It would be especially interesting to discuss why the six heirs of the
New York Times’ financial savior, Carlos Slim, would qualify for affirmative action as Hispanics if they moved to America, considering that they are pure Lebanese Maronite by descent.
Their great-grandfather, Pierre Gemayel, who founded the fascist Phalangist paramilitary of Lebanon after participating in Hitler’s Olympics in Berlin.
And a great uncle of Slim children was the most notorious rightwing warlord in modern Lebanese history.
When Carlos Slim’s in-law Bashir Gemayel, President Elect of Lebanon, was famously assassinated in 1982 during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, setting off the Sabra and Shatila massacres of Palestinians perpetrated by his followers, his NYT obituary featured the great headline: “Bashir Gemayel Lived by the Sword.”
It’s also likely although less certain that Slim’s mother, Linda Helú Atta, was related to another founder of the Phalange, Charles Helou, later President of Lebanon. The Mexican government forced Arab immigrants to Hispanicize the spelling of their last names — e.g., Salim to Slim — so it’s likely that Helu and Helou are the same name, although how close they are genealogically remains uninvestigated.
We do know that Carlos Slim’s maternal grandfather brought a printing press to Mexico with him from the Levant and started an Arabic newspaper in Mexico, so the Helus and Helous sound sociologically quite similar. Indeed, Carlos’s Mexican-born cousin Alfredo Harp Helu is also a billionaire.
If so, the Slim heirs aren’t products of random romantic attraction, but of dynastic marriages among the leading far right Lebanese clans. This helps explain the Slim family’s career choices in Mexico, such as Carlos’ older brother’s Julian’s career with a Mexican government secret police force accused of torturing and disappearing leftists.
All this is a topic that the NYT has shown extremely little interest in reporting during the years in which Slim has been the leading stockholder in the newspaper.