Artworks

The Lebanese Emigrant was erected in Victoria to honour first Lebanese immigrants to victoria in 1888. The statue is a token of the Lebanese community’s appreciation to the province that welcomed their ancestors and continues to welcome emigrants from Lebanon. This statue is one of five identical works located in Mexico City, Beirut, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Accra.

The first Lebanese in the province were two brothers, Abraham and Farris Ray, who began their careers in Victoria as peddlers in 1888, their brother Richard joined them in 1889. By the end of the 1880s the first Lebanese families began to arrive in Vancouver and establish their homes in the Lower Mainland. The bronze statue solidifies the link between the peoples of Canada and the Lebanese who immigrated to their shores. 

Ramiz Barquet was a Mexican Lebanese artist, often referred to as the artistic patriarch of Puerto Vallarta. His most famous work, “Nostalgia,” has been on the Malecon ocean promenade since 1984 and has become one of the main visual symbols of Puerto Vallarta.

He studied in Mexico City and later continued in Montreal, Canada. On his return to Mexico he collaborated for several years with the sculptor Augusto Bozzano. From 1946 he made several trips to Europe, where he attended art courses in Paris and Florence. Currently some of his works are in cities of the Mexican Republic, as well as in Canada, the United States, Japan, China and various countries in Europe and Latin America.

At ninety years old he passed away July 4th 2010 from complications of a heart attack.