Keeping it Halal in Argentina

At present, I am busy working on the copy-edits for my next book, Borícua Muslims: The Everyday Cosmopolitanism of Puerto Rican Converts to Islam (University of Texas Press, 2025).

As I review the grammar, syntax, and overall flow of the text, there is a temptation to get lost in the details. Every now and then, however, I find myself reading along with one of my interlocutor's stories, no longer paying attention to finer semantic points, but caught up in the narrative. This is not because my writing is so crisp or creative; it is because the stories themselves are compelling. The lives they recount and represent enthrall and fascinate me even now, ten years after I conducted my first interview for the book. Why? Because they offer a window into what it means to be Muslim in the Americas and, by extension, in the late-modern world.

In this final edition of our fourth volume, we offer other narratives of Muslim life across Latin America and the Caribbean, all of which offer insight into the dynamics and diversity of lived Islam, its infrastructures, and networks in the Americas and beyond.

First, the story of Melody Amal Khalil Kabalan from Buenos Aires, Argentina offers insights into the global halal industry and Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Latin America.

Second, our Associate Editor Rahma Maccarone offers some insights from her own story, writing on the Afro-Islamic diaspora in the Americas in the pursuit of her doctorate at Georgetown University. It is with joy that we share that Dr. Maccarone successfully defended her thesis!

Then, we offer a roundup of resources from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia Online,which tells stories from across time and the spaces of Muslim life in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We also have a robust collection of news stories to share this quarter, with narratives from the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Finally, we invite you to share your own stories: If you would like to contribute an essay, interview, book review, or member note, we are taking submissions over the next few months.

Thank you once more, for being part of the LACISA community and for contributing your own perspectives to our ongoing work. There are many more stories to be told and we look forward to being able to read and share them with you in the years to come.

Adelante,
Ken Chitwood
LACISA Senior Editor