“Being Lebanese is not a nationality, it is a job,” says a poem by the Lebanese writer Roda Fawaz. His verse conveys a feeling that is shared by millions of people originally from that Middle Eastern nation, or descendants of migrants who did so over the last 150 years, and who settled in many countries around the world.
Latin America was a destination for a good part of them. Notably in Brazil, with between 8 and 10 million Brazilian-Lebanese. But also in the rest of the countries, from Mexico to Argentina, it is estimated that there are about four million more distributed in the region.
Among them there are names that have achieved a prominent place in the world of business, politics or culture. The businessmen are perhaps the best known, with surnames such as Slim (Mexico), Jafet y Ghosh (Brazil), Char (Colombia), Menem (Argentina) or Saieh (Chile).
And with international fame, Shakira or Salma Hayek or the actor Ricardo Darín show how far artists of Lebanese origin have come.
The diaspora in Latin America almost triples the 5 million inhabitants of Lebanon, a country that is currently going through a crisis due to the war between the armed group Hezbollah based in Lebanese territory and the forces of Israel.
But the success of this community in Latin America was not automatic. It was based on what the Mexican historian of Lebanese origin Carlos Martínez Assad calls “a solidarity migration” that led them to settle in various countries in the region.
“Some were first in Venezuela or Colombia and then came to Mexico. And vice versa, people who were in Mexico ended up in another Latin American country. Or to the United States and vice versa, they first arrived there and come to Mexico. It is a phenomenon of establishing networks,” explains the researcher, author of a vast collection of books and publications on Lebanese migration.
But what characterized this community, and what led them to focus on the social imagination, was commerce. They found the ways and means to bring products to many points of the countries they adopted and thus establish their bases in the industrialization and modernization of Latin America.
Why did they leave Lebanon?
The country that is today Lebanon was for three centuries (1516-1918) part of the Ottoman Empire, which dominated large portions of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkan Peninsula in eastern Europe.
It was in the 19th century when the Mount Lebanon region began to experience a turbulent time, largely due to the dispute for political, economic and religious power between the Maronite Christians and the Druze Muslims.
The Maronites saw how, starting in the 1840s, there began to be shortages of food and opportunities, says Martínez Assad. And with the outbreak of a war with the Druze, came the first waves of emigration starting in 1860.
“There were 60 years of great instability in the region,” explains the historian. Many of the Maronites headed to Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. But others also pointed to the thriving American continent.
The First World War, in which the Ottoman Empire made an alliance with the Central Powers, generated a new wave of emigrants. “The Turks recruit young people, regardless of their religion, they grab them from the street. That is why many people, to protect their children, continue sending them to other countries, such as those in America,”
This largely explains why Lebanese migration to America was characterized by the arrival of young people.
It is known that initially many Lebanese were taken from Europe to the countries of the Latin American region through agents. Many had the intention of reaching the United States, but were deceived and taken to countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba or Mexico.
Others saw Latin American countries as a place with opportunities.
The merchants
The fact that the Lebanese who emigrated from their country were Christians, from the branch of the Maronites who practice a ritual close to Catholicism, greatly facilitated their adaptation and cultural acceptance in the countries of the region, explains Martínez Assad.
“It will allow much broader contact, it even favors marriages, something that did not happen with other communities, such as Jews or Asians,” he points out.
The Ottoman Lebanese territory also had a strong relationship with France. During the troubled 1860s, French forces defended the Maronites and after the First World War the Lebanese territory was a French protectorate. This explains that culturally there was a lot of exchange between both parties.
For this reason, Martínez Assad considers, the Francophilia of the Lebanese helped them adapt to other Romance languages, such as Spanish and Portuguese from Latin American countries.
Once they landed in America, a “networking phenomenon” of Lebanese took place that allowed them to spread beyond the main ports and cities.
“In Lebanon there is something that gives a lot of importance to the Phoenician past, that although it was thousands of years ago, the idea of being merchants remains in the unconscious. “To jump into the sea for adventure and live off what is produced,” says the historian.
The Lebanese were generally engaged in commerce and agriculture in Lebanon.
But it is that first activity that they are beginning to develop in Latin America. Those who were not merchants in the past understand that in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico or Venezuela there is a need to establish distribution chains.
And so many “take on the task of going to many towns.”
In Brazil, one of the first phenomena of the so-called “muscats” occurred that would characterize the Lebanese on the continent: they were street vendors who carried on their backs a huge box with innovative products, many brought from abroad, which they sold on the streets and the squares.
A figure that was quickly replicated in other countries and that led the Lebanese to acquire that social profile of merchants of all types of products and novelties.
Although being Christians and adapting to the language allowed them to put down roots in the countries of the region. They also faced some resistance. In South America, in particular, they began to be called “Turks”, sometimes with a derogatory note, due to their accent when speaking Spanish and the very fact that they came from the empire dominated by Turkey.
But in fact, Lebanese migration also merged with that of the Syrians (neighbors of Lebanon) who came to America to try their luck, which led them to be socially placed in the same migrant group although, strictly speaking, they were of different origins.
Your prosperity
Although Martínez Assad highlights that not all families of Lebanese origin that live in Latin America today are wealthy, they were a social group that had a certain prosperity throughout the 20th century.
Many merchants went from being street vendors to establishing commercial premises. Networks to move goods were no longer limited to a local or regional level, but import agencies began to be established.
The second and third generations of Lebanese in Latin America also had greater access to university education, which was key for families.
The Slims in Mexico, the Chars in Colombia, or the Jafets in Brazil, but also a few other families in other countries in the region, laid the foundations of what are today large companies and industries since the 1920s.
And with business they also opened the door to politics, from their access to local to national positions. In Brazil, the country with the largest population of Lebanese origin, Michel Temer is a politician of Lebanese origin who became president (2016-2018). But hundreds of politicians from that community have also passed through Congress.
The current president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, is of Lebanese origin. Ecuador also had President Abdalá Bucaram (1996-1997) and Argentina had Carlos Menem (1989-1999). Two senior Venezuelan officials are Tarek William Saab and Tareck El Aissami, who are of Syrian-Lebanese origin.
Shakira and Salma Hayek are two of the Latin American artists who have gone the furthest in music and film, respectively.
They also created foundations, hospitals and their food began to be known through restaurants in the main cities of Latin America.
Political and economic power, however, has also attracted corruption scandals. In Mexico, two members of the community, from the Nacif and Kuri families, were involved in cases of pedophilia. Individual situations that end up affecting the entire community.
look from afar
For Martínez Assad, the prosperity of the community came as a result of the dedication to work of the first generations.
“Something that is highly praised is work and I believe that is true. I come from a family where my uncles got up at 5 am to fix their business. They spent the entire day in the store. And at night they continued arranging business for the next day,” he points out.
Currently, the constant social and military conflicts in Lebanon in the last two decades – especially the fight of the Shiite armed group Hezbollah with Israel – have been viewed with concern by the Lebanese community.
However, Martínez Assad perceives a certain distance, at least in the Mexican Maronite Christian community.
“There is no return migration nor much knowledge of what is happening in Lebanon. Politics is very complex to understand. The government is made up of religious groups, from 18 religions in Lebanon,” he points out.
Situations such as the current conflict with Israel, which has launched incursions against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, however, are still “very regrettable” for the Lebanese who have to watch from afar the conflict in the country that for their ancestors was their home and that gives them identity thousands of kilometers away.
As Fawaz wrote: “To be Lebanese is to leave Lebanon but Lebanon never abandons you. To be Lebanese is to have a country that I have never lived in but it is mine.”
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