Un alma libanesa - A Lebanese Soul: Identity construction in the Lebanese-Argentine diaspora community
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
-
Miller, Lindsay
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Global Studies
- Abstract
- In 1989, Carlos Saúl Menem, an Argentine-born son of Syrian immigrants was elected President of Argentina with the financial support of the Syrian and Libyan governments. On March 17, 1992, a bomb detonated at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 22 people. Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for the attack. On July 18, 1994, a second attack occurred at the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina — AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and wounding an additional 300 individuals. Although the case remains unresolved, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria are considered the most likely perpetrators. These stories, which made headlines around the world, suggest that Argentina has historically been contentiously entangled in Middle Eastern affairs. The main Israeli institutions in the Argentine capital were the targets of terrorist attacks, suggesting that the political tensions between Arabs and Israelis extended beyond the region to shape life in other parts of the world. However, behind the political headlines lies a more complex story of diaspora communities, characterized by more questions than answers: Who are the Middle Eastern diaspora communities in Argentina? How did they bridge the gap between Argentina and their Middle Eastern home countries? Which factors influenced the development of their diaspora communities? How do social factors like religion, family and culture influence the development of diaspora politics? This study explores the history of the Lebanese diaspora community in Buenos Aires and the personal accounts of its members, with the intent of discussing one element of the complex Lebanese-Argentine community: Lebanese-Argentine identity construction. How do members of the Lebanese-Argentine community understand their Lebanese identity? How does the development of that identity compare to the identity construction of others in the Lebanese diaspora?
- Date of publication
- spring 2014
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Yaqub, Nadia
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 79
Relations
- Parents:
This work has no parents.