So you think I am crazy for saying the tango will break the Palestinian immigrants.
You might be forgiven if, as an American, you thought tango was an older, dying art forum. I, like most Americans, used to think tango’s heyday was around 1910.
You could not be more wrong. Tango never died in Argentina. It had its ups and downs; but it always re-invented itself and came back. In the 1950s, Astor Piazzola mixed it with jazz and classical music to create Nuevo Tango [New Tango]. Reviled at first, it sparked a revolution in the art form.
In the 1980s and 1990s, electrotango came out.
Sin Rumbo (Aimless) – by Otros Aires [Other Airs] – mixes older tangos with newer electronic forms
If, like me, you are American, you are probably unaware of tango’s resurgence. I know I used to be. Tango is roaring back. Now there are Argentine grandparents dancing tango with the grandchildren and their kids.
If one were to put 200,000 Palestinians in Argentina – less than ½% of the whole population, the Arabs would be confronted with a culture which not only gender mixes, but does so daily; and flaunts it in one’s face.
There is no way, Sharia would last more than one generation.
Pa’ Bailar [To Dance]
by Bajofondo [Low-Deep] – An Argentine-Uruguayan Electrotango band
The last, the Ninawa Daher Foundation, was named after a beloved Agentine lawyer, newscaster, TV hostess of Maronite-Christian-Lebanese ancestry. It is a charity which helps women.
Ninawa Daher died rather young – she was 31 – in a car crash in 2011.
Argentina is about 9% Arab. Many, if not most Latin-Arabs, are intermarried and not pure Arab; but Arabs are a large enough community that she had quite a following.
They are running a festival this month in Buenos Aires about Arab-Latin arts.
If you are in Buenos Aires, check it out.
Madrilenos (Madrid citizens) have a lisp (called a ceceo)
Spaniards talk like Daffy Duck
Posted on YouTube: January 9, 2010
It may seem odd that I, an American, would know about this.
A little over 2 years ago, I was trying to learn some Spanish by going to YouTube. From past experience, I know that South Americans speak better Spanish than Spaniards. Spaniards have a lisp and cannot pronounce the letter s.
The Spaniards of Madrid say Ethpaña, not España.
It is like talking to Daffy Duck.
So, I went to check out some videos from Argentina and Chile. The Latinos of South America, particularly Argentina and Chile, tend to be of European extraction, and speak a much more educated Spanish, without the lisp of the Madrilenos (citizens of Madrid) of Spain.
I accidentally found a video about a video about a show called DESDE EL ALJIBE (FROM THE WELL), a program aimed at Arab-Latins in Argentina.
Ninawa Daher: From the Argentine show: DESDE EL ALJIBE
Posted on YouTube: September 9, 2012
The name comes from the community Water Well where news and gossip is traded among Arabs in their communities. In America, we get our gossip at the office Water Cooler. Same principle.
Click after click, and I found dozens of videos about DESDE EL ALJIBE.
Ninawa Daher was the co-host.
I could not understand all their Spanish, but I was able to get the general idea.
One click lead to another, and I discovered a massive – and I do mean massive – Arab subculture in South America. Not just in Argentina, but in Chile (which has a massive Palestinian population), Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, all of Latin America.
Most fascinating is that almost no one in America, or Europe, knows about this. The only time our news mentions Arabs in South America is when someone arrests a Hezbollah operative.
Our media never tells us that there are 25-30 Million Arabs in South America. Ninety-five perent (95%) of them, or more, are Christian. Many of these Arab-Latins had ancestors who went to South America around 1900, when they were fleeing Turkish Muslim persecution.
Latin immigrants came from Syria, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine as well. Most were Christian. A few were Muslim; but most of their children or grandchildren are Christian. They assimilate well.
They tend to be well off, and elite, in Latin America. Yet, we never hear about this. They present an image of a successful, Westernized, educated, elite ethnic group that we never hear about.
We never hear how mainstream Arab culture has become in South America. I found dozens, if not hundreds, of videos of Latins with names indicating Spanish, Italian, or German origins who have taken up Arab Dance, and appear in Arab Dance shows. Check out my Dancer of the Day Category.
Viña del Mar – a beach resort in Chile
The Palestinians in Chile are elite
Posted on YouTube: May 31, 2011
This is not some salacious trend. Arab Dance is taught to young girls, and not all are of Arab descent. In fact it is taught at Catholic Schools. (Click Here). It is considered cultural.
This is seen as a positive thing.
Just as American Jews are discovering the Jewish roots, these Arab-Latins are re-discovering their Arab roots, it seems.
There is a positive side to the Arabs, and South America presents it.
What you say? Arabs in the land of the gauchos?!
I asked the same thing. Gauchos and Arabs do not mix.
Arab Origin of Gauchos – Ninawa Daher from DESDE EL ALJIBE
Posted on YouTube: September 1, 2012
I soon found out how wrong I was. Apparently, Gauchos came from Moorish exiles from Spain who went to South America. Ninawa Daher did a piece on DESDE EL ALJIBE about the history of the Arab – Gaucno connection that almost no one knows anything about.
BTW: Though once considered ridiculous, more and more historians are coming to the unavoidable conclusion that the Guachos have some Arab/Moorish input in their history.
It is two years later, since I ran into these videos – almost by accident. My Spanish is still terrible. I have trouble making out what they are saying but I have discovered into a massive subculture that is astounding.
I wish I were younger. I would learn re-learn my Spanish, and learn Arabic as well.
Now, do not get me wrong. I remain suspicious of extremist Islam; but our media ignores a positive side to the Arabs which should be encouraged.
I am neither Arab, Hispanic, Latin, Muslim, nor Jewish. I am an American Christian of European ancestry. I just find this fascinating. I am amazed how few people here in the United States know about this.
This ignorance – which is fostered by our media – is a story in and of itself.
July 3, 2020 – Edited: Had to replace a dead video link. November 20, 2024 – Edited: Made more mobile friendly.
MOISÉS VILLE, Argentina — At its height in the 1940s, this outpost on Argentina’s grasslands had four synagogues for a population of 5,000, a theater for Yiddish-language acting troupes, a newspaper filled with feverish debates about the creation of the state of Israel and saloons where Jewish gauchos galloping in from the pampas could nurse a drink alongside fellow cowhands.
Now, Moisés Ville, founded in 1889 by Jews fleeing the pogroms of the Czarist Russian empire, has only about 200 Jews among its 2,000 residents. The last regularly functioning synagogue lacks a rabbi. The Hebrew school halted classes this year because of the dwindling number of Jewish children. Some of the last remaining Jewish gauchos have swapped their horses for Ford pickup trucks, and they now ponder the future of their way of life.
