CREOLE CULTURAL NEWS FLASH: Gumbo For Your Soul? by John laFleur II, 2014. All rights reserved. Gumbo has been rightly referred to as the ultimate cultural metaphor for Louisianas multi-ethnic creole culture, and rightly so. While so many have been influenced by Lafayettes forty-six year propaganda of Cajunization which according to the mythic writings of former Senator Dudley LeBlanc whose Acadian Miracle largely provided the script from which Lafayette, Louisianas mass-marketing agencies and her tourism bureau were to be rewrite both our regional and cultural history, a new generation of cultural historians are telling a different, but familiar history; one familiar to those of us who as living witnesses have never been fooled by Cajunization. Ever since the founding of the first colony of Lower Louisiana in 1699, traveler-writers such as Andre Penicaut have clearly shown the first level of Creolization or cultural intermarriage between the Native American Choctaw and related Indians were the first peoples whom the French embraced as both allies and lovers, alike. That first layer of Creolization produced of course, Creole or native-born descendants, or metis (French-Indian mixed-race), who very evidently, and naturally assimilated both the languages and various cultural elements necessary for survival in a not truly French culture and no longer truly Choctaw culture. In The Fleur de Lys and the Calumet Being the French Adventure In Louisiana French author and personal friend of Jean-Batiste Lemoyne, Sieur de Bienville and his brother Sieur dIberville, gives us a remarkable account of this relationship, its joyous and grievous moments and its remarkable and inevitable intercultural assimilations of religious, recreational, hunting & fishing, language, dress and food ways. Long a Louisiana Creole favorite, grillades & grits was cited in the earliest 19th century Creole cookbooks and is among the first foods mentioned by Penicaut as being introduced to the coureurs de bois and French-European soldiers of early Mobile. This food tradition, along with viande boucanee (smoked meat, such as tasso and sausage) and corn grits, ground sassafras leaves (file) and even fish fricassee or stewed fish were also among the exquisite gifts shared with their French amis. But, there was even more, long forgotten by many due to both ignorance of our cultural history as much as from misinformation and suppression in the popular media which in south Louisiana, has been controlled or influenced by economic, social and political agendas. Kombo-litchi or File Gumbo has been known among the Lower Louisiana Indians since 1000 A.D. and mentioned along with a virtual cornucopia of Louisiana Indian food traditions by scholar Louis Nardini in his book, A History of Grant Parish, Louisiana. Nardini mentions also that kombo-litch consisted of chicken, wild rice and onions. This gumbo tradition was affirmed by early 20th century Creole food authority, Celestine Eustis and continues to be reaffirmed by modern scholars who are free from the sociological racial-political fears of the Civil Rights era, Reconstruction hatreds and Jim Crow discrimination. See Louisianas French Creole & Culinary Traditions: Facts Vs. Fiction Before & Since Cajunization, 2013, by J. LaFleur, Brian Costello w/ Dr. Ina Fandrich. These were just some of the rich foods which became part of the earliest Louisiana Creole tradition to which was married French food traditions ( roux, daubes, pralines etc.), certainly introduced after the arrival of Parisian and French-speaking brides escorted by the Ursuline nuns, as well as, among the Germanic families from la Hainaute and other areas who were sent to populate Lower Louisiana and whose population and culture was to seed that of New Orleans after 1718. And, we cannot ignore or deny the very compatible cultural contributions and early interracial family connections soon to develop among these French, metis and former African peoples, slave and freed. This African & Creole-Metis cultural intermarriage resulted in a unique double-gumbo tradition; gombo fevis or okra gumbo out of Africa, and the Indian gumbo or file gumbo traditions. And, while it is assumed to be of Spanish origins, Jambalaya has always been associated with the Louisiana Indians from the founding of the colony! According to Lefcadio Hearn, author of the famous 1885 La Cuisine Creole, its Indian origin was communicated to him by Creole culinary experts of 19th century New Orleans who had long enjoyed a Choctaw culinary connection from the days of Bienvilles Madame Langlois -all quite consistent with the historical facts and relationships revealed by Andre Penicaut and by French governor Pierre-Clement Laussat in his Memoirs.... Late author and Louisiana Indians scholar, Hubert Singleton corrects this historical culinary misunderstanding in his book The Indians Who Gave Us Zydeco by explaining the etymology of Sham.ba.lay.ha! a word of Ishak-Atakapas origin which can be traced to its coureurs de bois period as early as 1690. Yes, this single pot meal of wild rice, and smoked meat was also a Native American gift, sadly forgotten or ignored by both American and Cajun food writers and historians, up to now. Indeed, after 1720, these earliest European, Canadian, African and metis families were to migrate westward into the Post of the Opelousas where their descendants, Ardoin, LaFleur, Guillory, Saucier, Fontenot, Prudhomme, Soileau, Dupre, Hidalgo, Haufpauer, Miller, Guidroz, Vidrine, Veillon, Barre, Morin, Boulet, Domengeaux, Michot, LaTour, Dardeau, Garrigues, Van Hille, Wartelle, Garand, DeBaillon, Buhler, Henry and later Acadian Creoles such as the Broussards, Pitres, Sonniers and others were to ultimately gather in a cultural rendez-vous. Here, in what was previously known as the Creole Parishes (Acadiana since 1971, by legislation sponsored by then governor Edwin Edwards, and Senator Dudley LeBlanc of Hadacol and Acadian Miracle fame or infamy), our language traditions and food ways remain. Here, our distinctive Creole culture and a new pride in this reality, is now reflected in this cultural and multi-ethnic braid-in spite of the very confusing mislabeling and trumpeting of our shared multi-ethnic Creole culture as Cajun (a misspelled contraction of Acadien). This pseudo ethno-cultural label was strengthened in 1972 by K-Paul Prudhommes compliance with the Cajunists relabeling movement spearheaded by early CODOFIL and its deceitful leaders who continue to ascribe credit to Acadian Canada for the cultural character of south and southwest Louisiana; a characterization which falsely implies and credits the Acadian-Canadians as the originators of our pre-Acadian and contemporary culture! Adding to the already hot n spicy food tradition, the Spanish were to arrive in the 1760s and also introduced the Islenos, while the early connections of French and Mexican intermarriage was felt from Natchitoches to Opelousas in the families of St. Denis de Juchereau. The gradual folding of 3000 Acadians into then, Spanish Louisiana after 1765 fully assimilated the local, or Creole culture and only strengthened the francophonic heritage. French Creole refugees and their bi-racial children and some slaves from former Saint-Domingue were to also flood into early American Louisiana. Joined by former Napoleonic soldiers and 19th century French, they too, only served to strengthen Louisianas Latin character and culture. The Italian and Irish immigrants were also to add to the Creole cultural gumbo know as Louisiana. Today, as a result of honest scholarship and accessibility to the free social media through which research information sources and sharing, via written articles, e-books and video are published for all to see, read and verify, Louisianas true history and culture have re-emerged from the smoke of the deceitful Cajunization movement-which as greedily and mindlessly, coaptated (cultural shoplifting), every element of Louisianas multi-ethnic historical Creole culture as its own-as multitudes of younger, scholarly minds have joined the older generations in waging a righteous warfare of information-gathering and revealing against the cultural barbarians of deceit and misinformation. Its gratifying for me, as both a Louisiana Creole & Acadian descendant and scholar to see this triumph of truth and celebration of ALL of our remarkable people and the contributions of All of our diverse ancestors in the creation of Louisianas unique and delicious Creole gumbo of culture. It truly is Gumbo for the soul. SHARE, SHARE, SHARE, that all may benefit from the truth. My next article will feature some of our Louisiana Creole New Years traditions. Bonne Nouvelle Annee a vous autres, mes chers!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:20:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015