Habib’s was founded by a Portuguese-born baker, Alberto Saraiva, who had no particular ties to the Middle East himself, got the idea early in 1988 after an ailing old man of Arab descent applied for a job in his bakery. With no job at hand for the man to apply to, but upon learning that he had been a cook back in his home land, Mr. Saraiva decided to open a small fast-food restaurant focused on Middle-Eastern fast-food, unheard at the time in Brazil, believing the success could rely on the novelty of it, and hired the man. … The first Habib’s restaurant was opened later that same year.
An amazing video. Generally true … but … though incredible …
the author underestimates the numbers of Arabs in Latin America. This is because many Lebanese Christians will not identify as Arabs, and often assimilate so rapidly that they lose any ethnic identification.
He also overestimated the numbers of Muslims in Latin America which, though growing, is still relatively small as a percentage.
WHAT HE DOES GET RIGHT – AND MAGIFICENTLY SO – IS THAT THE LEBANESE CHRISTIANS WERE WESTWARD LOOKING AND EAGER TO ASSIMILATE.
There is a demographic issue when accounting for the Arabs in Latin America. For an example: Look at this inconsistency for Colombia (image below).
Screenshots of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia estimated about 800,000 – 3.2 million Lebanese Colombians, out of approximately 50 million people in Colombia. Take a moment to let that enormous spread in estimated numbers sink in.
Now look at the second image. Notice that the Arab diaspora in Columbia is listed at 1.5 million.
Did you notice the contradiction? Lebanese-Colombians could be as high as 3.2 million, but another chart lists only 1.5 million Arab-Colombians.
How can there be more Lebanese-Columbians than Arab-Columbians, when the Lebanese are a subset of Arabs?
This is what makes checking the demographics of Arabs in the Western Hemisphere so hard. As is so often stated, the problem is that many Lebanese refuse to call themselves Arabs.
The number of Arabs in South America is much higher than official figures cite.
Similar inconsistencies crop up in Argentina and the United States. In Australia, the Lebanese do not even have to list their ancestry as Arab, but can cite Syriac (which is a language group, not necessarily Syrian) instead.
I suspect elsewhere as well.
The demographic contradictions stem from the reluctance of Lebanese Christians to identify as Arabs.
Lebanese Christians were horribly persecuted by the Muslims. In the nineteenth century, the French had to intervene in Lebanon to prevent a genocide of Christians by the Muslims. Many Lebanese Christians prefer to call themselves Phoenicians, by virtue of their ancient Phoenician past. Some will get rather indignant if you call them Arabs.
This has led to the odd situation where Lebanese are often considered completely different than Arabs.
Yet, upon arrival in any country, Lebanese Christians speak Arabic, eat Arabic food, and listen to Arabic music. The international community considers them Arabs.
Most of the Lebanese who immigrated to the West were from the Christian community. Muslims were less likely to leave. And, given that Maronite Christianity is affiliated with Roman Catholicism – the dominant religion in Latin America – Lebanese Maronites could seamlessly blend into Catholic communities in one generation. The first generation of kids would be indistinguishable from other Latins.
Complicating the matter, Lebanese Christians, primarily the Maronite Christians, have a portion of European DNA, as a result of their ancestors having intermarried with Europeans Crusaders. In plain terms, they are sometimes slightly whiter than other Arabs, and can often pass for Europeans. In Latin America, whites are often the elite, and Maronites would have had that advantage.
Muslims did immigrate to Latin America, but in smaller numbers, and often decades later, long after the Maronites blended in.
Mixing things up further, Muslim Lebanese certainly consider themselves to be Arabs. So ironically the Muslim-Lebanese would classify themselves as Arabs – in contravention to the Christians – primarily the Maronite Christians – who consider themselves to be Phoenician, not Arabic.
Historically, the Lebanese Christians, who refuse to identify as Arabs, were also determined to blend in, assimilate, and intermarry rather rapidly. So if they are under-reported, it is because they assimilated so well. The Lebanese Christians are a large almost invisible community.
The migration of Lebanese Christians to the Americas was rather large, and the result is that glaring inconsistencies in demographics can occur. Hence the number of Arabs in any country in the Western Hemisphere is grossly under-reported.
Thankfully, this is not a problem for anyone, but demographers.
Take for example: Julio César Turbay. He was the 25th president of Colombia, and was half-Lebanese. The product of assimilation and intermarriage.
This curiosity has to be noted.
February 3, 2018 – Edited: Grammatical error. July 17, 2020 – Edited: Added image. Added and edited text.
Demographers and statisticians have nightmares counting the Arabs in Latin America.
To see this in action one need merely go to: Lebanese-Argentine, on Wikipedia which lists 1.5 Million Lebanese in Argentina …
and then go to: Arab-Argentine, which lists a spread of 1,300,000 – 3,500,000 Arab-Argentines.
How in the world could Wikipedia even entertain 1.3 Million as the low end of the spread when it lists 1.5 Million Lebanese-Argentines, who are roughly half the Argentine-Arab population? The Lebanese alone would set the low end at 1.5 Million. Realizing that Syrian Orthodox Argentines are just as numerous, if not more, would fix the low end of Arab-Argentines at 3.0 Million, not 1.3 Million.
So how does this idiocy arise?
The Lebanese Maronites will often not self-identify as Arabs.
Actually, 3.5 to 4.0 Million Arab-Argentines is probably the more accurate spread. This is backed up by other sources, including FEARAB-Argentina which claimed 4 Million Arab-Argentines (probably a slight bit high).
In Argentina, the Arabs claimed 4 Million Population (1:00) – Mostly Christian
They were mad that a popular secular Arab-Argentine show was being cancelled to make
way for a Muslim show that most Arab-Argentines, being Christian, did not even want.
In the case of South America, I have found that a good rule of thumb – except for Chile – is to find the number of Lebanese and double it to account for Syrian Orthodox Christians, and then add another 10% to account for other Arabs to get a good estimate. The Maronites and Syrian Orthodox are roughly equal, and you add in 10% for the other Arabs – except in Chile where Palestinians abound. This tends to produce a more accurate figure; and when cross-checked will often bear out.
Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the American population as of the American Community Survey estimations for year 2007, …
Do the math: 0.79% x 301 Million Americans (2007) = ~ 2.4 Million Lebanese-Americans.
Yet, the same Wikipedia article lists American Lebanese as “504,499 (born)” and “489,702 (Ancestry).” That is a discrepancy of over 1 million people compared to the 2.4 Million predicated by caluclation above.
Wikipedia also lists 1,698,570 as the low estimate for Arab-Americans,; yet, as we have shown, there should be approximately 2.4 Million Lebanese-Americans alone.
What is going on is the common refusal of Christian-Lebanese Americans to identify as Arabs. It is infuriating and makes analysis much harder.
As the Canadian-American scholar, T.B. Irving, noted:
Frankly it has been hard to gather much data on this subject. Yet even the Christian Lebanese immigrants to South America (and I might include much of Africa where these Lebanese have also gone as merchants and entrepreneurs) owe much to their over‑all Arab heritage, even though many of them try to call themselves “Phoenicians”.
This is common throughout all our studies. In the end, we are forced to conclude that the number of Arabs in any country (even the United States) in the Western Hemisphere is usually grossly under reported, because Lebanese Christians, especially Maronite Catholics, will often refuse to identify as Arabs.
In Australia, this created an absurdity where Australians of Lebanese-Christian background were allowed to classify themselves as Syriac (an ancient language group, not the modern Syrian nationality) rather than Arabs.
One might aver: If the Lebanese Christian (Maronites) don’t want to be called Arab, then they are not Arab. The problem is these Maronites will bring in Arabic cuisine, Arabic music, Arabic dance, and even speak Arabic, which belies their refusal to be considered as Arabic. They were often the initial introduction of Arab culture to any country in the Western Hemisphere, but they confound statisticians with their refusal to identify themselves as Arabs. Given their history, one may understand why, but it is very frustrating when one has to compile the statistics.
Lebanese really like to assimilate, but in their weaker moments, their Arab identity slips out.
Uncle Tonoose on Danny Thomas (who was of Maronite extraction) show
May 11, 2017 – Edited: Updated figures and texts. November 24, 2017 – Edited: Added a link.
