MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Lebanese have turned their backs on turbulent origins in the Arab world to become one of the country's most successful immigrant communities.
The secret to the success of the Lebanese, most of them Christians who adapted quickly in a predominantly Catholic nation, has been to set up thriving businesses and steer clear of the politics of the Middle East about which they know little.
"They are extremely well organized on a social level," said Nouhad Mahmoud, Lebanon's ambassador in Mexico. "They are proud of their origins but have little knowledge of what is going on back home and, barring a potential defensive posture in the future, I see no political cause uniting them."
But the tightly knit community -- which boasts powerful business figures such as Latin America's wealthiest man, Carlos Slim, leading politicians and religious figures -- does have the ear of the Mexican government.
BUSINESS FIRST
Fabric and clothing shops owned by Mexico's Lebanese and Syrian-Jewish community dot alleyways behind the government's National Palace in Mexico City's center, with most businesses having passed through a generation or two of immigrants.
"I have been in this business for thirty years," said Alma Rosa Estevan, a 48-year-old textile shop owner. She is a mother of three who was born in Mexico, as were her parents. Her grandparents migrated from Lebanon in the 1920s, she said.
"I am totally Mexican, but Lebanon is the land of my ancestors and we were brought up on Lebanese traditions, but not so much my children now," said Estevan, whose husband is also of Lebanese origin.
The immigration from Lebanon and Syria to Mexico started in the late 19th century and reached its peak in the 1920s and 1930s. Most people in the community hold on to certain Lebanese traditions, but few bother to remain current on events in the old country and only a handful speak Arabic.
"I only visited Lebanon once and it was in 1974 before the civil war," said Carlos Slim, the business magnate. "I only know the numbers and swear words in Arabic." Slim, the son of a Lebanese immigrant father, was born in Mexico.
Virtually all of Mexico's Lebanese, who number about 400,000 in a country of 100 million, are Christians and many among the early immigrants held French passports, which facilitated their entry into Mexico. Lebanon was a French protectorate from 1920 until its independence in 1946. The country's 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Lebanon's ambassador said Mexico has traditionally been very restrictive in granting entry to people from the Middle East and that it may be even more difficult now after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and stepped-up efforts by the Mexican government to secure the country's borders.
Despite tense times, most in Mexico's Lebanese community say they have experienced no hostility or discrimination, except for occasional comments that are made in jest.
"Sometimes they tell you things like, 'Look at you going around on your camel,' but that is part of the Mexican's sense of humor," said Eduardo Nahum, a 35-year-old lingerie shop owner.
Merchants of all religions get along fairly well and there have been no incidents since the U.S. attacks, Nahum said as he walked to eat lunch with other shopkeepers at a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by Mohamed Mazeh, a Shiite Muslim from Lebanon who has lived in Mexico for 11 years. But some complained about a general ignorance in Mexico about the Middle East, blaming local media in part.
"I kid you not, sometimes they confuse Lebanon with Libya on television," said Ambassador Mahmoud.
POWER BROKERS
In an exclusive leafy suburb far from the hustle of Mexico City's center sits the Syrian Orthodox archdiocese headed by Archbishop Antonio Chedraoui, the Lebanese community's most prominent spokesman and link to the country's movers and shakers.
Chedraoui, a native of Lebanon who has lived in Mexico for 35 years, counts among his friends President Vicente Fox and Cardinal Norberto Rivera, the country's highest-ranking Catholic Church official.
Three years ago, Chedraoui founded an organization called For Mexico, which he said promotes social development and counts among its members leading religious, political, media and business figures.
"In doing something charitable for the country we live in, we are also in an indirect manner giving a voice to our people and homeland," said Chedraoui, who answers to the Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Antioch in Damascus, Syria.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Chedraoui has assumed a higher profile in the Mexican media as he seeks to elevate public consciousness of the Middle East.
"The world thinks of us as criminals and terrorists now, but we are descendants of great civilizations and our land is the birthplace of religions," he said. "No religion preaches killing, but there are those who use religion for other ends."
Chedraoui does not shy from criticizing U.S. foreign policy, saying it has fanned fundamentalism across the Middle East. He alluded to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency funding during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan some of the Islamic militants it is now fighting, including the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden.
"If you raise your son on evil deeds, then some of it will come back to haunt you," he said. "Americans bred bin Laden; he was not bred in Lebanon or the Middle East."
At a recent luncheon at Chedraoui's house, state governors, ministers, political party leaders and congressmen hob-knobbed under the approving gaze of Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador, Interior Minister Santiago Creel and first lady Marta Sahagun.
"He is a very good friend," said Francisco Labastida, a former presidential candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, said of Chedraoui.