How many cajuns does it take

Although many whites still identified as Creole, segregation and the Acadian-focused heritage movement of the s had conscripted white and nonwhite residents of South Louisiana into increasingly separate, racialized spheres—Acadian and Creole.

The revival movement to come would separate those categories even further, turning Acadian into Cajun in the process. A man at a Mardi Gras celebration in the town of Mamou dons a suit made of moss.

Soon after, in , Thomas J. Faux royalty at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, A state-funded agency, the organization was founded to revive the French language in the area.

However, it approached the creolized French spoken over the previous years as an aberration: the council imported teachers from outside the country to teach Continental French in local schools. In the fiddle player Dewey Balfa and a group of Cajun musicians made a triumphant appearance at the renowned Newport Folk Festival, where they received a standing ovation.

Nationwide, there was a growing appetite for ethnic folk music. Outside appreciation and local pride formed a sort of feedback loop, building grassroots support for Cajun culture writ large.

Photograph by Michael P. As the s progressed, ethnic-pride movements began to pop up around the country, inspired by the successes of the civil rights era. Buckwheat Zydeco, pictured here, reportedly would refuse to play a gig if his music was referred to as Cajun. The ad exemplifies the complicated tangle of history, identity, and racial politics surrounding the Cajun revival and its legacy.

Gumbo, as discussed previously, is not solely Cajun but, more broadly, Creole. The lasting dominance of the Cajun revival, compounded by the flattening effect of tourism marketing, has largely erased small-town and rural Creoles of color from popular depictions of their own culture.

A moss-gin worker is pictured in Labadieville, Louisiana. That effort has included the formation of the Un-Cajun Committee, a group of African Americans and Creoles of color who protested the naming of the Cajundome and Cajun Field.

The advocacy group C. It was revived in and remains in operation today. The year also saw the debut of a Creole flag, which incorporates insignia from colonial France, West Africa, and colonial Spain into its design. Creole magazine, a Lafayette-based monthly focusing on issues in the Black community, ran for several years in the s. No longer known as Acadian Creoles, Cajuns remain the poster children for all of Acadiana, but there have been recent attempts to diversify representation of the region.

Many of the exiles were unhappy in their new homes and moved on. Some of them found their way to south Louisiana and began settling in the rural areas west of New Orleans. By the early s, nearly Acadians had arrived and settled in Louisiana. Many lived in the bayou country where they hunted, fished, trapped, and lived off the bounty of the Mississippi River delta.

The new arrivals learned new skills and shared what they brought with them with the many peoples already in the area: American Indians, free people of color, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and immigrants from Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

The Acadians became Cajuns as they adapted to their new home and its people. Their French changed as did their architecture, music, and food.

The Cajuns of Louisiana today are renowned for their music, their food, and their ability to hold on to tradition while making the most of the present. They also did not want to join the British in fights against the Indians, who were their allies and relatives. To dominate the region without interference, the British expelled the Acadians.

Over a year period from , approximately 3, Acadians found refuge in Louisiana with its strong French background and Catholic heritage. Over time, many existing elements of Creole culture fused with their own unique folklore, music and cuisine. Cajuns retained a unique dialect of the French language Cajun French and are often depicted as a rustic people who make their living fishing, trapping, hunting and farming.

However, Cajuns today primarily speak English and work in every imaginable profession. We recommend taking a Louisiana swamp tour with authentic Cajuns who live on and near our swamps and later learn how to Cajun Dance at Mulate's!

Check out our Louisiana Swamp Tours. Because they had been here since before Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States! Creole is also a language with deep African roots.