Middle East studies in Latin America have had three distinct moments. Nineteenth and early twentieth century scholars were direct heirs to European Orientalism. Erudite scholar-bureaucrats, they contributed to editorial projects and cultural production which sowed the seeds for Latin American Orientalisms in the realms of foreign policy and popular culture. They did not establish institutions for the study of the region, these came in the 1960’s, with decolonization, expanding diplomatic ties to Asia and Africa and generous government funding in the spirit of third worldism and anti-imperial solidarities. Research centers were established in cities with strong academic traditions, a critical mass of trained scholars and potential students: in Mexico City the Center for Oriental Studies, now the Center for the Study of Asia and Africa in Colegio de Mexico, the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Africa in Habana and various efforts in Buenos Aires. These centers cultivated a Eurocentric scholarly tradition, sending graduate students to train at SOAS and Science Po, and spawned their own graduates who went on to staff courses at national and provincial universities, situating Middle East studies in massive higher education. They launched professional associations like the Latin American Association for Asian and African Studies, which convenes annually on a national scale in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, and internationally every two years. The ascendancy of BRICS countries and the multipolarization of the world have facilitated a renaissance in government sponsorship of Middle East Studies programs and research centers in Iberoamerica over the past decade, at CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas) in Mexico City, in the Universidad Fluminense of Rio in Brazil, the Universidad Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Universidad del Exernado of Colombia, and Casa Arabe in Madrid. These centers operate across transnational academic circuits, they tend to recruit young doctoral graduates trained in American universities who participate in global academic networks. The paper is based on early twentieth century cultural production, interviews with scholars and diplomats, and participant observation at the research centers since 2006.