São Paulo – Samira Osman, a professor of Asian History at the Federal University of the State of São Paulo (Unifesp), will release a book entitled “Arab immigration in Brazil: life stories of Lebanese Muslims and Christians” on June 5 in São Paulo. The book is the result of interviews and researches she made in the 1990s for her master’s thesis. Now, the stories of these immigrants leave the academic circles to be known by all society.
The idea to study the Lebanese Muslims and Christians who came to Brazil came up during her undergraduate studies. Osman noticed that there were scant studies on of Lebanese immigration to Brazil, and even less on Lebanese Muslims. “Whatever was there was about Christian immigrants. On doing my research, I realized that the history of Muslims was seldom addressed.” From then on, she developed the subject matter for her master’s thesis. To that end, she interviewed Muslim and Christian immigrants and their descendants.
Although there are records of Lebanese Muslims in Brazil dating back to the early 20th century, it was after World War Two, according to Osman, that they came to Brazil in greater numbers. Some of the reasons that brought them here were the country’s economic and political conditions and the Muslims’ need to live together in families with several members. “They wanted to live together and needed space for it, which they didn’t have in Lebanon. Thus, they found the ideal place to live in Brazil,” says Osman.
The book also shows that the Lebanese Muslim immigrants have spread to all regions of the country following the different cycles of the economy. The largest concentration of these immigrants, however, is in São Paulo.
In her interviews with immigrants, Osman also found out that the women had a stronger presence in Muslim immigration than among the Christian ones. “In the case of Christians, women played a secondary role. With Muslims, on the other hand, they would often travel alongside the men, they worked and were also in charge of tending to the family structure, maintaining cultural traditions, and observing religious values,” says the researcher.
The research work was not easy, says Osman, because there was almost no documentation on these immigrants, so in order to draw the thesis conclusions, she had to look at the content of the interviews with the families and then create the document based on them. On the other hand, being a Lebanese descendent helped the professor when conducting the interviews. “Whenever I said my name was Samira and that I was an Arab descendent, they were comfortable speaking to me,” she recalls.
The book could have been published earlier, but shortly after completing her master’s thesis, Osman dedicated herself to her doctoral thesis, which deals with the return to Lebanon of many immigrants. The doctoral work was completed in 2007. The texts and records contained in the book that will hit the bookstores soon do not comply with the technical standards of academic writings. “I adapted them so readers could understand,” says Osman.
Service
Book: Arab immigration in Brazil: life stories of Lebanese Muslims and Christians
Publishing house: Xamã
Pages: 215
Price: 32 Brazilian reals (US$ 16)
The book will be released on June 5, starting at 5:00 pm, at the auditorium of the House of Japanese Culture, on Avenida Professor Lineu Prestes, 159, at the University of São Paulo. The book “As mil e uma noites mal dormidas,” by Murilo Meihy, will also be launched on the occasion.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
