Coming of Age as Syrian Jewish Mexicans: The Pragmatics of Diaspora

Coming of Age as Syrian Jewish Mexicans is a linguistic ethnography of Shami and Halebi Jews in contemporary Mexico City. Through a focus on language in everyday life – including narrative, humor, and Arabic and Hebrew “heritage words” - the book explores how young adults negotiate oft-stigmatized, diasporic identities amid national shifts toward neoliberalism and the transnational expansion of Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy. Accessible yet richly theorized, the book introduces linguistic anthropological concepts and guides readers through their application to audiovisual data. This innovative approach promotes empathetic understanding of a lesser-known Jewish Latin American context and opens new lines of inquiry into the phenomenon of diaspora in a rapidly changing world.