Arabs in Latin America: Making a Difference

posted on: Mar 27, 2019

By John Mason/Arab America Contributing Writer

In this posting, we look at one additional aspect of the Arab diaspora to the Americas. Last week, we reviewed the general diaspora to Latin America of proportionately many more Arabs than immigrated to the U.S. and Canada. Here we will detail the contribution of Arabs to specific South and Central American societies. These Arabs seemingly have made bigger inroads to specific countries that have their North America cousins. This may be a matter of how effectively they’ve been able to integrate into the specific country to which they immigrated, their religion, and distinctive personalities, among other possibilities. In this piece, we look at individual cases of such Arab immigrants and their roles in changing the political, economic and cultural landscapes of their adopted South and Central American countries.

Brief Overview of Arab Immigration to Latin America

To repeat from the previous posting, estimates of Arab migration to Latin America may be exaggerated. The following is one version, by country:

Relative to the immigration of Arabs to North America, their movement to Latin America has been significantly greater. As much as 5% of Latin America is comprised of Arabs. This equates to about 25-30 million people. The vast majority of these immigrants is Christian, who has come to fit the Roman Catholic mold or who’ve more recently converted to the Evangelical branch of Christianity. Far fewer are Arab Muslims.

One theory for the easier assimilation of Arab Christians to Latin America is the commonality of religious sentiments. Additionally, these Christians have tended to be well-educated and economically successful immigrants.

Successful Latin American Arabs

One of the richest men in the world—in fact, the richest until Jeff Bezos of Amazon came along—is Carlos Slim Helú a Lebanese Mexican.

Carlos Menem, an Arab of Syrian origin was, until recently, president of Argentina. Many individuals of Arab origin have become very successful in the politics, business, fashion, film, music, and sports of South and Central America. Below are abbreviated lists of such successful Arabs.

Arab-Latinos are well-embedded in the politics of many countries of South and Central America, as follows:

A correction from last week’s post is that Elias Antonio Saca was a former president of El Salvador (2004-09) — not, as stated, Honduras.

In Business, these are some of the highly successful Arab Latino Americans:

In Fashion and Beauty, the following are notable Arab Latina women who represent a sense of Arab female beauty:

Lebanese Mexican actress Salma Hayek is a highly popular film star and Shakira is a Lebanese Colombian superstar singer.

Such notable Arabs as those listed above have prospered across the continent of Latin America, including the Caribbean. They have done so despite the varied types of governments spanning the continent, ranging from dictatorships to democracies. It seems, however, that Arab Latinos have prospered and come to positions of importance in countries that lean towards democracies.

What’s on the Horizon for the Arabs of Latin America?

A few trends that may affect Arab Latin Americans include a pro-Israeli stance on the part of Arab Evangelical Christians. Such a trend has also become an important part of U.S. identity politics, where Evangelicals are also associated with a pro-Israeli stance coupled with a dose of Islamophobia. Contrary to this trend is another influence, namely the infusion into Latin America of Saudi Arabian and Iranian funding of pro-Islamic campaigns. While this funding has not resulted in the conversion of Christian Arabs to Islam, it has influenced some Arabs to shift to an anti-Zionist stance. Especially among Palestinians in Chile, a radicalization against Israel has begun to set in—despite the fact that most of these Palestinians are Christians.

Arab immigrants to Latin America have been successful over many generations in adapting to the socio-economic, political and religious landscapes of the countries where they reside. Nevertheless, they have also begun to be caught up in the web of international politics—especially in the opposing arenas of pro-Zionist/pro-Israeli versus anti-Islamist/anti-Palestinian sentiments. Perhaps it’s inevitable that these Arabs have become embroiled in this political web. It is no doubt part of the political-cultural- religious baggage they brought with them from the ‘Old World’ to the ‘New World.’

(References: Mike Konrad, pseudonym, ‘latinarabia.com,’ [an anti-Islamist website in its preliminary stages, no date];  https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2012/09/the _arabs_of_south_america.html#ixzz5idaz2U00; Gulf News, “How the Arabs shaped Latin America,” May 17, 2016; Wikipedia, “Prominent Members of the Arab Diaspora;” Lamia Oualalou, “The Arabs of Latin America,” The Nation, July 12, 2017.)

John Mason, an anthropologist specializing in Arab culture and its diverse populations, is the author of recently-published LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, 2017, New Academia Publishing.