Latin America’s Los Turcos: Geographic aspects of Levantine and Maghreb diasporas

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Aaron Moore
Kent Mathewson

Abstract

Latin America’s los turcos comprise an ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse group of immigrants to the region. Despite the success and visibility of this group and their numbers in many countries throughout Latin America, research on these Middle Eastern-descended peoples has been surprisingly lacking in some areas. This paper, drawn from the much of the available literature, examines similarities-which helped to further differentiate the Middle Easterners not only from the native-born populations but also from other immigrants to Latin America and helped the inaccurate label turco to persist as an ethnic and cultural marker shared by a number of subgroups. This paper also looks at the record of los turcos in several countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Honduras). The paper highlights important aspects of this group’s experiences as part of the Middle Eastern diaspora in Latin America.

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How to Cite
Moore, A., & Mathewson, K. (2021). Latin America’s Los Turcos: Geographic aspects of Levantine and Maghreb diasporas. Noesis. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 22(43-2), 290–310. https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2013.2.7
Section
Other Narratives
Author Biographies

Aaron Moore, Louisiana State University

Undergraduate of  Political Science Major of Louisiana State University

Kent Mathewson, Louisiana State University

 Professor at Department of Geography & Anthropology At Louisiana State University

 

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