Steven Hyland Jr. More Argentine Than You

The turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century witnessed a wave of emigration from Greater Syria (“contemporary Syria and Lebanon, historical Palestine, and parts of Turkey and Iraq”), with an estimated 450,000–600,000 persons living abroad by World War I. Many migrants sought better fortunes in the Americas, and Argentina was among the main destinations: by the end of the 1920s, approximately 160,000 Arabic-speaking immigrants resided there. More Argentine Than You: Arabic-Speaking Immigrants in Argentina, by Steven Hyland Jr., is a fascinating and thoroughly researched study of how these immigrants and their descendants emerged as a visible ethnic group and claimed a place in local economic, cultural, and political life. This population was remarkably diverse: in religious terms alone, Arabic-speaking immigrants included “Maronite Catholics, Antiochian Orthodox Christians, Sunni and Shiʾa Muslims, ʿAlawites, Druze, Ismaʾilis, and Sephardic Jews” (2). Dubbed simply “Turks” by some locals (by virtue of Greater Syria forming part of the Ottoman Empire), these sectors eventually coalesced around “Syrian-Lebanese” identities and institutions. Hyland’s study reveals this collective process of community formation, while highlighting the stories of individual immigrants who worked to improve their lot, maintained ties to distant homelands, and challenged the community’s self-appointed leaders.

Ancient history · Arabic · Archaeology · Destinations · Emigration · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Immigration · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Anthropology · Demography · Gender Studies · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Law