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 1893 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 | Biblioteca Nacional de Chile | Embassies of Latin America in Lebanon |
| Centro Argentino de Investigación sobre la inmigración Libanesa-CAIIL-Rosario |
Biblioteca - Câmara de Coméercio Árabe-Brasileira – CCAB et Casa Árabe , São Paulo |
Rafael Rosell Aiquel | Assaad Yoessef Zaidan Collection | |
| Club Sirio-Libanés de Buenos Aires | Biblioteca Mário de Andrade – São Paulo | Hyam Mallat Collection | ||
| Fondation Ninawa Daher , Buenos Aires | Biblioteca Nacional – Rio de Janeiro | Hicham Hamdan Collection | ||
| Misión Libanesa Maronita – Buenos Aires | Biblioteca Universidade de São Paulo – USP – São Paulo | Roberto Khatlab Collection | ||
| Sociedad Libanesa de Rosario | Clube Atlético Monte Líbano, São Paulo | Jacques Menassa Colletion | ||
| Clube Homs - São Paulo | Nabil Semaan Collection | |||
| Consulate General of Lebanon in Rio de Janeiro |
||||
| Families : Ary, Camasmie, ,Jafet, Jubran, Khoury, Curi, Azar, Dib Julien, Jamal Elias | ||||
| Family D Study Center (Duailibi) | ||||
| Instituto da Cultura árabe – ICArabe, São Paulo | ||||
| Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de São Paulo | ||||
| Lar Sírio Pró-infância, São Paulo |