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Ethnic group
| عرب الأرجنتين (Arabic) Árabe-argentinos (Spanish) | |
|---|---|
  | |
.jpg) Arab-Argentines during the Day of the immigrants in Buenos Aires. | |
| Total population | |
| + 3,500,000 (by ancestry) 7.6% of Argentina's population (+ 2,000,000 Lebanese) (+ 1,510,000 Syrians) (+ 30,000 Palestinians) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Predominantly in the Argentine Northwest, the Greater Buenos Aires and Córdoba | |
| Languages | |
| Spanish • Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Catholicism · Eastern Orthodoxy Minority: Sunnism · Shiism · Druze | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Arabs · Arab Brazilians · Arab Americans · Arab Canadians · Arab Australians · Arab Spaniards · Arab Colombians |
Arab Argentine refers to Argentine citizens or residents whose ancestry traces back to various waves of immigrants, largely of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage and/or identity originating mainly from what is now Lebanon and Syria, but also some individuals from the twenty-two countries which comprise the Arab world such as Palestine, Egypt and Morocco. Arab Argentines are one of the largest Arab diaspora groups in the world.
Although a highly diverse group of Argentines — in ancestral origins, religion and historic identities — Arab Argentines hold a common identity in the Argentine consciousness, being universally known as turcos ("Turks"), like in the rest of Latin American countries.
The majority of the Arab Argentines are from either Lebanese or Syrian background with a smaller amount of Palestinian, Egyptian and Moroccan background. The interethnic marriage in the Arab community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent who has Arab ethnicity. As a result of this, the Arab community in Argentina shows marked language shift away from Arabic. Only a few speak any Arabic and such knowledge is often limited to a few basic words. Instead the majority, especially those of younger generations, speak Spanish as a first language, and have thoroughly assimilated in the local culture, Arab Argentines have been a regular presence and distinguished themselves in all walks of national life on a par with the rest of the country's melting pot population.
History
There are some indications that the Arab Muslim presence within present day Argentine territory dates back to the time of the Spanish exploration and conquest. The first mentioned Arab settlers were the 15th century's Moorish (Morisco) Muslims of the Iberian peninsula that were people of Arab North African descent who explored the Americas with Spanish explorers, many of them settling in Argentina who were fleeing from persecution such as the Spanish Inquisition.
However, in the 19th century Argentina saw the first real wave of Arabs to settle within its territory. Most of the Arabs who came during this time period were from Lebanon and Syria as a result of the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war (During that time, Lebanon and Syria were Ottoman provinces). While Arab communities existed by 1864, systematic records did not appear before 1868. From 1891 to 1920, 367,348 people of Arabic heritage immigrated into Argentina. When they were first processed in the ports of Argentina, they were classified as Turks (Spanish turcos) because what is modern day Lebanon and Syria was a territory of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, hence the popular (and erroneous) demonym (comparable to others applied in the majority immigrant country to other groups, such as tano (Italian-Argentinian), gallego (Spanish-Argentinian), ruso (Jewish Argentinian) etc.
The causes for Arabs to leave their homeland were an accelerated increase in demographics in Lebanon, the persecution by the Ottoman Turks and the Italo-Turkish War. The Arab immigrants settled in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, Santiago del Estero, Misiones, Chaco, and the Patagonia. A large percentage on Arabs settled in the Cuyo region (which is made up of the provinces of San Juan, San Luis, Mendoza, and La Rioja) whose landscape and crops (olive, vineyards) resemble at time the Middle East's.
Notable people
- Jorge Antonio
- Julio Asad
- Omar Asad
- Yamil Asad
- Alfredo Avelín
- Alejandro Awada
- Juliana Awada
- Carlos Balá
- Elias Bazzi
- Lucia Caram
- Yamila Díaz
- Basilio Lami Dozo
- Eduardo Falú
- Juan Falú
- Daniel Hadad
- Omar Hasan
- Alberto Hassan
- Claudio Husaín
- Darío Husaín
- Juan Luis Manzur
- Carlos Menem
- Eduardo Menem
- Antonio Mohamed
- Daniel Mustafá
- Javier Muñoz (Argentine footballer)
- Ramón Saadi
- Vicente Saadi
- Elías Sapag
- Felipe Sapag
- Luz Sapag
- Mohamed Alí Seineldín
- Zulema Yoma
See also
- Immigration to Argentina
- Asian Argentines
- Argentines
- Arab diaspora
- White Latin Americans
- Lebanese diaspora
- Lebanese Argentines
- Syrian Argentines
- Lebanese Americans
- Lebanese Canadians
- Lebanese Australians
- Lebanese Brazilians
- Lebanese British
- Arab Brazilians
- Islam in Argentina
- Latin American Muslims
- Islamic Organization of Latin America
- Moriscos
References
- "Inmigración sirio-libanesa en Argentina" (in Spanish). Fearab.org.ar. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- Data vary widely among sources: 1,300,000 https://web.archive.org/web/20100606073714/http://www.islamhoy.org/principal/Latinoamerica/argentina/ciarla.htm Islamhoy] (c. 2001); 3,500,000 Inmigración sirio-libanesa en Argentina Archived 20 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine (uncertain, but more recent date)
- Barros, Carolina (23 August 2012). "Argentina's Syrians". Buenos Aires Herald. Archived from the original on 30 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- Klich, Ignacio; Lesser, Jeffrey (1996). "Introduction: "Turco" Immigrants in Latin America". The Americas. 53 (1): 1–14. doi:10.2307/1007471. ISSN 0003-1615. JSTOR 1007471.
- Victoria (16 December 2018). "11 Essential Argentina Slang Expressions You Can Start Using". Spanishland School. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
- Moore, Aaron; Mathewson, Kent (1 January 2013). "Latin America's Los Turcos: geographic aspects of Levantine and Maghreb diasporas". Noesis. Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades. (in Spanish). 22 (43).
- Civantos, Christina (5 February 2016). "The Surprisingly Deep Centuries-Old Ties Between the Middle East and Latin America". Americas Quarterly. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
- ^ "Sirios, turcos y libaneses" [Syrians, Turks and Lebanese] (in Spanish). oni.escuelas.edu.ar. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008.
- Civantos, Christina (3 July 2019). "On Becoming an Arab Argentine Writer: Juan José Saer's La grande". Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. 52 (2): 177–184. doi:10.1080/08905762.2019.1681768. ISSN 0890-5762. S2CID 213820380.
- Dirks, Jerald (2006). Muslims in American History: A Forgotten Legacy. Amana Publications. ISBN 978-1-59008-044-3.
- "Recopilaron casi 200 años de los sirio libaneses en Argentina" [Records of almost 200 years of the Syrian Lebanese in Argentina have been compiled] (in Spanish). elindependiente.com.ar. 2003. Archived from the original on 8 September 2014.
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