Los Arabes of New Mexico: Compadres from a Distant Land

At the outset, Los Arabes (Arabic-speaking individuals) were peddlers, carrying a variety of wares that often included exotic items from the Holy Land. These skilled cross-cultural traders expected to strike it rich in the United States and then return to their homeland on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Some continued westward; others put down roots in immigrant ghettos in the East and Midwest or traveled back across the sea. A few, however, decided to settle in New Mexico and ful...