The Arab Lebanese Enhance Merida's Image

posted on: Sep 20, 2017

By: Habeeb Salloum / Arab America Contributing Writer

“The Arabs here!  Yes!  We have a very influential Lebanese community in Mérida.”  Javier Medina Riancho, our tour guide, remarked when I asked him if there were Arabs in his city.  He continued, “The Lebanese here are very well integrated into our society, but they look after their own.  We like the Lebanese.  They do not ask for help from outside their community.  They’re hard-working people who quickly become Mexicans, but most keep their identity.”  Medina Riancho went on, “I know!  My son is married to a Lebanese.  It’s a replay of what happened in Spain.  I could have Arab blood myself.  My name is Medina!  I think it comes from the holy city of Medina.”

Medina’s view of Mérida’s Lebanese is based on the descendants of the early Arab immigrants 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.  At the turn of this century, these Lebanese, who was at that time known as Syrians, came to better their lives and escape the turbulence of the Ottoman Empire, known in that era as `the sick man of Europe’.

In the main, they came from poor villages 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, in this very poor part of the world, they did well.  Perseverance, hard work, and untiring ambition paid off.  Many of them, in a short period of time, became successful businessmen while, in time, their sons and daughters carried on with this tradition.  The descendants of these early Arab immigrants control today about 30% of Mérida’s commercial life.  However, the vast majority are totally assimilated into Mexican society and have virtually no connection with their Arab past.

A fine example of these sons of Arab immigrants is the late Mario Mezquita, a Méridan who lived in Toronto, Canada.  A few years ago when I asked him if he knew that his name meant ‘mosque’, he replied, “Yes I know!  I think my origin is Lebanese.”  Reflecting for a minute, he speculated. “On the other hand, perhaps, my ancestors could have come from Spain and our family name is a vestige from Moorish times.”

Yet, in spite of the total assimilation of many of these former Syrian-Lebanese, a good number have preserved 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 from where their ancestors came, they are the driving force behind the Lebanese community and its impressive club.

The Lebanese in Mérida became 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 Meridians.

When I entered this impressive structure, which is used in the main for socializing, I asked the man at the front desk in my broken Spanish if there was anyone in the building who spoke Arabic.  I do not know if he understood what I was saying, but he motioned for me to follow a man standing nearby.  As we were making our way up the stairs, the man pointed to a family climbing at our side.  I smiled at the young man, “Hable usted inglés o árabe?”  He smiled, “Español y inglés solamente.”  Feeling relieved, I asked him if he could introduce me to an old-timer who could relate to me the history of the Arabs in Mérida.

Soon I was sitting at a table talking with Michel Jacabo Eljure and his wife Betty whose family had emigrated from ‘Ain ‘Arab in Lebanon to the U.S.A.  Michel had met her in the U.S. and had wooed and brought her back to Mérida.  She said that at first, she had found it hard to live in Mexico, but she had quickly adapted and now she loved her life in Montezuma’s land.

Michel, whose father had emigrated from the village of Qura, located in present-day Lebanon and noted for the Arab nationalist feeling of its inhabitants, was 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.

As he spoke in Arabic and his wife in English, my knowledge about the Arabs in the city increased by the minute.  According to Michel, from the first families to call Mérida home and, in the ensuing years, became successful businessmen were the Chapurs, Ibrahim, Dajars, and Xacurs.  He went on to say that now their descendants were well known in the commercial world of Mérida.

He stated that even though the Lebanese were only 1% of the city’s 1.5 million population, they controlled 30% of the commercial and industrial establishments.  In the words of another older gentleman, sitting at the next table, “Not bad for a people who began their lives as peddlers.”

As to the religion, Michel 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 here from Mexico City to administer to these few families’ needs.

“What about Muslims?”  I asked.  Michel shook his head, “There are none.  At one time, there were a few Muslims and Druze in Mérida.  However, now their descendants are all Catholics.”  He continued, “In my youth, I had a Druze friend from the Charruf family.  He used to tell his children to attend Catholic services since his people had no house of worship and he wanted them to know God and at the same time become Mexicans.”

As Michel was talking, I thought of the Arab Muslims and their tolerance.  The Syrian-Lebanese had only been in Mérida for less than a century and they had been almost totally absorbed into the Roman Catholic faith.  Yet, in an Arab country like Syria, countless minorities, many, few in numbers, have existed and lived, mostly in peace, for centuries with their Muslim compatriots.  Almost every Christian and Muslim sect in the world is found in this country and, with exception of the odd flare-up, have lived until our times amiably together – a tribute to the respect the Arab-Muslims have for other religions.

With the tolerance of people 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 monotheistic.  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.”