[3] Because of their Ottoman passports, Middle Easterners in Central America were labeled as "Turks," and barred from civil society, public organizations and government posts.

[4] Discrimination and xenophobia ran deep; legacies of Spain's racially obsessed colonial policies in Latin America divided subjects into more than a dozen different ethnic classifications.

[6] In El Salvador, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez issued laws that banned Palestinians, among other ethnicities and nationalities, from immigrating and/or starting a business in the country.

[7] While discrimination against Palestinians died down considerably, as recently as 2000, a conservative Salvadoran political commentator, Rafael Colindres, wrote an essay suggesting, "Perhaps a pogrom would be the solution to the Turk problem.

The wealthy Simán family members sponsor a free drug rehabilitation program in El Salvador and a scholarship fund for Palestinians at the Catholic Bethlehem University.