São Paulo – To celebrate the reopening of Mário de Andrade Library, in São Paulo, to take place on the city’s anniversary, on Tuesday (25), the City Hall has organized a special programme under theme "São Paulo: its people and music" to celebrate the cultural diversity of the city. Among the activities, there should be a talk about Arab immigrants.
On Saturday (29), the Cultural and Scientific director at the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe), Soraya Smaili, and professor and sociologist Oswaldo Truzzi should speak about Arab immigration. Truzzi is the author of book "Patricians – Syrians and Lebanese in São Paulo", published by the Unesp publishing house, which tells the reasons that caused the Arabs to leave their countries, who they were, what their first activities in the city were and the trajectory of success of many of them, who became moguls.
Most of the Arabs living in São Paulo are of Syrian and Lebanese origin, but it is also possible to find Palestinians, Egyptians and Moroccans, among other origins in the Middle East and North Africa.
The city of São Paulo, which has 11 million inhabitants, should celebrate 457 years in existence and is a cosmopolitan metropolis, with people of several nationalities and religions.
To show this cultural diversity, the city hall’s programme at Mário de Andrade Library brings talks with specialists and also with Italian, Russian, Japanese, German, Hungarian, Andean, Jewish, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Korean and African descendants.
All the talks will be promoted on Saturdays, from January 29th to May 7th, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
Mário de Andrade Municipal Library was closed for three years to be redone and restored. It is the second largest library in the country. In all, it has over 327,000 books, among them 51,000 considered rare or special. Apart from the library, D. José Gaspar Square, in the Centre, where the library is located, has been revitalised and was given new landscaping.
Service
Mário de Andrade Municipal Library
Site: Rua da Consolação, 94 – Centre (Close to Anhangabaú and República Metro stations)
Full programme on site www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
