Lebanese Argentine refers to

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

citizens of Lebanese descent or

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

-born people who reside in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. Many of the Lebanese Argentines are descendants of immigrants cultural and linguistic heritage and/or identity, originating from what is now

. Although a highly diverse group of Argentines — in ancestral origins, religion and historic identities — Lebanese Argentines hold a heritage that shares common linguistic, cultural and political traditions. They are closed related to the Syrian community and together are known as the sirio-libaneses (Syrian-Lebanese). The overwhelming majority of the 3,000,000 Lebanese Argentines are Maronites and Greek Catholics, with

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

being a small minority in comparison to them. The interethnic marriage in the Lebanese community, regardless of religious affiliation, is very high; most community members have only one parent who has Lebanese ethnicity. As a result of this, the Lebanese community in Argentina shows marked

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

away from the Arabic and French languages. As a result, only a few speak any Arabic and such knowledge is often limited to a few basic words. Instead, the majority, especially those of younger generations, speak Spanish as a first language. The father of former First Lady Juliana Awada, Ibrahim Awada, was a Lebanese born in

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

and prominent businessman.

History

In the 19th century, the first Lebanese settled in Argentina. From 1891 to 1920, 367,348 people from the Levant immigrated into Argentina. When they were first processed in the ports of Argentina, they were classified as Turks because what is modern day

was a territory of the Turkish

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

.Recopilaron casi 200 años de los sirio libaneses en Argentina
The causes for Lebanese to leave their homeland were an accelerated increase in demographics in Lebanon, the persecution by the Ottoman Turks, and the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish (, "Tripolitanian War", , "War of Libya"), also known as the Turco-Italian War, was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911 to 18 October 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy captur ...

. The Lebanese immigrants settle in the provinces of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Cordoba,

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

, Tucumán,

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

, San Juan, Mendoza,

Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a sur ...

, Misiones, Chaco, and

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

. A large percentage of Lebanese settled in the Cuyo region (which is made up of the provinces of San Juan, San Luis, Mendoza, and La Rioja) Some prominent ancestral places of origin of Lebanese Argentinians include: Aley,

Amioun Amioun (; ) is the capital of the predominantly Greek Orthodox Christianity in Lebanon, Greek Orthodox Koura District (i.e. χώρα, "country" in Greek) in North Lebanon. Etymology The town of Amioun derives its name from the Aramaic language, ...

, Amsheet,

, Batroun,

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Bikfaya, Iaal, Jounieh, Mish Mish, Toula, Tripoli,

Zahlé Zahlé () is a city in eastern Lebanon, and the capital and largest city of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. With around 150,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli and the fourth-largest ...

, Zgharta.

References

{{Portal bar, Lebanon, Argentina Lebanese diaspora in South America

History

See also

References