The multicultural mosaic of "Turcos" immigrants in Uruguay (1875-1932)

Uruguay is a country marked by migratory movements from its independence (1825-1830) to the present day. The largest wave of immigration in Uruguay occurred from the last third of the 19th century to the beginning of the 1930s. The immigrants came from Europe and the Near East of the territories that were part of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire. The immigrants from the different territories that were part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire that disappeared after the First World War (1914-1918) were generically called ´los Turcos´. Therefore, this name was given to those who lived in present-day Turkey and to those who lived in the territories of the empire, such as the Syrian Lebanese, the Egyptians, etc. In this way, it can be affirmed that the Turkish migratory contingent was very heterogeneous not only because of its origin but also because of its language, religion (Muslim, Christian or Jewish Ladino and Arab speakers), culture, etc. One can speak of a multicultural mosaic. The period analyzed in this research will correspond to the largest entry of 'Turcos' in Uruguay, that is between 1875, when the 'modernization of the country' began, and 1932 when a restrictive immigration law came into force. The field work will cover this period in Uruguay and in Paraguay; there are indications that some ´Turcos´ based in Uruguay later emigrated to Paraguay. The general objective of this research is to discover the migratory processes of those who had been born somewhere in the Turkish Ottoman Empire, of ´los Turcos´, and their presence on politic, economy, culture, and religion in Uruguay.