São Paulo – A book published in Lebanon tells the story, the love affair, and the impressions of a world at war from a Lebanese man who lived in Brazil. “Sir al-Mi’at Am” was written by Chebl Issa El Khoury, who moved from his native country to Brazilian land in 1910, where he lived until his passing, in 1980. The book was released in Arabic and is based upon the memories of the Lebanese man, including accounts of his life in São Paulo, his first love in Lebanon, the history of his country during World War I, and the immigration of Lebanese people to Brazil and the United States. In Portuguese, the title means “The hundred-year secret.”
According to information from Roberto Khatlab, director of the Centre of Latin American Studise and cultures at University Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (Cecal-Usek), who presented the book’s originals in Lebanon and wrote the preface, the memoirs started being written in 1945. In addition to being a historical account of immigration, the book is a novel, a drama. “It portrays the Eastern sensibilities and traditions, since the author himself is a character in the story he recounts, in a universe where he meets several obstacles,” Khatlab tells ANBA.
One of the book’s plotlines is Chebl’s relationship with a Lebanese woman he identifies solely by the initials T.S. he met her in 1904, over a hundred years ago, when he was 17 and she was 14. The girl married a much older American man and moved to the United States, but returned in 1908 after regretting the arrangement. That was when she met Chebl. But despite his love for T.S, the Lebanese had to move to Brazil in order to help cater to his family, which lived in Lebanon. He vowed to return to fetch her, but was unable because of the war that was underway. Chebl only had news of his lover again in 1945. She had died. He was married and had children.
“From 1945 onwards, Chebl wrote the whole story in a manuscript in Arabic. The writings were discovered only in 1980, when he passed away and his daughter found them among his belongings,” says Khatlab. Alongside the material there was a message: “To be printed.” Chebl’s grandson, José Antônio Alves Silva, went to Lebanon on a trip to honour his ancestors. In the Arab country, Silva met Khatlab, whom he entrusted with publishing his grandfather’s work.
The book was launched in early March at the Antelias Book Fair, by the publishing house Dar Saer Mashrek (All the East), based in Beirut, in collaboration with Cecal-Usek, as part of the latter’s Latin America Collection. “The Arabs need sources of reading about Latin America, and that is the purpose of the collection,” says Khatlab. The collection, also known as Latin America Library, is part of the Usek’s Central Library, and is available to students, professors, and interested parties. The book may be purchased from the publishing house or via Khatlab.
The book launch at the Antelias Book Fair was attended by Dar Saer Mashrek owner, writer and TV presenter Antonio Saad, the director of the Centre for Studies on Lebanese Immigration at the Notre Dame University, Guita Hourani, writer Ramzi Salame,, the former Uruguayan ambassador in Lebanon, Alberto Voss Rubio, the photographer Jacques Menassa, and members of the El Khoury family, among other people.
Book: Sir al-Mi’at Am
Language: Arabic
Author: Chebl Issa El Khoury
Publisher: Dar Saer Mashrek (Lebanon)
Website: http://www.entire-east.com/index.php
Email Roberto Khatlab: robertokhatlab@yahoo.fr
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
