Arab and Jewish Immigrants in Latin America: Images and Realities by Ignacio Klich & Jeffrey Lesser

Author:Ignacio Klich & Jeffrey Lesser [Klich, Ignacio & Lesser, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General, Social Science, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781135256906
Google: peRSAQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 18703480
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Re-creating Community: Christians from Lebanon and Jews from Syria in Mexico, 1900–1938

Liz Hamui-Halabe

The reconfiguration of the community spaces of Syrian Jews and Christians shows a number of cultural elements from the regions of emigration and Mexico. The similarities and differences shown in the incorporation process to the new enviornment are analysed comparatively. Questions concerning the Mexican struggle for a national identity, the possibilities of inclusion-exclusion allowed by these schemes, the modalities of economic insertion as pedlars, the community institutions that assured social reproduction–temples, schools, religious services and so on – and the degrees of assimilation of both groups to the host society, are discussed in this contribution.

The study of community re-creation requires an understanding of concepts such as identity. Identity is defined as integration and the unity of normative orientations, internalized by the actors involved, to reproduce social and symbolic order as well as preserve group cohesion. Identity conceived in this way erases the tensions between individual and collective conscience. However, as Dubet postulates, it is necessary to discard the naive notion that identity can be assumed uniformly, without conflicting with, scorning, or excluding others. ‘Identity becomes stronger the more it is reaffirmed by social distance.’1

Situations characterized by change and/or breakup, as in the case of migratory processes, are frequently associated with the concept of identity. The loss of status and culture in exchange for the acquisition of new roles (including those desired) brings with it crises of belonging and identity. In the process of re-identification in a distinct ecological and sociocultural setting, the forms in which relations are structured, both inside and outside the group, lay the foundations for future community development. Thus, understanding the actions of the first immigrants in their task of re-creating community is important in viewing the subsequent development of the two communities involved. The concept of identity in this study therefore signifies a process of mutual projections in a collective environment which allows the construction of a common, symbolic code and a grouping of particular ways of life in a determined social practice.

The presence of Arabic-speaking immigrants in Mexico dates back to the Porfirio Díaz period (1876–1910).2 The large groups of immigrants arrived, however, during the second and third decades of this century. This generation of immigrants established the foundations for organizational and cultural models3 and determined the initial roles Syrian Jews and Lebanese Christians would play in various spheres of life in Mexico. The group of immigrants as a collective subject4 was one of the protagonists in the process of integrating into the new society and identifying with their own group. The process of immigration/integration and identification is complex and multidimensional, therefore, its different modalities evolve in various ways, with different timing and rhythms.5

To understand the immigrants’ methods of incorporating themselves into their new reality, it is necessary to understand Mexico’s socio-demographic, economic, political and cultural characteristics at the time of their arrival.

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