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Latin American Collection at USEK Library: Overview

This Guide Provides Access to Materials Available at USEK Library

Overview

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.

Partners

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Collaborations / Collections

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. 

(http://www.diariosiriolibanes.com.ar/Sociedad/Instituciones/Proyecto-de-conservaci%C3%B3n-del-patrimonio-Liban%C3%A9s

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

 

Carmen Ruiz Bravo Villasante

Embassies of Latin America in Lebanon

Club Sirio-Libanés de Buenos Aires

Biblioteca (Library) Mário de Andrade – São Paulo

 

Biblioteca Nacional de Chile

Jacques Menassa Colletion

 Fondation Ninawa Daher ,Buenos Aires

Biblioteca (Library) Nacional – Rio de Janeiro

 

Fundación Palestina Belen 2000

Hicham Hamdan Collection 

Misión Libanesa Maronita  – Buenos Aires

Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira – CCAB and  Casa Árabe ,  São Paulo

 

Rafael Rosell Aiquel

Hyam Mallat Collection 

Sociedad Libanesa de Rosario

Catedral Metropolitana Ortodoxa de São Paulo

 

Rodolfo Nicolas Haddad Hakim (in Memoriam)

Nabil Semaan Collection

 

Centro de Estudos Árabes- Universidade de São Paulo - USP

 

 

Roberto Khatlab Collection 

 

Clube Atlético Monte Líbano, São Paulo

 

 

 

 

Clube Homs  - São Paulo

 

 

 

 

Consulate General of Lebanon in Rio de Janeiro 

 

 

 

 

Esporte Clube Sírio

 

 

 

 

Family D Study Center (Roberto Duailibi)

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Instituto da Cultura árabe – ICArabe, São Paulo

 

 

 

 

Lar Sírio Pró-infância, São Paulo