Abstract
This paper aims to comprehend the role played by the Armenian Apostolic Church in the making of the collective memory of the Armenian Community in Sao Paulo. With such intent, the features summoned up by the community to express its identity, especially the Christian roots of this population, will be summarized and analysed. The starting point of the reflections developed here is the desire of understanding the strategies undertaken by diasporic communities in order to preserve their identities in spite of the progressive integration with the host society; this is precisely the case of the Armenians in Sao Paulo, who have settled in Brazil for almost one hundred years and whose interactions are absolutely not restricted to the community circles.
Keywords
Armenia; Church; diaspora; identity