São Paulo – Prior to the late 19th century, shopping in Brazil meant facing a Portuguese immigrant, almost always serious, standing behind a counter, demanding guarantees to grant credit. Around the 1880s, however, common men carrying bags full of fabric, thread and lace started knocking on the doors of Brazilians, but they could not speak Portuguese; they were prepared to lower the prices of products and payment could be in instalments, as they would return later.
They were the Arab immigrants who, without planning it, brought innovation to the activity they chose as their breadwinner in Brazil, trade. “They brought a breath of fresh air to trade in Brazil – marked by the Portuguese traditionalism – with credit, discounts, and stock flow. Trade was reinvented,” said Oswaldo Truzzi, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and author of book “Patricians – Syrians and Lebanese in São Paulo.”
As they carried their merchandise, they could not walk and walk, selling nothing. “So they sold in instalments, gave discounts and traded,” said the professor. According to Truzzi and to the director of the Centre of Arab Studies of the University of São Paulo (USP), Arlene Clemesha, trade was one of the areas in which Arab immigrants brought the greatest contributions to Brazil soon after their arrival.
Arlene recalls that, as tradesmen, the Arabs also played an important part as suppliers of products to workers on large farms, mostly European immigrants. “Their salaries were very low and they soon became indebted with the land owner if they bought their products at the farm shop. Arabs, playing the part of tradesmen and peddlers were an important way out for these people,” explained the director. Arabs would travel to the farms to sell.
This agriculture, in fact, based on large properties, caused Arab immigrants to work in activities other than those developed in their countries of origin after arriving in Brazil. The agriculture practiced by the Syrians and Lebanese was small scale and family. In Brazil, however, they needed large tracts of land, mainly for coffee. Due to the option of occupying small properties, with bad land, or being in the hands of a boss at a large farm, they became tradesmen.
"Between being a subordinate and having economic independence, they preferred the latter, even if the businesses were small enough to fit in a case. It was just a case, but it was his, and he had the autonomy of a boss,” said Truzzi, regarding the peddler activity. In the Arab countries, explained the UFSCar professor, those who played the part of tradesmen in the Arab countries, at the time, were the Greek and Armenians.
Arlene says that Arab immigrants were warned by their relatives not to say they were farmers on arrival, seeking another activity soon.
Arrival
The Arabs arrived in Brazil in the late 19th century, at a time of great immigration, not just from the region, but also from Italy, Spain and Portugal. Different from the Europeans – who had free access, covered by the government of Brazil due to the need for labour after the abolition of slavery -, the Arabs paid for their tickets on ships. And many believed they were travelling to North America.
According to Arlene and Truzzi, the reason that caused immigration in the beginning was mainly the economic condition. Entrance of European industrialized products in the Arab nations resulted in great competition for the production of small Arab properties, explained the UFSCar professor, and was one of the factors for travelling to Brazil.
Arlene recalls, however, the political conditions in the period. The Arabs, who up to then felt they were part of the Ottoman Empire, which had dominated the region since 1516, started to feel excluded from power in the late 19th Century. European colonisation, with the Europeans joining forces with religious groups in the region, also changed the harmony.
These factors, together with others, were involved in the first phase of Arab immigration to Brazil, between 1870 and 1930 – with a pause during the First World War. According to Truzzi, there was, however, also another moment of strong immigration due to the civil war in Lebanon. Different from the start, though, when Christians came to the country, in the second phase, most of those coming were Muslim.
Currently, according to Arlene, it is not possible to speak about a new phase of Arab immigration to Brazil. What there is, he recalls, is the arrival of some groups of refugees, like the Palestinians. It is not comparable, however, to the movement of the past, mainly in the late 19th Century and in the early 20th Century. Between 1870 and 1900, for example, 5,400 Syrians and Lebanese arrived in the country. In 1913 alone, another 11,000 immigrants came to the region. There are now around 12 million Arabs and their descendants in the country.
*Translated by Mark Ament
