Immigrant Positioning in Twentieth-Century Mexico: Middle Easterners, Foreign Citizens, and Multiculturalism

Abstract

In October 2002, Carlos Slim Helú, the richest man in Latin America and a Mexican citizen of Lebanese descent, embarked on a project to restore Mexico City, especially the Zócalo area. To do so, he enlisted former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. As a self-appointed “guardian of the Mexican national capital,” Slim Helú states in a New York Times article that he wants to revive “one of the most important places in all the Americas,” one that is “the economic, political, cultural, academic and artistic heart of this country.”1 This effort to redevelop Mexico City has had social repercussions, such as displacing street vendors, and raises an important question: How does someone who is proud of his Lebanese background become a national spokesperson of Mexican cultural preservation? Although Slim Helú has exceptional wealth, his story shows a multicultural Mexico that has allowed foreigners and their descendants to become Mexicans.2This article explores how a few immigrants from the Middle East became Mexican power brokers by positioning themselves socially, politically, and economically in the twentieth century. The experiences of Middle Eastern immigrants in Mexico illustrate how ethnic groups can position themselves to prosper in a nation-state where the prevailing sense of identity is grounded in a discourse of mestizo origins. By exploring how one immigrant group handles the social conditions of a Latin American nation-state, we may begin to expand traditional, racialized discourses of who participates in mestizo nations.3During the presidential administration of Porfirio Díaz (1876 – 1910), favorable immigration policies allowed early Middle Eastern immigrants to settle in Mexico. The Mexican Revolution, however, created a climate in which Mexican citizens became increasingly xenophobic in their rhetoric and practices. In the postrevolutionary period, various presidential administrations sought ways to handle disgruntled Mexican citizens. Some intellectuals drew on Mexico’s past and advocated a Mexican nationalism that depended on notions of mestizaje and an abandonment of specific ethnic characteristics. Despite official attempts to create such a monolithic Mexico, Middle Eastern immigrants, among other immigrants, have helped create a multiethnic Mexico.The ability of Middle Easterners to situate themselves in the Mexican nation was often due to their economic roles. I argue that some developed a “foreign citizen” status in which they chose to naturalize and become Mexican citizens, while keeping elements of their foreign culture. These immigrants’ ability to join the Mexican nation was premised on the idea of bringing valuable skills and capital to help Mexico industrialize. Yet during difficult economic times, Mexicans resented foreigners, causing these foreign citizens to juggle contradictory positions. Middle Easterners sought to be “Mexican” to climb economic and social ladders, yet also came to possess a sense of entitlement and distance from their poorer countrymen. Moreover, as a distinctly Lebanese Mexican identity was forged through presumed business acumen, less economically successful Middle Eastern immigrants were often excluded and joined the Mexican mestizo nation.The article begins with a brief overview of Middle Eastern historical events to explain the context of these immigrants’ departure from their homelands, followed by an outline of their immigrant history in Mexico during the twentieth century. A subsequent section on economic and social positioning is followed by a discussion of the construction of a Lebanese elite class in Mexico. In my discussion of the political positioning and economic dominance of Middle Eastern immigrants, I explore how economic and social positioning laid the foundation for an emerging political presence. I conclude with an examination of how a specific Lebanese identity has developed in Mexico along with the foreign citizen paradigm.4Locating Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendents in Mexican historical records poses many methodological challenges. Unlike many other immigrant groups in the Americas, the homelands of Middle Eastern immigrants changed dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first wave of immigrants, subjects of the Ottoman Empire, left a region known as the provinces of Greater Syria (which encompassed Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine). However, after World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain acquired control of Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordan, while France took control of the Syrian mandate. Under the French, what are now the nation-states of Lebanon and Syria were treated as colonies. In 1920, when the creation of Greater Lebanon was proclaimed, the French objective was to safeguard the Maronite community by making sure it would not be absorbed into a Syrian Muslim state. In 1926, French officials approved a constitution creating a Lebanese republic. However, Lebanon did not declare independence until 1943, while Syrian independence was delayed until 1946. These geopolitical changes complicate categories of analysis when trying to determine where these immigrants migrated from, how they identified themselves, and how they were identified by others.I use the term “Middle Eastern immigrants” to refer to peoples from the region that comprises the contemporary nation-states of Syria, Lebanon, Pales-tine (the West Bank, Gaza, and British-mandated territory), Israel, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula. Although Armenia and Turkey are not widely regarded as Arab states, peoples from these nation-states are often considered part of the Middle Eastern migration to Mexico.5 Defining appropriate categories of personhood to describe these immigrants has sparked considerable debate. Moreover, both after the creation of the of World War and the of the term has become such as and refer to immigrants from the Middle East as the term as an I have to use “Middle in the history of peoples who from the Ottoman the of the nineteenth as as who have migrated from the region in the twentieth century. the of early immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, the term is to describe Middle immigrants are a this Middle Eastern In Lebanon and Syria did not as nation-states until the immigrants often and as their of and drew on a of ethnic and Mexican is by among Latin American where of Middle Eastern immigrants have In and the term is in in Mexico and the term is most often in and the term is These to both the of these historical as as the of immigrants and their Latin American Although “Middle can be the that can it the most on my examination of Middle Eastern immigrant by the Mexican and from such a historical background an Mexican national discourse that on the one and also and during the drew both and to postrevolutionary of and of the idea of the the of and would create a of is that it has of he that with all may be the one to and to into a that the the and of is this was and cultural helped the mestizo to the other the of the mestizo the of specific group characteristics. to the of foreigners and the of the the and to a monolithic Mexican the has to immigrants in a multicultural that ways of the it has become for ethnic groups to be Mexican while one to the and one to Middle Eastern immigrants can be in the of the Mexican Revolution, and economic as for Mexico’s national for the of a that would for all In part and as economic Middle Easterners both and not and is this Mexican and Middle Eastern historical context that immigrants have developed and of such in a of the of national in of on and and how with identity that nationalism is a and for groups to official Mexican discourses to the of Moreover, descendents of Middle Eastern immigrants often a Lebanese Mexican identity and not an Arab a Mexican one to explain their economic in Mexico as a of By on this Lebanese Mexican and immigrants have their immigrant forged an immigrant and become “foreign in the Mexican a and status that be of is in immigrant positioning in to the cultural of capital and subjects to and to economic As they to capital and social in the immigrant subjects and are and in to and cultural In the of Middle Eastern immigrants who in Mexico and their economic, and political has to a contemporary Lebanese Mexican elite class in subsequent of positioning to explain how Middle Eastern immigrants have political in these and ability of Middle Easterners and other immigrants groups and French, and to in the Mexican during the late nineteenth and twentieth immigrants how to Mexican Some Middle Eastern immigrants by and the ability to in to position themselves both as Mexicans and as foreigners in Mexican As officials sought ways to control immigrant in the through the Middle Easterners to a to illustrate their to the Mexican I that Middle Eastern immigrants, when with xenophobic to to a Mexican while their and community However, other immigrant groups that most Middle Eastern immigrants the ability to Eastern immigrants and their descendents often their and while in both and in Mexico. Some became in and and themselves among the Mexican Middle Easterners often to be Mexican in their with by as as to by a few their in national and to a Lebanese Mexican the late nineteenth immigrants came from the Middle East for a of most to their and the of the however, events in Mexico the and in the Middle East World War delayed these many immigrants in Mexico and other and Middle Eastern immigrants in to the Mexicans Lebanese of a of Although this group is not economic and political power in contemporary of the Middle Eastern status from their in the Mexican immigrants often their from other and capital from their immigrant countrymen. to Lebanese Mexican the first Middle Eastern immigrant to Mexico was a Lebanese who in the nineteenth and was followed by his In with of the Lebanese that they had from the was their and and on that they came from the would for of the of The the and they had for and and they the of with and use of and ethnic to social and and economic, and created a of This was difficult to of This Middle Eastern immigrant many of the immigrants to in the by capital to one and to This capital allowed Middle Eastern immigrants to when immigrant came to Mexico in the his helped a the also for during his first in Middle Eastern immigrants came to describe themselves as in the among Middle Eastern immigrants and their as The was by of all of these their in a By in the Middle Eastern immigrants to and their while a history for construction of Lebanese Mexican identity has the that Lebanese is in and that it is past which has helped Lebanese we had the background from the we are by The on a history of and their is Lebanese The that the Middle Eastern immigrants their to a in Mexican the for a community in the of of and are to be not by their by the in which they are Middle Eastern immigrants have on their cultural and on Mexican historical events to their in Mexican the (1876 – 1910), the of – and the subsequent of postrevolutionary Middle Eastern immigrants into in from which many to in not a and the as has they on to by Porfirio economic what would become the a for in for an of both capital and to with the of in the of for they in the along the in the of Some who to while to the of Mexican Despite the of and Middle Eastern were to and that by the many had in while to in In for the of Mexican during the along with a of their Middle Easterners were to the of and in which would Although during the some Lebanese had to from to Mexico City, who to in developed and their In and to begin a and by his business had to the that he the also a in Middle Eastern immigrants were an important of the of the postrevolutionary as Middle Easterners became in the the economic of the sparked xenophobic As early as the Mexican that “the immigration of of and has a that in the national on of the in in the of foreigners to of the Mexican that not were Middle Easterners of that the presidential administrations of – and – were especially immigrant In an the for of the in with the idea of and in the of Mexican and the of the by The for a that would the immigration of and immigrants and of the many that are the with to national This was one of that sought to Middle Easterners and their economic In the for the a to for a for immigrants of The in October that the of immigrants such as and to be of their and In in to foreign the this to from the of and Mexico City describe of to the of who such who their and some of came to a contradictory were both and of who also from is this context that the Mexican community This community in also with of to economic after when the social as the of Mexican and of and community is in a in Mexico, which with the independence of the of Lebanon and Syria, of which to national and in and a and of Lebanese immigrants in This many ethnic among Middle Eastern was from with it did not on Middle Eastern Despite these it one of the most and was by in his of in Mexico. The of Middle Eastern in Mexico the as immigrants in Mexico in is in of and and may the of to among the Middle Eastern as a and an on the a in of is a some that and to considerable with argue that who the community did they were less successful and to be a for Middle Easterners to the ethnic community in Mexico by a in A in is Carlos Slim Helú who the of of poorer Middle Easterners to have had would not have to a to the Middle East to a to for a to Mexico from the which would have these immigrants to for a Mexican an in that to Middle Eastern immigrants, an was of the they had from of that Middle Eastern to their and through In some “the Lebanese did not their to with they did not to their and of may have some Middle Eastern in the early of migration to first Although these are not in Mexico first Middle Eastern immigrants to for and in Lebanon, had as a for keeping and capital and social their and in Middle Eastern have helped create in their of the business and and the cultural for the creation and of ethnic As has in the Arab were often their the the American a is of in Mexico is however, that were not in their their to the of This of by Middle Eastern can also be as part of the ethnic identity of the have to be in which a to help and this economic have to their and their immigrant positioning in Mexican that has to class and that Lebanese and of a of class of an ethnic a Lebanese that often poorer Middle Easterners in to create and a history of Lebanese in Mexico. the Mexican Middle Easterners the to naturalize as Mexican citizens in the the community on the of ethnic and elements of the community the of which became the of the in The of the a in the the Syrian community to join with the Lebanese by making In for such they to have the however, in the the was the to one the Lebanese community did not to to the they to a they Syrian The ability of the Lebanese to such was in part due to their and not a of Lebanese and in Mexico. as Díaz in to the of the are a of in which the is Syrian and the is Lebanese and after World War the especially in Mexican and Middle Eastern all of and to national and with many Lebanese to their and to the the of the Lebanese was both and by the in Mexico City, and the became a yet it drew on the Lebanese history to a Lebanese Mexican Lebanese have themselves as economic for Mexicans as the has In with Lebanese immigrants and their Lebanese that they economic of the Lebanese community these as less less less and a of and of The has to as an elite social that Lebanese cultural the is with the and for Lebanese descendents Mexico. in to of Lebanese and a for social Although it was in also as a for to while what it to be Lebanese and the are the most Lebanese ethnic in Mexico, yet they are not especially to the to of elite are the other Middle who did not become who may have who into the Mexican and and who may may not to Middle Eastern In the is that and immigrants not to their immigrant depended on their into Mexican many and descendants of these Middle Easterners now to the Middle Lebanese Mexicans who with the and to their Although this has helped to their it does not the of Middle Eastern immigrants in Mexico. Maronite in Mexico City and in are a to one of Lebanese The Lebanese community also some and some of in in Mexico Although is a in that Muslim and some Mexican the the few Muslim who in Mexico as as in the to a Lebanese immigrant in Mexico City in of the were that the was of Maronite Lebanese by their wealth, who are to these Lebanese with the Lebanese in are Although the of the Muslim community in Mexico has changed a of immigrants from other of the Muslim the of the that of Middle Eastern immigrants to Mexico and of came and the of Middle Eastern immigrants to Mexico have Mexican and all the of that has part of the Lebanese Mexican Although this to was a to it has developed into a sense of foreign that with the economic and social of the Lebanese This class to create their Lebanese Mexican This construction their economic power and ability to their position and to community the early twentieth descendents of Middle Eastern immigrants have in Mexico’s through economic, political In the Middle Eastern community in Mexico subjects of the Ottoman an Ottoman to Porfirio Díaz on the of Mexico’s The is on in Mexico City, from the some Middle Eastern immigrants with various during the Mexican Revolution, it is in the late twentieth that their and have become in and This in may be by the on economic as as the of the in Mexican the The control of the Mexican it difficult for to the political a few Middle Easterners became was from and was to from to and is Mexican in is also from Lebanon, has to and Middle Easterners have become and past and have had Middle Eastern of most in the past and are into after their immigrant and have become Middle Easterners to have the political in Mexico, the that the of immigrants first in Mexico City, and is however, that of immigrants may have in the states of and the national of in the and of the from to as of the of Mexico from to and have Middle Easterners have the of and an descendants of Middle Eastern background have some political position from the various to the Middle Eastern political is a of of community have the century. has an especially in the of the Lebanese the Slim Carlos Slim Helú, the man in the in to his business to his a Lebanese the Ottoman by to Mexico City in where he a the Mexican Revolution, his business and Carlos Slim Helú that was that how a Mexico to and that I have in the Carlos Slim Helú has to the Lebanese Mexican citizen and yet to his Lebanese Although the story of Slim Helú and his economic are known few have how power he in Mexico and how he Lebanese Mexican in which and is as a in all of Latin that Carlos Slim Helú when it was by Carlos is the he has to the of on both of Mexico’s how did this of Lebanese immigrants a Mexican and of the Slim Helú has on his while the creation of Lebanese Mexico. The history of Slim Helú and his illustrate how a few Middle Easterners in Mexico have economic while positioning themselves for social and cultural and for in the Mexican a by the Slim Helú the of his to a and in the in to the with and and one to with the and to the and Slim Helú has followed his by and for his In he the successful by early Middle Eastern as a of capital and making on to who not to for in to to the to for they did not have the to for not did the who it also a Middle Eastern use of their ethnic to the capital to on This has into the Carlos Slim Helú and his Carlos Slim now to for a and of The has to in many and both and for to a the that in Latin officials often that for a of the Mexican A the would the Although this of and Slim economic power he of the Mexican through his control of the Slim is that he Mexico was left to the economic, and political positioning of Middle Eastern immigrants in Mexico to their construction of a Lebanese Mexican Lebanese Mexicans this identity to to one and to other In Lebanon, however, identity has to be with and and from Lebanon have often themselves while of Maronite have to themselves often of in Mexico, Maronite have what it to be have often that their to a and to themselves in Mexican changes and during the nineteenth in These became in the when the by Greater of the Middle Eastern immigrants to this as part of an past that they sought to in Mexico. As political the a position that was during the Lebanese War – with the French some Middle Eastern immigrants to position themselves as of this culture. As national which it from Syria and the of the Arab This of a Lebanese identity was to the and the World Maronite was in the late The World of the Maronite in Mexico City in Although many to their their dominance in Lebanon had to in with the Lebanese Muslim Lebanese the Maronite for In October the to many political among that and be in had until a of the Maronite dominance in Lebanon, the construction of a Lebanese identity in Mexico has to on the of Maronite dominance in Lebanon and the with the to the Mexican of to and the for cultural these Lebanese Mexicans have themselves as the to Mexican the they have themselves from Middle Eastern immigrants of Muslim and that is to Maronite with to what are regarded as of the in the Lebanese Mexican community also their and to explain they have Mexicans that business have these foreign to of Mexican and from these the of who can to the Mexican nation this immigrant group to position themselves in Mexican and How this immigrant group has acquired power in the part of the twentieth can also be by the of foreign in Mexico, as as by Mexican historical from the Middle East often themselves economically in Mexican and their community in Mexico, especially during trying to Middle Eastern immigrants sought to themselves by of the they to and themselves in to historical events in the Middle East and in Mexico and to the conditions of to by their and their to foreign for a Middle Eastern from during the Mexican by for and to and many in the into the in to and In a from the to into for a for the of some Lebanon the French he had a French and was considered a French The for and to and the which may in a Mexican In an for and Mexicans a on both of the the was not until immigrants from the Middle the the immigration in the and along the East and descendents from the Middle such as the of Carlos Slim Helú have both into the Mexican and elements of their Lebanese by on a of foreign in This Middle Easterners to themselves as “foreign that as Mexican citizens of Lebanese The contradictory and of foreigners can be as a “foreign citizen” that to be foreign in Mexico is a of wealth, creating a Mexican Mexicans xenophobic of Yet a of and a to elite other to Mexico on and the business practices. in Mexican most of foreign are most to are “foreign “foreign citizen” is an are both contradictory and to in Mexico. This that can be to a on the that he skills and capital is not However, in Mexico, and other Latin American the ability to declare explain the sense of entitlement and distance from countrymen. to the a has economic elite he may foreign to explain have Middle Eastern immigrants in this “foreign citizen” The first often cultural to into Mexican However, by the and with economic some Middle Easterners were to create a Lebanese Mexican This identity to the foreign citizen in Mexico to explain the positioning of these Middle Eastern immigrants and their By Middle Eastern immigrants who were not economically successful to into Mexican some social a Middle Eastern identity would not help an immigrant in Mexico.The foreign citizen is also to the of in the of Mexico. for Middle Eastern immigrants chose a Lebanese identity and not an Arab one be that Mexican has to be of immigrants with and The with French some of the Middle Eastern immigrants to on a and to distance themselves from their Arab origins. In to the of a Mexican nation-state, many of the successful immigrants to themselves and to the elements of their that and The Middle Easterners who became themselves in Mexican as a immigrant the construction of a Lebanese in Mexico, a few immigrants from the Middle East and their descendents have into Lebanese Mexican power have themselves socially, politically, and economically in Mexico. the twentieth this has allowed Middle Easterners to of their economic power as they have a Lebanese Mexican This positioning has Mexican and the Middle Eastern immigrant Middle Eastern descendents and Mexican on the elements of what it to be a foreign experiences with Mexicans have to a of the of the construction of a Lebanese and the foreign citizen The of immigrants in political and has to the creation of a contemporary Lebanese elite that on the of the Mexican the of the immigrants to also to in Mexican The to their to themselves as in Mexican As Mexicans to from with the immigrants a to themselves as a part of the economic The of immigrant in Mexico allowed Middle Easterners to become Middle Eastern immigrants in Mexico and their by a of that and The construction of has by a Mexican of the and the and the an elite Lebanese Mexican Middle Eastern immigrants, by themselves and their their immigrant status in the of Mexican in the twentieth and would to Díaz and the for their and for the of this article was by the for and the for the of The for and was in early of of the was a by the for Latin American and the for Middle Eastern the of by