Arab/Middle Eastern influence in Puerto Rico's History (credit, how much)

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by BuenoQueHacemohAhora

Well, if you know that the Arabs dominated Iberia for 300 years, this should not come as a surprise to you.

I do not know it for a fact, but I have always been convinced that my ancestry is of Arabic origin, probably through Spain. Even though all my immediate, back to my grand, grand parents where born in Puerto Rico.

Just as an exercise, watch any video taken in the streets of Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, heck pick almost any middle eastern country, but mute the sound. Then ignore the local indicators, and just look at the faces. When I do that, I find myself thinking "that could easily be a Rio Piedras street scene"

I met people recently in the NYC area whom I could have sworn were Arab; they were Puerto Rican. There was an adult star who billed herself as an Arab for years until coming out recently with her own name and "admitting" that she was Puerto Rican.

[InsaneInDaMembrane]

I called up a member of a Palestinian family (Asfour) back home (St.Thomas) yesterday. I am writing a book about the various migrations to our islands and really curious about the Arab/Muslim presence in our midst. I can understand the descendants of people from nearby islands (as I am one of them myself) living on our islands considering geographical proximity and similar culture, but Palestinians??? Their homeland is thousands of miles away and our islands are but just pieces of rock in the middle of a vast ocean. I wanted to know what attracted them to our islands.

He told me that from as early as World War I, people from the Levant (western Middle East) were coming to the Caribbean. You guys are saying that they were Syrian and Lebanese Christians, but it is also clear that Muslim Arabs were coming too. For some reason, they were settling on another island that appears to have been the Virgin Islands of the early 1900s - Curacao. Apparently, the Asfour patriarch had a friend ("from back home") living in Curacao and he ended up visiting and staying. From there he moved to St. Thomas because other early Arabs moved over there with the rise of the Virgin Islands tourist boom in the late 50s. Mr. Asfour ended up in St. Thomas in the mid 60s and established himself, also marrying a Puerto Rican woman. Then with the start of the Six-Day War in Palestine in 1967, members of his family he left behind decided to escape the Israeli onslaught and head to St. Thomas.

Back in the late 70s as a little boy, I remember when Mr. Asfour used to drive around the island selling popular U.S clothing styles out of his car. He eventually opened a wildly popular store in Charlotte Amalie (St.Thomas). Since I have been away, he has opened a few more stores on St. Thomas and I think, on St. Croix also. I was just on St. Thomas 2 weeks ago and I took careful note at how huge the family has become. I was able to see at least 4 generations of them. In addition, I also noticed that there are other Arab families on the island also. Not sure which area of the Middle Eaast they are from, however.

[chacho_keva]

There's a rumor going around varying circles of those in the know within the Puerto Rican community. It's been rumored that a faction of Hezbollah has infiltrated the Puerto Rican society. This ruthless group of terrorists have renamed themselves.

They call themselves.......MIZ-BOLLAHS!

So, si van de visita a Puerto Rico, tengan mucho cuidado con: MIZ-BOLLAHS!!!

[nycricanpapi]

Originally Posted by chacho_keva

There's a rumor going around varying circles of those in the know within the Puerto Rican community. It's been rumored that a faction of Hezbollah has infiltrated the Puerto Rican society. This ruthless group of terrorists have renamed themselves.

They call themselves.......MIZ-BOLLAHS!

So, si van de visita a Puerto Rico, tengan mucho cuidado con: MIZ-BOLLAHS!!!

Is this a joke?

[nycricanpapi]

Originally Posted by Sunil's Dad

I met people recently in the NYC area whom I could have sworn were Arab; they were Puerto Rican. There was an adult star who billed herself as an Arab for years until coming out recently with her own name and "admitting" that she was Puerto Rican.

Let us not forget that there were Taino Indians living in the island when the Spanish(Spain) people took over. That is why some Ricans may look Indian or arabs.

[SobroGuy]

Wow I heard about Miz-Bollahs and I also heard that they killed someone from the Jones Family. Habian seis en la familia Jones hasta que Keko se murio. Ahora quedan Cinco Jones porque Keko se murio. R.I.P.......Keko Jones.

[chacho_keva]

En tempranas horas de la madrugada del miercoles, en la Republica Dominicana se llevo a cabo una serie de redadas en areas de la capital de Santo Domingo. Se reporto que los arrestados se llamaban Ivan Mendez, Ivan Santiago, Ivan Gomez, etc. o sea, todos los arrestados se llamaban “Ivan.”

Altos oficiales del gobierno dominicano indagaron la razón por la cual todos los arrestados se llamaban “Ivan.”

Representantes del Departamento de Investigaciones Dominicana (DID) respondieron que el DID recibio un aviso oficial del FBI a que estuvieran pendientes sobre la posible infiltración de un “Tal-iban” en la capital de Santo Domingo. ¿La recomendación del FBI? Si descubren a un “Tal-iban,” ¡ARRESTENLO!

¡Mi ke vaina!

[BuenoQueHacemohAhora]

Originally Posted by nycricanpapi

Let us not forget that there were Taino Indians living in the island when the Spanish(Spain) people took over. That is why some Ricans may look Indian or arabs.

The native Taino Indians would look a lot more closer to South American or North American Indians. There is not much there to look Arab, but maybe darker skin.

[j2howard]

I also took a DNA test and my DNA test said the same thing; middle eastern mix of Arabic, Iraqi, Kurdish, but I am also Sephardic Jewish. I was very suprised. I am supposed to be white from Europe, but I don't exactly look it. I did some research and found that about 400 - 500 years ago my ancestors were spanish arabic muslims and some were spanish jews that were forced to convert to christianity; in other words they became crypto jews and crypto muslims and were kicked out of Spain. Some of these so called Spaniards went back to the Middle East, some to North Africa, some to South America including PR, and a few went to France, Amsterdam, and England, ect. You can be Spanish and Arabic at the same time. DNA research of Spanish people today shows that 1 in 5 Spaniards is jewish and about 1 in 10 are moorish.

[Annie of Oldsmar]

This is so interesting to learn, I will take that DNA test. Never had any idea about this heritage and always wondered why, like somebody else posted here , when I look at many of the persons in Irak (like Sadam Hussein, for ex.) it looks like I am looking at people from Puerto Rico.