1 I borrow the term “reelized” from Shaheen, Jack G.’s work, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (New York: Olive Branch Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

2 Defining appropriate categories of personhood to describe these immigrants has sparked considerable debate. After World War II (and the founding of the State of Israel), and more recently, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the term “Arab” has become politically charged. Scholars, such as Zidane Zéraoui and Roberto Marín-Guzmán, however, refer to immigrants to Mexico from the Middle East as “Arabs,” employing an ethno-cultural construct. I use the term “Middle Eastern immigrants” to refer to peoples from the region that comprises the contemporary nation-states of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine (West Bank, Gaza, and British mandated territory), Israel, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula and their predecessors. Although Armenia and Turkey are not Arab states, peoples from these nation-states are often considered part of this migration. I have chosen to use “Middle Eastern,” preferring its geographic connotations in examining the history of peoples who emigrated from the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century, and those who have migrated from the region in the twentieth century. However, I sometimes use the term “Arabs” to distinguish between Arabs and Jews in accordance with Mexican discourse. The Lebanese immigrants represent another subgroup within this larger Middle Eastern/Arab migration. Lebanon and Syria were not nation-states until the 1940s and therefore immigrants to Mexico from these regions often declared cities and regions as their place of origin. It should also be noted that many historical documents in Latin America indicate that these peoples hailed from the Ottoman Empire, therefore the term “turco” (Turk) is still used occasionally to describe Middle Easterners. Although the term “Middle Eastern” can be reductionist, similar to the use of “Latin American,” it offers the most comprehensive nomenclature based on my examination of 8,240 Middle Eastern immigrant registration cards compiled by the Mexican government between 1926 and 1951.

3 L, John and Comaroff, Jean, Of Revelation and Revolution: The Dialectics of Modernity on a South African Frontier, Volume II (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), p. 388 Google Scholar . The Comaroffs also note that, “. . . ethnic identity, which always assumes both an experiential and a practical salience for those who bear it, entails the complementary assertion of the collective self and the negation of the collective other; it may call into question shared humanity; and its substance is likely to reflect the ten-

sions embodied in relations of inequality.” John, and Comaroff, Jean, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992), p. 53 Google Scholar.

4 “Indigenismo, as an official policy, aimed to encourage those indigenous activities and attitudes that would best engender a sense of Mexican nationalism. It targeted for eradication certain practices, such as languages and other related to other core aspects of indigenous culture (such as medicine and agricultural techniques), in the interests of turning Mexico’s indigenous people into mestizos and establishing Mexico as a nation.” Susanna Rostas argues that mexicanidad is an ‘invented tradition.’ Susanna Rostas, “Performing ‘Mexicanidad;’ Popular ‘Indigenismo’ in Mexico City,” in Encuentros Antropológicos: Power, Identity and Mobility in Mexican Society, edited by Napolitano, Valentina and Xochitl Leyva Solano (London: University of London, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1998), pp. 60–61 Google Scholar. Although this definition highlights the policy aims of indigenismo, it neglects indigenismo as an aesthetic movement linked to indigenous arts.

5 However, as filmmaker Jonathan LeMond suggests, it is possible that the directors may have just selected the most available actors to get the respective movies made.

6 I would like to thank Rob McLaughlin for helping me articulate this idea.

7 Seth Fein’s comments from the March 2004 Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies panel Film and Nation in Latin America 1910s-1940s.

8 Anaya, Delia Salazar, La población extranjera en Mexico (1895-1990): Un recuento con base en los Censos Generales de Población (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1996), p. 105 Google Scholar.

9 Bill Crowley provides the following description: “The Christian community had (and has) three main components: (1) the Maronites, a Catholic rite that developed independently from Rome until the twelfth century when union was achieved as a result of the Crusades; (2) the Greek Orthodox; and (3) the Greek Catholics, also known as Melchites, [sic] an offshoot of the Greek Orthodox that joined Rome in 1724.” Crowley, William K., “The Levantine Arabs: Diaspora in the New World,” 1984 Yearbook Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, edited by Kvale, Katherine M. (Conference of Latin Ameri can Geographers, Volume 10), p. 138 Google Scholar.

10 Centro Libanés website: http://www.centrolibanes.org/centro_alt.php?secc=mapa_sitio (August 18, 2004). Also see Sam Dagher, “Nation’s Lebanese Distant from Arab Conflicts but Hold Close Ties to Those in Power,” The News Mexico (Thursday, October 25, 2001), p. 4. Dagher claims 400,000 people of Lebanese Christian descent reside in Mexico.

11 Roitman, Deborah, “Jewish identification among young Mexican Jews,” (Thesis, Bar Ilan University, May 1996), p. 20 Google Scholar; Kershenovich, Paulette, “Jewish Women in Mexico,” in Jewish Women 2000: Conference Papers from the Hadassah Research Institute on Jewish Women International Scholarly Exchanges 1997-1998, edited by Epstein, Helen (Boston: Brandeis University, November 1999), p. 98, nl3Google Scholar.

12 Halabe, Liz Hamui de, coordinator, Los Judíos de Alepo en Mexico (Mexico: Maguén David, A.C., 1989), p. 101 Google Scholar. Also see Krause, Corinne Azen, “The Jews in Mexico: A History with Special Emphasis on the Period from 1857 to 1930,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1970), p. 65 Google Scholar.

13 Halabe, Liz Hamui de, Los Judíos de Alepo en México, p. 101 Google Scholar; Krause, Corinne Azen, “The Jews in Mexico,” p. 65 Google Scholar.

14 Pergola, Sergio Della, World Jewry: Beyond 2000. The Demographic Prospects. (Occasional Papers 2, The Third Frank Green Lecture), (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 1999), Table 5, p. 24 Google Scholar.

15 http://ww.megi.gob.mc/est/contenidos/espanol/tematicos/mediano/med.asp?t=mpob63&c (April 6, 2004).

16 Toplin, Robert Brent, ed., Hollywood as Mirror: Changing Views of “Outsiders” and “Enemies” in American Movies (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1993), p. viii Google Scholar.

17 López, Ana M., “Are All Latins from Manhattan? Hollywood, Ethnography, and Cultural Colonialism,” in Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema, edited by Friedman, Lester D. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), p. 405 Google Scholar.

18 O’Neil, Brian, “The Demands of Authenticity: Addison Durland and Hollywood’s Latin Images during World War II,” in Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness, edited by Bernardi, Daniel (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), p. 360 Google Scholar.

19 O’Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity,” p. 360.

20 It’s All True (Paramount Pictures, 1994). I would like to thank John Muller for lending me his copy.

21 Schnitman, Jorge A., Film Industries in Latin America: Dependency and Development (Norwood: ABLEX Publishing, 1984), p. 29 Google Scholar. Also see López, Ana M., “Are All Latins from Manhattan?,” pp. 408–409 Google Scholar.

22 Fein, Seth, “Myths of Cultural Imperialism and Nationalism in Golden Age Mexican Cinema,” in Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico Since 1940, edited by Joseph, Gilbert, Rubenstein, Anne, and Zolov, Eric (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), p. 189 Google Scholar; Also see, Fein, Seth, “Everyday Forms of Transnational Collaboration: U.S. Film Propaganda in Cold War Mexico,” in Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations, edited by Joseph, Gilbert M., LeGrand, Catherine C., and Salvatore, Ricardo D. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

23 Schnitman, Film Industries, p. 41.

24 Schnitman, Film Industries, p. 42.

25 Mora, Carl J., Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society 1896-1960 (Berkeley: University of Cal ifornia, 1982), p. 59 Google Scholar.

26 Mora, Mexican Cinema, p. 62, note 38; Schnitman, Film Industries, p. 42.

27 Examples of Hollywood’s exoticizing ethnic otherness can be seen in The Sheik (1921), The Son of the Sheik (1926), The Jazz Singer (1927), and Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947). Also see Hansen, Miriam, Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marchetti, Gina, Romance and the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Jacobson, Mathew Frye, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; and Friedman, Lester, ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

28 Estrada, Josefina, Joaquín Pardavé: El señor del espectáculo. Volume II (Mexico: Editorial Clío, Libros y Videos, S.A. de C.V., 1996), pp. 35–36 Google Scholar.

29 Joaquín Pardavé (1900-1955) acted in seven films in 1942 and four films in 1945. Paranaguá, Paulo Antonio, ed., Mexican Cinema, translated by López, Ana M. (London: British Film Institute, IMCINE, and Consejo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes de México, 1995), p. 292 Google Scholar.

30 “¿ Yo no he trabajado como si fuera majacano? ¿No he hecho por esta patria más que toda esa familia? ¿No quiero a México como si fuera mi propia madre? ¿El hijo de mi alma no es majacano?”

31 By using long lens shots, Pardavé is able to capture the marginalization of the characters.

32 Pardavé uses medium and full shots to focus on Jalil and Suad.

33 Riera, Emilio García, Historia Documental del Cine Mexicano 2, 1938-1942 (Jalisco: Universidad de Guadalajara and Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1993), p. 264 Google Scholar.

34 For a more in-depth discussion of Mexican cinema in the 1940s, see Seth Fein, “Myths of Cultural Imperialism,” pp. 159-198; and Hershfield, Joanne, “Race and Ethnicity in the Classical Cinema,” in Mexico’s Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers, edited by Hershfield, Joanne and Maciel, David R (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1999), pp. 81–100 Google Scholar.

35 “Among the ‘star’ fixtures of the cinema, was ‘the mother of Mexico,’ Sara García.” Mora, Carl, Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society 1896-1980 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 57 Google Scholar. Also see, Mora, Carl J., “Feminine Images in Mexican Cinema: The Family Melodrama; Sara García, ‘The Mother of México’; and the Prostitute,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 4 (1985), pp. 228–235 Google Scholar.

36 Paulo Antonio Paranaguá, Mexican Cinema, p. 4.

37 While many second and third generation Middle Easterners pursued careers in medicine, law, and engineering, a few went into producing and directing movies. Miguel Zacarías and his brother Mario Zacarías produced many films. Miguel made such films as Rosario, El peñon de las ánimas and many more. Kuri, Martha Díaz de and Macluf, Lourdes, De Líbano a México: crónica de un pueblo emigrante (Mexico: Gráfica, Creatividad y Diseño, 1995), pp. 213–216 Google Scholar.

38 “. . . By far the largest part of Mexican cinema produced in the 1950s and early 60s was financed by a few companies and filmed by a few directors. And to further consolidate this sort of monopoly, the sons of René Cardona, Raúl de Anda, Miguel Zacarías, Valentín Gazcón, Gregario Wallerstein, and so on, became part of the industry as producers and directors in the 60s.” Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro, “Origins, Development and Crisis of the Sound Cinema (1929-64),” in Mexican Cinema, edited by Paulo Antonio Paranaguá, p. 91. Film critic de la Vega Alfaro also notes that “several of the most powerful producers (Gregorio Wallerstein, Raúl de Anda) ended up becoming partners with the fictitious associates— [these “associates” were Mexican nationals who were paid for the use of their names in business interests to comply with Mexican laws concerning business ownership]—of [William] Jenkins [an American] in order to supply theater owners with the kinds of films destined not so much for the ever-widening internal market, but exclusively for the mass populace.” Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro, “The Decline of the Golden Age and the Making of the Crisis,” in Mexico’s Cinema, edited by Joanne Hershfield and David R. Maciel, pp. 175-176.

39 Schnitman, Film Industries, p. 42; Also see Riera, Emilio García, Historia Documental del Cine Mexicano, 3, 1943-1945 (Jalisco: Universidad de Guadalajara, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. 1993)Google Scholar.

40 Nissán, Rosa, Novia que te vea (Mexico: Planeta, 1992)Google Scholar; For additional information on the Jewish communities in Mexico, see Krause, Corinne Azen, “The Jews in Mexico: A History with Special Emphasis on the Period From 1857-1930” (Ph.D. diss, University of Pittsburgh, 1970)Google Scholar; Carreño, Alicia Gojman de Backal y Gloria, Comunidad Ashkenazi de México (Mexico: Comunidad Ashkenazi de México, 1993)Google Scholar; and Cimet, Adina, Ashkenazi in Mexico: Ideologies in the Structuring of a Community (New York: State University of New York Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

41 Toward the end of the 1920s, a legislative order to the Mexican Migration Department published in Diario Oficial on July 15, 1927 stated that, “... the immigration of persons of Syrian, Lebanese, Pales tinian, Arabic and Turkish origin has reached a limit that makes itself felt in the national economy in an unfavorable manner on account of the conglomeration in urban centers.” This legislative order implied that while Mexican peddlers and merchants were acceptable, Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendents in the commercial sectors caused economic and social instability.

42 Rashkin, Elissa J., Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), p. 145 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In the novel, Oshi says, “¿Querer parecerme a mi mamá, a mi abuela, a mi tía? No, mejor a mi abuelo, a mi papá, o hasta a mi hermano. ¡Qué aburridas son las mujeres y además tontas!; bueno, mi mamá no es tonta, pero no es nada divertida; mi abuelita no puede ir sola ni siquiera a Sears, que está a dos cuadras. Pero a escondidas se va con Uba. Las mujeres siempre en casa, no se les ocurre ni irse a remar.” Nissan, Novia que te vea, pp. 25-26.

43 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 14.

44 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 46.

45 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 46.

46 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 46.

47 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 14.

48 Adina Cimet explores the complexities of Jewish identity in Mexico as well as the cleavages within the Jewish community. See Adina Cimet, Ashkenazi in Mexico.

49 Nissán, Novia que te vea, pp. 36-37.

50 Nissán, Novia que te vea, pp. 65-66.

51 Klich, Ignacio, “Arab-Jewish Coexistence in the First Half of 1900s Argentina: Overcoming Self-Imposed Amnesia,” in Arab and Jewish Immigrants in Latin America: Images and Realities, edited by Klich, Ignacio and Lesser, Jeffrey (London: Frank Cass, 1998), p. 3 Google Scholar.

52 Rashkin, Women Filmmakers, p. 151.

53 Rashkin, Women Filmmakers, p. 142.

54 Similar to the dinner scene in El baisano Jalil, Schyfter uses double and single shots to accentuate tensions among family members.

55 Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) also conveys this sensation.

56 Schmidt, Henry C., The Roots of Lo Mexicano: Self and Society in Mexican Thought, 1900-1934 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

57 Bartra, Roger, The Cage of Melancholy: Identity and Metamorphosis in the Mexican Character, Translated by Hall, Christopher J. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1992), pp. 2–3 Google Scholar.

58 Lesser, Jeffrey, Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), p. 2. Google Scholar

59 For a more detailed discussion of the revolutionary leaders, see Katz, Friedrich, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knight, Alan, The Mexican Revolution (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Womack, John Womack Jr, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1968)Google Scholar; and Brunk, Samuel, ¡Emiliano Zapata!: Revolution & Betrayal in Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1995)Google Scholar.

60 See Malley, llene O., The Myth of the Revolution: Hero Cults and the Institutionalization of the Mexican State, 1920-1940 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986)Google Scholar; and Benjamin, Thomas, La Revolución: Mexico’s Great Revolution as Memory, Myth, and History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Lida, Denah, “Language of the Sephardim in Anglo-America,” in Sephardim in the Americas: Studies in Culture and History, edited by Cohen, Martin A. and Abraham Peck, J. (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1993), p. 316 Google Scholar.

62 Nissán, Novia que te vea, p. 27.

63 Hamui-Halabe, Liz, “Re-creating Community: Christians from Lebanon and Jews from Syria in Mexico, 1900-1938,” in Klich, Ignacio and Lesser, Jeffrey, eds. Arab and Jewish Immigrants in Latin America: Images and Realities (London: Frank Cass, 1998), p. 128 Google Scholar.

64 For a more in-depth discussion on how the Lebanese discourse largely excludes “Arabs;” see Alfaro-Velcamp, Theresa, “Mexican Muslims in the Twentieth Century: Challenging Stereotypes and Negotiating Space,” in Muslims in the West: Sojourners to Citizens, ed. YHaddad, vonne (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 278–292 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 John L. and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, p. 389.

66 Carrasco, Rodolfo Stavenhagen y Tania, “La diversidad étnica y cultural,” en El Patrimonio Nacional de México, Enrique Florescano, coordinator (Mexico: Consejo Nacional Para la Cultura y Las Artes and Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997), p. 259 Google Scholar.