BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:30799@arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20230419T143000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20230419T163000 DTSTAMP:20230403T143912Z URL:https://www.arabamerica.com/events/gustavo-said-syrian-lebanese-immigr ant-identification-in-piaui-brazil/ SUMMARY:Gustavo Said: Syrian-Lebanese Immigrant Identification in Piauí\, Brazil DESCRIPTION:The Lourdes Casal Project\, the Center for Latin American Studi es - Brazil Working Group\, the Chancellor’s Office\, and Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice invites you to a lecture by:\n\nProf. G ustavo Fortes Said: At the Edge of Language\, we are all "Carcamanos:" Syr ian-Lebanese Immigrant Identification in Piauí\, Brazil.\n\nHumanitarian Aid donations accepted for Earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey\, 100% t o be donated to UK-based not-for-profit\, Action for Humanity.\n\nFacing repression in the aftermath of the First World War\, many Syrian and Leba nese minorities (in 1914\, an estimated 300\,000) left their homelands wit hin the former Turkish Ottoman Empire in search of a 'new world'. This lec ture reflects on the immigration of Syrian and Lebanese to Piauí\, Brazil \, in the first decades of the 20th century\, by highlighting the difficul t process whereby Arabic-speakers inserted themselves into a New World cul tural context.\n\nIn this violent reconfiguration\, the linguistic matrix is the key to understand the modes of cultural integration. The Brazilian host culture both denied these migrants from Syria and Lebanon the right t o speak the native language and\, at the same time\, required these Syrian -Lebanese migrants to express themselves nevertheless in Portuguese. Based on the life stories of his grandparents\, both Syrian immigrants who left their homeland in the prelude to the First World War\, Said demonstrates how\, through the loss of their own language and the insertion into foreig n languages\, Syrian and Lebanese migrants came to be stereotyped and raci alized with the Italian vernacular phrase (carca la mano). The resulting n eologism in Portuguese (carcamano) denotes Arabic speakers pejoratively. T his phonetic connection separated the Syrian-Lebanese community from its l anguage and traditions and\, at the same time\, created a cultural referen ce that defined mutual recognition through the use of a discriminatory sti gma: not Italians\, not Brazilians\, not really Arabs\, Syrians or Lebanes e\, but Carcamanos. As a result\, Arabic speakers\, ironically\, came to b e identified\, only in Piauí and nowhere else\, by a referent linked to a nother immigrant group. The language\, the speech of this group\, despite pretentious literality\, expresses a paradoxical situation: Syrians and Le banese\, who were mistaken for Turks because of the passport issued by the Ottoman authority\, became 'another foreigner'\, the italian "carca la ma no." Since then\, a subtle rhetorical operation promoted a spurious identi fication\, and created a negative stereotype\, that bears the weight of th e genetic and racial determinisms prevalent at the dawn of the 20th centur y. From their anger at being confused with their (Turkish) oppressors\, th ese Syrian-Lebanese migrants in Brazil began to live\, by dint of a phonet ic suggestion\, with the general idea that every Arab trader was dishonest \, a stigma they had to carry as a cursed family heritage\, passed on for generations. Between smiles\, they said\, about the Syrians and Lebanese: “carca la mano\, figlio” (from Italian to Portuguese\, that means\, in the language of the trade balance: “weigh your hand\, son\; stretch the measuring tape\, son\,” which is to say\, “adulterate weight and leng th\, son”. Based on this local analysis\, Said measures the complex fabr ic of language that organizes his own identity and cultural inheritance. B ut this same “material" suggests that he will reach the end of the text without knowing who he really is. Alluding to the separation and distance he had from his grandparents since childhood\, the essay ends by describin g the experience of Arab otherness as crystallizing as a sign of an absenc e--the absence of the grandparents\, and the lack of knowledge of their mo ther tongue. The essay adumbrates the gap in each personal history\, the e mpty sign to be filled. Said asks: what 'presences’ must we abandon? Wha t 'absences’ must we assimilate? To what extent does this history of Syr ian-Lebanese migration to South America figure how arrivants more generall y to this hemisphere are children of an 'other carcamano'?\n\nGustavo Fort es Said (PhD in Communication Sciences from University of Vale of Rio dos Sinos) (2006) is Professor - at the undergraduate and graduate levels - a t the Federal University of Piauí and sub-coordinator of the Master's Pro gram in Media Processes. Said was general coordinator of postgraduate stud ies at UFPI and the Interinstitutional Doctorate in Communication Sciences (UFPI/Unisinos). He has experience in the field of Communications and Med ia Studies\, working mainly on the following subjects: imaginary\, subject ivity\, psychoanalysis\, journalism\, cultural studies\, Arabic immigratio n to Brazil\, media studies\, and history of media in Piaui. He was a visi ting professor at the Universities of Nebraska-Lincoln and Mississippi (Ol d Miss)\, in the United States. He won the Donald Brenner Best Paper Award \, given by the ISSSS - International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity\, for research presented in 2013 in Amsterdam. Said is also t he author of several books. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2 023/04/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_462849589_1404833505203_1_original.jp eg CATEGORIES:#arabic,Arab Ameircan Event,Brazil,Celebration event,Latinamerica,lebanese,Syrian Music LOCATION:The Lourdes Casal Project\, 15 Washington Street\, Newark\, New Je rsey\, 07102\, United States GEO:40.744288;-74.171016 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=15 Washington Street\, Newa rk\, New Jersey\, 07102\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=The Lou rdes Casal Project:geo:40.744288,-74.171016 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20230312T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR