Argentina is a very large country on the southeast of South America, running from the polar south to the tropical north. The population is very European in ancestry, with roughly half being pure-European in background, and another large section being mostly European in background.
It has a large Arab population (9±%), but which is intermarried and assimilated into the country’s larger demographic This is because it is heavily Maronite (Catholic) Lebanese who assimilate well.
Interestingly, Argentina has around 180,000 Jews – the seventh largest Jewish population in the world – and they can be politically active.
It is a Muslim institution, one of the few in Argentina; but notice the blonde in the front row. Notice the teachers. Notice how European many of the teachers and students look. All of the ladies are wearing pants. No burqas or hijabs here. The children are mixed gender. The dress is conservative, but Western.
Hardly what one would expect from a Traditional Sunni school.
From what I have read, a lot of non-Muslims take their courses to learn Arabic.
Of course, the Colegio-Árabe wants to convert Christians, and instruction in the Arabic language is a way to effect that; but it remains to be seen if the Christian students will actually water down Islam in Argentina.
Until recently, with the advent of Saudi money, Islam took a real beating in Argentina. Most Muslims were non-practicising. Intermarriage and conversion kept them pretty much on the edge of demographic collapse.
If you think I am exaggerating, this article by Pedro Breiger, an Argentine Academic and news commentator noted in 2000:
The number of Muslims in Argentina is decreasing, and this is due to several factors. Firstly, in families of Muslim origin, customs are being lost, from the Arabic language to food and drink. Secondly, there is relatively little reading material on Islam available in Spanish. There is a growing tendency toward mixed marriages in which children lose all references to Islam, and there are too few study centres for disseminating Islam. This may, however, change in the future with the construction of the new Islamic Cultural Center King Fahd, financed by the Saudi government, which includes a school and a mosque with a minaret in the heart of Buenos Aires. It is considered to be the largest of its kind in Latin America.
Pedro Brieger noted that Islam in Argentina, around 2000, was on life-support. It was dying out. There were not enough local support to save it.
But he also noted the potential problem of Saudi Arabian money and the King Fahd Mosque, which in 2000 was being built. This observation was prescient on his part.
The King Fahd Mosque – and Saudi Money – has caused some noticeable problems. However other sources indicate most of any increase in Muslims is coming from new non-Arab immigrants, NOT Arab Argentines. If true, the King Fahd Mosque may only be delaying the death of Islam.
It remains to be seen if Saudi Money will cause some major problems. If so, Argentina was foolish to have even allowed it in at all.
BTW: as an aside, notice the winter clothing (this is the Southern Hemisphere, and June is the dead of winter). Argentine schools are in disrepair. Central heating is not one of their strong points. Buenos Aires is borderline subtropical; but in winter it can get close to freezing.
Salta, Argentina is a resort town on the Argentine side of the Andes. It is in the subtropical Northwest of the country, and is famous for nearby cactus, which resemble our Arizona Saguaro.
What it is also famous for is a noticeable Arab community.
For an idea of what Salta is like in total:
The area around Salta is subtropical, arid and dry and resembles the climate of the Mideast the Arabs had left. So many Arab immigrants settled in the area.
However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the arrival of Italian, Spanish and Arab immigrants, particularly Syrians and Lebanese, revived trade and agriculture all over the area while further enhancing the city’s multicultural flavor.
Notice however that much of this immigration is over a hundred years ago. We are looking at 3rd and 4th generation Argentine-born citizens. They may be monolingually Spanish now, but they kept the culture.
Somewhere between 3 and 4 million Argentines have some degree of Arabic ancestry; most being either Syrian Orthodox or Lebanese, who are often Maronite Catholic. While Palestinians are found among them, they do not have the same clout that Palestinians have in Chile, where the Palestinians are the majority of the Arab community.
The Syrio-Lebanese seem to be more interested in blending in to Argentine society that the Arabs are in other countries.
The Arabs in Argentina have an ethnic collective organization: FEARAB-Argentina (Federation of Arab Societies in Argentina).
Former FEARAB-Argentina Website banner (Federation of Arab Societies in Argentina) circa 2012
(Click Here) for archive of website
One of the pictures on the old header was of a gaucho1 against images of Syria and Lebanon, which was more a message of an assimilating Arab ethnic group which wanted to be Argentine. The Arab-Argentines do not seem to be as strongly politicized as Chilean Arabs, where the Palestinian-Chilean community presently seems to have a strong anti-Israel view.
The former website for FEARAB-Chile (Federation of Arab Societies in Chile) used to have a map of Palestine that erased Israel altogether.
Former Header on FEARAB-Chile website – Israel was erased from the map.
The present page for FEARAB-Chile is still highly politicized against Israel.
Clearly, with Palestinians less of a constituency in Argentina, and Lebanese more strongly represented, a more moderate view seems to operate among Argentine Arabs.
What you are more likely to see in Argentina’s Arabs is more of a concentration on culture and heritage. The Palestine issue may come up, but it is not as central to their identity.
Again, this seems to be the moderating influence of a large Maronite community from Lebanon. The Christians in Lebanon were terribly persecuted by Muslims, so they tend to shy away from any cause which has a Muslim indentity. Hence, they downplay the Israel/Palestine conflict.
This TV show (below) is more typical:
Dami U Damak (Arabic for Blood to Blood) – 2008 Season – Show #100 Part 1 (Source)
NOTE: Only the opening song is in Arabic, the rest is in Spanish.
From San Luis, in Central Argentina.
Notice how the show shows Christian priests, in the opening. Notice how the women seem quite liberated.
This show seems to be a retrospective show (It is their 100th show) and so they went over some past shows, and stories.
Notice at (5:30) the memorial to victims of the Lebanese-Israel war. Notice the Argentine flag in the crowd. These people are integrated.
What should be clear here is that in Argentina the vast majority of Arabs are Christians, and assimilated ones at that. They set the cultural tone. Actually, there was a resevoir of anger at Muslim extremism after the AMIA bombing of 1994. The Arabs in Argentina were quick to distance themselves from it; and since the vast majority are Christian, this was not too hard.
Most Arabs have assimilated exceptionally well into Argentina with a large degree of intermarriage with other ethnic-Argentines.
1There is good reason to believe that part of gaucho apparel hails from Moriscos (Hispanicized Moors – lit: Moorish Ones) who came to South America. That is a story in itself; but there is a debate whether the word gaucho comes from Indian tongues or from a Arab-Moorish word for cow herder. I lean towards the Arab-Moorish view.
History Lesson on the Arab-Argentine show: Desde el Aljibe (From the Well).
I edited it from the original source.
Source: ElAljibedetodos, a viewer who assembled hundreds of these videos on his YouTube channel.
In 1609, Catholic Spain expelled almost all of the remaining Moriscos from the country, even many who had sincerely converted to Catholicism. The Spanish just did not trust them. It is believed that many of these Moriscos went to Latin America.
Many of these Moriscos made it to Argentina, rather than be expelled to North Africa. Expecting equal treatment in the colonies, they were often abused as racially inferior. Many of them deserted into the interior where they mixed with Spanish outcasts, Basque adventurers, Indians, and later black slaves, to produce a new stock … which would become the gauchos. They would eventually totally Catholicize (if they were not Catholic already), losing any connection with their Arab roots, except their wardrobes which smack of an oriental fashion, not a European Spanish one.
The image we have of the gaucho now is white. This was the product of massive white immigration to Argentina in the mid to late 19th century. But when Argentina fought Spain for its independence, in the 1810s, massive white immigration had yet to start. The gauchos were quite mestizo. They played havoc with the Royal Spanish Armies and drove them out of the interior of Argentina, during the Gaucho Wars. They were responsible, to a large part, for Argentina’s Independence since the Spanish Armies were no match for them.
In the end, the gaucho descendents of the Moriscos got their revenge. The Spanish government threw them out of Spain. Their descendents would throw the Spanish goverment out of Argentina.
The Arabs of Argentina take pride in this, though with some degree of exaggeration. Most Arab-Argentines arrived long after the gaucho wars, and during the time of European immigration. Most old line gauchos (from pre-1870 stocks) are probably not aware of any possible Morisco ancestry, and would indentify as Spanish or Basque with possibly a mix of Indian. Newer gauchos, of post 1870 ancestry, would be of European, often Basque or Irish, stock.
The red neck kerchief of the gaucho is clearly European Basque in ancestry. A lot of gauchos wear berets instead of gaucho sombreros. The beret would be Basque in origin.
But, even if exaggerated, the picture of the gaucho shows that Argentine-Arabs identify with Argentina.
3 May 2021 – Edited: Updated info, cleaned up writing, made more mobile friendly, and made a lot of changes.
