Since the late nineteenth century, Syrian and Lebanese migration, in particular, to Southern California has been intimately connected to and through Latin America. Join the California State Library’s California History Section as Professor Sarah M. A. Gualtieri explores the history of Los Angeles’s Syrian American community and draws out its deep connections to Southern California’s Mexican American and Latinx communities to reveal important cross-border and multiethnic solidarities in Syrian California.

Sarah M. A. Gualtieri is an award-winning historian, teacher, and author. She is professor in the departments of American Studies and Ethnicity, History, and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. Her research bridges several areas of expertise, notably Middle East Migration Studies and Arab American Studies. Her most recent book Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California (Stanford University Press, 2020) won the Arab American Book Award and the Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies.