Tag: Arab Diaspora

1st Arab Latinos International Conference! on migration and solidarity, Sao Cristovao, Brazil August 2023

Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), São Cristóvão (SE), Brazil, 22-24 August 2023

The Arab diaspora living in Latin America and the Caribbean currently has more than 20 million people.

Most are descendants of immigrants who travelled from the Middle East to the region in the 19th century. Considering its contribution to the multicultural character of the area, UNESCO created the 2022 Arab Latinos! meeting. This year, it is the 1st International Conference. The event will be held at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) from 22 to 24 August 2023. It has been organized in partnership with the Centro Internacional de Estudos Árabes e Islâmicos (CEAI) in São Cristóvão (SE). It is the location of São Francisco Square, a World Cultural Heritage Site inscribed by UNESCO in the World Heritage List in 2010.

The conference will address migration and displacement; memory, territory, and cultural rights; literary and artistic exchanges; and youth. The event will also feature the launch of the Arab-Latin Youth Network! (Arab Latinos! Youth Network) which will bring together young people from Arab countries and Latin America to build new opportunities for cross-regional collaboration. Among the participants are Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila, Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari and writer Ana Maria Gonçalves.

Arab culture has made important contributions to Latin America and the Caribbean. In Brazil, Arab culture’s presence is felt in music, science, cooking, and many other areas. The recently launched program ‘Arab Latinos!’, by UNESCO, aims to map these connections between our cultures, and we hope that the meeting in Sergipe will be an important step further to deepen this view from a scientific and academic perspective.

Marlova Jovchelovitch NoletoDirector and Representative of UNESCO in Brazil

The international meeting seeks to present and discuss how migratory movements within and between Arab States, Latin America, and the Caribbean have created and continue to create different solidarity strategies, promoting mutual understanding and advancing human rights and dignity.

The scientific coordinator of the “Arab Latinos!” initiative, Professor Geraldo Campos, highlights the importance of holding this 1st International Conference in Sergipe.

The theme of the conference, migrations, and solidarity is a vital contemporary issue and highlights the potential of the Initiative’s dialogues with the different sectors of Brazilian society.

Professor Geraldo CamposScientific Coordinator of the “Arab Latinos!” initiative

The Arab Latinos initiative! It was launched in Brazil in August 2022, resulting from a meeting between 15 specialists from five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico), selected by UNESCO, who developed a 5-year Action Plan (2023-2027), available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. The “Scope Review” of the project was also launched on the occasion, a document that presents an overview of the contemporary flows of scientific and cultural collaborations between the regions.

In May of this year, during the 216th Session of the Executive Council, UNESCO Member States adopted a decision to support and contribute to “Arab Latinos!”. The decision, co-sponsored by more than 30 Member States, recognizes this initiative’s importance in promoting South-South cooperation and strengthening cultural diversity and solidarity practices.

The 1st Arab Latinos! International Conference, sponsored by the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Foundation, Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira, the Federação das Associações Muçulmanas do Brasil (FAMBRAS), the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and the Federal University of Sergipe, will count on the participation of high-level representatives of Arab countries, Latin America and the Caribbean, representatives of the United Nations, as well as internationally renowned intellectuals, writers, civil society, artists, researchers and young scholars.



The Event’s Agenda

AUGUST 22, 2023

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm:

Meeting: UNESCO in the Territory (Exchange with local actors, government/civil society)

19:00 – 20:00:

Official opening of the Conference (Federal University of Sergipe)

20:00 – 21:00:

Arab-Nordeste Concert

AUGUST 23, 2023

9:30 – 11:30:

Panel 1: Arab-Latinos!: migrations and displacements

(Didactic Auditorium 7 – Federal University of Sergipe)

2:30 pm – 4:15 pm:

Arab-Latin Workshops!

Workshop 1: The Arab presence in Brazilian music

Workshop 2: Arab-Latin Cinema

Workshop 3: Arabic-Latin Literature

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm:

Intercultural Memories: Dialogue with Martinho da Vila

19:15-19:30

Cultural activity: The Bacamarteiros of Aguada

19:30 – 20:30:

Ceremony awarding the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Martinho da Vila

(Didactic Auditorium 7)

20:30 – 21:00:

Cultural Activities

AUGUST 24, 2023

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm:

Panel 3: Memory, Territory and Cultural Rights

(Didactic Auditorium 7)

17:00 – 19:00:

Arab Latinos! closing panel with Ana Maria Gonçalves

19:30 – 20:00:

Closing of the Conference – Outcomes and Next Steps

20:00 – 20:20:

Performance of Parafusos de Lagarto Group

source/content: unesco.org (headline edited)

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ARAB LATINO

ARABS in PARIS: A Walking Tour of the French Capital’s Celebration of Middle Eastern Personalities

Back in 1729, the Parisian authorities introduced the French capitals iconic blue-and-green street name plaques, topped with a little “Napoleon’s hat” containing the number of the street’s arrondissement.

The plaques honor France and the world’s leading politicians, philosophers, artists, writers, and scientists, including a number associated with the Arab world. French President Emmanuel Macron has previously proposed renaming some of the capital’s streets to include more personalities from ethnic minorities, but that has not yet happened. Still, there are enough Arab names to comprise a walking tour around Paris — including a president, a poet, a pop star and more. 

Esplanade Habib Bourguiba, 7th arrondissement 

With a wonderful view of the Grand Palais, this large, peaceful stretch of greenery is named after independent Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba. The secular leader was in charge between 1957 and 1987, and was famously a supporter of women’s rights. Next to his plaque, there is a bronze bust of the leader looking towards the River Seine, with his name written in Arabic underneath. 

Promenade Gisèle Halimi, 7th arrondissement

Gisèle Halimi in Paris. (AFP)

An admirer of Bourguiba, Halimi was a Tunisian-born French lawyer, feminist, and former member of the National Assembly in France. She died in 2020, aged 93, and this sloping pathway was named after her last year. Halimi’s life of hardships shaped the respected career she had. When she was born, her father hid her — ashamed of her gender. She went on a hunger strike at 10 and, at 16, rejected an arranged marriage, going on to study law in Paris. Halimi is perhaps best known for a 1972 trial, in which she defended a minor who had an abortion after being raped. It was a key event that propelled the country into legalizing abortion in 1975. 

Place Mahmoud Darwich, 6th arrondissement 

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe (second from right) and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (second from left) unveil on June 14, 2010 in Paris the new Mahmoud Darwich esplanade named after the Palestinian poet who died Aug. 9, 2008. (AFP)

In 2010, just two years after the death of Palestine’s most famous poet Mahmoud Darwish, a square in Paris was inaugurated in his honor. Known for his writings on home, memory, and exile, Darwish spent many years outside of his native land. He lived in Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, and Paris. He had a special connection with the latter, describing it as the place where his “true poetic birth” happened. The plaque is situated in a district the poet reportedly liked, on the banks of the Seine and near the classical buildings of Institut de France and Monnaie de Paris.

Paris Massacre of 1961 memorial, 4th arrondissement

A few minutes away from Notre Dame Cathedral stands an unassuming but sobering reminder of how an Arab collective suffered during the turbulent Sixties. In 1961, when Algeria was seeking independence, a group of Algerian protesters were attacked by the police and some of their bodies were thrown into the Seine. In 2021, to mark the 60th anniversary of this horrific event, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo inaugurated a memorial artwork, made of metal with silhouettes of heads carved out, in remembrance of those who lost their lives. 

Maison de Dalida, 18th arrondissement 

Between 1962 and 1987, the blonde bombshell diva Dalida, who was born to Italian parents in Egypt, lived in this four-story townhouse in hilly Montmartre, a quiet area outside of the bustling city center of the city that is historically associated with artists. Dalida sang in a variety of languages, including French, Italian, and Arabic. “Salma Ya Salama” and “Helwa Ya Baladi” are some of her most loved Arabic songs. Sadly, it was in this house that she committed suicide in 1987, as a result of tragedies in her personal life. The plaque on her house reads: “Her friends from Montmartre will not forget her.” 

Maison de Gibran Khalil Gibran, 15th arrondissement 

The acclaimed Lebanese-born poet and philosopher — and author of “The Prophet” — Khalil Gibran is well-known as a member of the Arab diaspora in 20th-century America. But he also lived in France for a time. Between 1908 and 1910, Gibran, who was then in his twenties, studied painting at Académie Julian in Paris. His stay in the city was made possible by the financial backing of American philanthropist, editor and Gibran’s lover Mary Haskell, who was 10 years his senior.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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A memorial to remember the 1961 attack on Algerian protesters by the police in Paris. (Supplied)

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ARABS IN PARIS, FRANCE