Posted on YouTube: December 29, 2013
Ironically, Cartagena, Colombia is named after Cartagena, Spain, which was named after the ancient North African port of Carthage.
International Arab Restaurant – Cartagena, Colombia
Colombia
Festival Árabe in Medellín, Colombia
Posted on YouTube: July 26, 2016
Apparently, this is an annual festival.
Down South, they have Scottish festivals. In the Midwest, they have Oktoberfests. In South America, where Arabs abound, they have festivals árabes.
Syrians Flee to South America
Some stories
Syrian refugee flees all the way to Colombia to escape the violence at home
24 June 2013BOGOTA, Colombia, June 24 (UNHCR) – Millions of Syrians have been displaced internally by their civil war or fled abroad, but few have gone as far as Ahmed to escape the violence. Now he is a refugee in Bogota, learning Spanish so he can support himself in Colombia.
Argentina: An Exile Destination for Syrians Escaping the Conflict
14 February 2013The ongoing political conflict in Syria, opposing rebel factions to government forces, has generated an influx of Syrian immigrants to Argentina since its beginning in 2011. Due to the existence of an important Syrian community in the country, many of those who had relatives here chose Argentina as their exile destination, as the lack of security and the paralysation of the economic activity in Syria obliged many families to leave their homeland.
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Since the beginning of the conflict, the Argentine consulate in Damascus has seen the number of demands for visas increase by 40%.
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28 November, 2017 – Had to remove dead video.
Shakira Singing in Arabic
Shakira is a Columbian Singer of mixed heritage, part of which is Arab. This is a video of Shakira in Dubai singing in Arabic. Her father is of Lebaneses extraction. Her mother is Spanish and Italian. Her names means full of grace in Arabic.
Shakira was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. She is the only child of Nidia Ripoll and William Mebarak Chadid. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Lebanon to New York City, where her father was born. From her mother, Nidia Ripoll, she has Spanish (Catalan and Castilian) and Italian descent
What is interesting is that it was ethnic Arab music which started her career.
When Shakira was four, her father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant, where Shakira first heard the doumbek, a traditional drum used in Arabic music and which typically accompanied belly dancing. She started dancing on the table, and the experience made her realize that she wanted to be a performer. She enjoyed singing for schoolmates and teachers (and even the nuns) at her Catholic school, but in the second grade was rejected for the school choir because her vibrato was too strong. The music teacher told her that she sounded “like a goat”. At school, she says she had been known as “the belly dancer girl”, as she would demonstrate every Friday at school a number she had learned.
