Just something I happen to stumble upon. No comment!
The Question:
Dear Mexican: First of all, please don’t think that I’m a self-loathing Mexican; I was born in the U.S. to northern Mexican parents. As far as I know, my ancestry is just Indian, Spanish and a little French. For some strange reason, I have developed an intense fascination, and you might say, love, for Arab culture, language, cuisine, etc., especially Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Iraqi, and I don’t even have a drop of Arab blood in me. I hope to visit Lebanon someday, and Palestine (notice I said “Palestine” and not Israel), Syria, Jordan and Iraq. I love the dabka, kibbe, kaffiyehs, qahwa, falafel, hummos bi tahini, baqlawa, Lebanese singer Fairuz, the ruins at Baalbek, the city of Beirut, and hell, too many other things too numerous to mention. Do you think I could be of Lebanese ancestry and not know it? I mean, there ARE descendants of Lebanese immigrants in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Would a D.N.A. test tell me what my ancestry is, and could it turn up libaneses in my family tree? Let me know.
Wannabe Arab, a.k.a. El Libanés
The Response:
Dear Wab: You’re not one of those idiot Chicanos who ridiculously, insultingly compares the plight of Mexicans in the United States to that of the Palestinians in their homeland, are you? I can’t tell for certain if you have Middle Eastern genes without a D.N.A. sample, and I’m not interested in obtaining one from tu unless you’re a chica with bouncy double-Ds. But your chances that the sangre of the Levant courses through you veins is more likely than gabachos may think. As you noted, Lebanese did migrate to Mexico throughout the twentieh century and contributed to the patria in ways both positive (tacos al pastor, Salma Hayek) and negative (billionaire Carlos Slim Helu), having the biggest presence in Mexico City and the states of Puebla, Veracruz and the Yucatan. I recommend you buy Theresa Alfaro-Velcamp’s excellent 2007 study, So Far from Allah, So Close to Mexico: Middle Eastern Immigrants in Modern Mexico, in which she examined thousands of genealogical records of Lebanese and Syrians who moved to Mexico. Also, don’t forget that most Mexican uncles have enough Moorish blood in them to pass as Saddam Hussein in a pinch.