of being Christians.
They were young people who arrived to Argentina because of several reasons. The most important of them was the poverty that they suffered in their former land. Another reason was the point of not getting involved in the Military Service in Arabia and being this way under the rules of the Empire. Lastly, they felt attracted to share the dream of building the “America” by their parents and friends who were living in Argentina.
But whenever they arrived to Argentina they found some unexpected difficulties. For instance, women were discriminated by the local political society because they were coming from a world in which men opressed them. That was the most significant concept that reigned at that moment, and the event that the press at that timepublished in the media .
The majority of the immigrants were single and there were no Arabic women in Argentina. Some of the men used to bringArabic women to marry. Sometimes they met for the first time in the port. Another ones married argentinian women that didn´t have any type of relationship with the Arabic community.
This migrations took place in stages and gradually and in some cases they were promoted by the argentinian government troughout the different embassies abroad. For instance, in Italy everybody was speaking about the wealth inArgentina. These comments made the Lebanese who were living in Europe write to their families and friends living in Argentina. Then, they came to live to this country. Till 1918 they arrived with a Turkish passport. Later, the passport was sirian, lebanese or from the State of Aleppo. All of them were issued by the French authorities. The Turkish embassy in Buenos Aires never accepted them as citizens of Turkey specially because they were christians.
The sirian and lebanese immigrationtook place around the Atlantic Ocean in countries like Brasil, Uruguay and Argentina; otherwise, most of the Palestinians migrate to the countries near the Pacific Ocean like Chile.
Whenever they chose the country where to live in they valued the presence of friends and relatives that were already established in those countries. A lot of them started living in Buenos Aires and its sorroundings. On the other hand, other ones went to live to the north of Argentinamainly to the provinces of Tucuman and Santiago del Estero or maybe to the north provinces. It is true that a minority group of them went to live to the Patagonia at the south of Argentina. Above it all the Arabic immigration is very important in the country to the point of believing that there isn´t any single town in Argentina that don´t count with descendants of the Arabic peninsula.
One day they began to sell products at the streets. This is why they said “beine, beineta”. This happened because in the Arabic alphabet the letter P does not exist. As they were very hard workers very soon they left the streets and settled up their general brands small businesses. They developed professionally and economically. Besides, at this moment the Arabic descendant women own a very important role in the argentinian society. For instance, they work in several charity entities and in the Hospital Sirio-Libanes in Buenos Aires city.
The first descendants chose in between going on with their father´s small business or studying at university. That´s why there are a lot of professionals who are very renowned politicians like Dr. Carlos Menem who was the president of Argentina during the ¨90.
Unluckily, during the first period the immigrants felt worried of living in the poverty so they left aside the teaching of the Arabic language to their descendants maybe at bilingual schools although there are some exceptions to this rule. This is the reason why the first and second generation of argentinians almost don´t know how to speak and write the arabic language.During these years this tendency has been specially reverted in Buenos Aires city. Most of them have appreciated the different Islamic establishments and entities where to study the language. This students are the third argentine generation.
By 1920 there had been built hundreds of Arabic clubs and associations throughout the entire Argentina. Most of them are operating in the present time. They built churchs like the mosques and sinagogues. In between the Christian we can identify three types of Churches. They respond to different theological and liturgic matters.
1 – The Antioquia Patriarchate Ortodox Catholic Church.
2 - The Maronite rite Catholic Church.
3 - The OrtodoxSirianChurch.
The first one is the biggest church and it is represented in Buenos Aires by the Saint George Cathedral, which is the Archbishopic See in ArgentinaRepublic. This community has taken very special care for keeping alive the oriental Christians traditions.
The Maronite Catholic Church owns its proper see in Buenos Aires downtown and it is the cultural center of the Maronite community in Argentina.
By the end, the OrtodoxSyrianChurch represents a minority group between the Christian Arabics in the country. They had converted to the Christianism in Century I and so they have established in La Plata ( 40 Milles to the south of Buenos Aires ), where the Patriarchal lives. They have been living in Cordoba and Santiago del Estero as well. The distinctive characteristic of this community is the variety of origin places, Whereas the communities of Santiago del Estero and Cordoba were founded by immigrants who came from the Syrian city of Homs, those ones who went to La Plata City arrived from the Turkish Kurdistan and mostly from Mardin and Diyarbakir.
The arabs that practiced the muslim religion built up the first mosque in Buenos Aires city, which was called Al-Ahmad. Later, it was built the Al-Tahuid and recently the impressive King Fahd Mosque in the center of Palermo neighborhood.
As well, the jewish arabs built their Temples in the neighborhoods of Barracas, Once, Palermo and throughout the rest of the country too.
Moreover, it started the circulation of the first newspapers written in Spanish and Arabic. It appeared as well the first Arabic restaurants specially in Buenos Aires and later in Rosario, Cordoba and Mendoza cities. Nowadays, some Arabic dishes are very popularin the country like the “sfija”, the keppe , the backlava and the Arabic bread.
There are a lot of sirian and lebanese merchants working in Buenos Aires city and most precisely at Reconquista Street. The “Caras and Caretas” magazine has published that between the Charcas and Cordoba streets there only exists Turkish stores. On the other hand, the sirian and specially those ones from Aleppo zone who belonged to the jewish religion occupied the Once neighborhood and Canning Avenue. ( Today Scalabrini Ortiz Avenue ).
During the ´30 decade the immigration to our country starts to decrease. It stopped by 1950. Since that moment the Palestinian immigrated to Argentina as a result of political problems in their country. They chose to live in Brasil and Canada.
By this time, there are 3 millions arabic descendants living in Argentina, which is considered a very high percentage of the argentine population.
Nowadays, here we are the descendants of those people who reached this land full of illusions, memories and flavours from their millenary country in which they were born.
May, 2011
Dr. Jorge Tarzian
Buenos Aires, Argentina