The Silent Legacy of Arabic Literature in Latin America
March 28, 2025 Hour: 10:57 pm
The Arabic influence on Latin American literature, although often underestimated, has been profound. Its origins date back to the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula (711-1492), whose legacy reached Latin America through Spanish cultural mestizaje. Arab migration during the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced this exchange, leaving marks on language, narrative, and regional poetry.
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The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges was a clear exponent of this influence. Fascinated by Arabic literature, he eplored Sufi mysticism and One Thousand And One Nights. In the short story The Enigma of Edward Fitzgerald, he analyzes Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat and in The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths, he employs Arabic symbols such as the desert and the labyrinth.
Arab migration to Latin America also left its literary mark. The Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta, of Palestinian descent, addressed Arab identity and the migratory experience in his works.
Also in Argentina, Palestinian writer Sahar Khalifeh portrayed the Arab diaspora in novels like La Herencia (1997), which tells the story of a young Palestinian-Argentine returning to her ancestors’ land.
Colombian Gabriel García Márquez incorporated Arabic elements in One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by including Arab characters, such as the merchants who arrive in Macondo, reflecting Arab migration in Colombia.
Latin American literature also adopted Arabic themes such as destiny, fatalism, and uprootedness. Arabic narrative structures, such as circular tales, appear in authors like Borges and Juan José Saer.