Contingent Foundations of Inclusion and Exclusion: Syrian-Lebanese-Brazilians in the Decade of the 1930s

• In Event: Forms of Belonging, Forms of Exclusion: In/visible Others in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Since the late 1800s, Arabic speakers from what today we call Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine began to immigrate to the Americas in search of fortune and freedom from Ottoman rule and sectarian politics. In the decades following their arrival to their new homeland, the absorption of these “certifiably” white immigrants into post-abolition Brazilian aided their economic mobility, especially in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The economic success of many Arabic speakers allowed them to travel back to their former homeland, often accompanied by their underage children and wives. After a seasonal period, most families returned to Brazil. In this cyclical process, ideas about color, race, and citizenship often clashed with the cultural and political traditions of local authority. Syrian-Lebanese men, women, and children often negotiated their cultural and political identities to maintain their family unit, regardless of the political climate of their geographical location. Unfortunately, from time to time, family members often had to negotiate their cultural and political identities within the family as a way to forge national alliances to the country of their individual choosing. Based on archival research, this paper explores the multiple spaces (geographical, intellectual, political, and religious) where race, color, religion, gender, and citizenship informed cultural and social structures of inclusion and exclusion for the Syrian-Lebanese-Brazilians in the modern nation state.

Author

• José D Najar, Southern Illinois University