The Latin American Studies and Cultures Center (CECAL ) of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) was established in 2010 with a succession of Gifts. The collections gathered by CECAL and hold by USEK Library are notable in the fields of culture, politics, economy, history as well as social and human sciences.
The Library has an impressive collection from Latin America. The strength of the collection lies in the sizable numbers of works on history, literature, and regional histories of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay.
The collections are divided by the continents of North America and South America, Central America and the Carribean.
Project to digitize the memory of Lebanese and Syrian immigration to Latin America
The project aims at digitizing, among others, newspapers, magazines, old books, photographs, and documents produced by the Lebanese and Syrian communities, specifically in Latin America since the 19th century, during the great immigration wave. USEK’s pioneering role consists of starting to form studios to digitize the relevant material to be found in the region and store it within USEK’s digital library in Lebanon, thereby making research easier for scholars and other stakeholders.
Two agreements have been signed so far with digital studios in two countries:
Argentina – 2016 Agreement
USEK – Fundación Ninawa Daher (Ninawa Daher Foundation), Buenos Aires.
Founder and President: Alicia Daher.
Brazil – 2018 Agreement
USEK – Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira (Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce)
Former president: Rubens Hannun. Current president: Brazilian diplomat Osmar Chohfi
CCAB Cultural Sector: Silvia Antibas, director. Heloisa Abreu Dib Julien, coordinator. Mirna Adel Nasser, digitization.
https://anba.com.br/en/project-immigration-set-launch-arab-chamber/
https://anba.com.br/projeto-sobre-imigracao-sera-lancado-na-camara-arabe/
Working in coordination with USEK’s Library and Latin American Studies and Cultures Center (CECAL) , the three partners and their teams are undertaking research on collections (at the level of institutions, libraries, private individuals, etc.) to locate magazines, newspapers, and other publications in Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese in Latin American countries with the purpose of rebuilding and preserving these collections in immigration memory.
The first newspaper established by Lebanese immigrants in Latin America was Al-Fayha, published in 1894 in Campinas, São Paulo and owned by Salim Balech. Historian Philippe Hitti estimates at 166 the number of Arabic-language newspapers and magazines published in Latin America in 1950 (95 in Brazil, 58 in Argentina, 8 in Chile, 3 in Cuba, and one in Uruguay).
In addition to our digitization studios in two countries, we are conducting research on collections in other Latin American countries. The digitized collections are available in the library catalog.
The below table lists the Institutions, Libraries, and individuals etc. that have authorized us to digitize their own collections or the collections of Lebanese and Syrian emigrants dating back to the 19th Century onward.
Argentina |
Brazil |
Mexico |
Chile |
Lebanon |
Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno, Buenos Aires |
Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo – APESP |
Carlos Martinez-Assad |
Alberto Benjamín López Oliva |
Assaad Yoessef Zaidan Collection |
Centro Argentino de Investigación sobre la inmigración Libanesa-CAIIL-Rosario |
Associação Beneficente Sírio Libanesa - ABSL |
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Carmen Ruiz Bravo Villasante |
Embassies of Latin America in Lebanon |
Club Sirio-Libanés de Buenos Aires |
Biblioteca (Library) Mário de Andrade – São Paulo |
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Biblioteca Nacional de Chile |
Jacques Menassa Colletion |
Fondation Ninawa Daher ,Buenos Aires |
Biblioteca (Library) Nacional – Rio de Janeiro |
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Fundación Palestina Belen 2000 |
Hicham Hamdan Collection |
Misión Libanesa Maronita – Buenos Aires |
Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira – CCAB and Casa Árabe , São Paulo |
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Rafael Rosell Aiquel |
Hyam Mallat Collection |
Sociedad Libanesa de Rosario |
Catedral Metropolitana Ortodoxa de São Paulo |
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Rodolfo Nicolas Haddad Hakim (in Memoriam) |
Nabil Semaan Collection |
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Centro de Estudos Árabes- Universidade de São Paulo - USP |
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Roberto Khatlab Collection |
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Clube Atlético Monte Líbano, São Paulo |
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Clube Homs - São Paulo |
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Consulate General of Lebanon in Rio de Janeiro |
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Esporte Clube Sírio |
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Family D Study Center (Roberto Duailibi) |
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Family: Azar (Marisa Azar); Assad Abdalla; Marcia Camasmie Dib; Chucri Curi (Isabel Curi Nader); Eduardo B. Jafet; Heloisa Abreu Dib Julien; Jamal Ibrahim Elias; Jamil Zarif Neto; P. Ibrahim Soliman;Ricardo Calil Cury; Roberto Anis Calfat; Safa Jubran; Samoel Atlas (George and Salwa Atlas); Sarruf Dib; Wilma Ary |
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Instituto da Cultura árabe – ICArabe, São Paulo |
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Lar Sírio Pró-infância, São Paulo |
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