Louisiana Culture

Louisiana is home to many distinct cultures, especially notable are the Louisiana Creole people and the French-speaking Cajun.

The ancestors of Creoles came to Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase (1803) from Western Europe France, Germany, Spain, and from Senegal (West Africa) and settled along the major waterways in the State. The blending of these disparate lifestyles is called "Creole" and continued as the dominant cultural, social, economic and political lifestyle of Louisiana well into the 20th century when it would finally be overtaken by the Anglo-American mainstream.

The ancestors of the Cajuns are the Acadians, a French-speaking people of what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. When the British won the French and Indian War, the British forcibly separated families and evicted them because of their long-stated political neutrality. Most captured Acadians were placed in internment camps in England and the New England colonies for 10 to 30 years. Many of those who escaped the British remained in French Canada. Once freed by England, many scattered, some to France, Canada, Mexico, the Falkland Islands, with the majority finding final refuge in south Louisiana centered in the region around Lafayette and the LaFourche Bayou country. Until the 1970s, Cajuns were often considered lower class citizens with the term "Cajun" being derogatory. But, once flush with oil and gas riches, Cajun culture, food, music and their infectious "joie de vivre" lifestyle quickly gained international acclaim.

A third distinct culture in Louisiana is that of the Isleños, who are descendants of Canary Islanders who migrated to Louisiana under the Spanish crown beginning in the mid-1770s. They settled in what is modern-day St. Bernard Parish, where the majority of the Isleno population is still concentrated today.

As of 2000, 91.2% of Louisiana residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 4.8% speak French. Spanish is spoken by 2.5% of the population, Vietnamese is at 0.6% and German is at 0.2%.

Among the states, Louisiana has a unique culture, owing to its French colonial heritage. While the state has no declared "official language," its law recognizes both English and French.

There are several unique dialects of both French, Creole and English spoken in Louisiana. First, there are three unique dialects of the French language: Cajun French, Colonial French, and Napoleonic French. For the Creole language, there is Louisiana Creole French as well as Haitian Creole. There are also two unique dialects of the English language: Cajun English (a French-influenced variety of English) and what is informally known as Yat (which resembles the New York City dialect, particularly that of Brooklyn).

Due to the increase in Spanish-speaking workers in the area since Hurricane Katrina an increase in Spanish has also been obvious in the cities.

Like the other Southern states, Louisiana is mostly Protestant; however, there is also a large native Catholic population in the state, particularly in the southern part of the state, which makes Louisiana unique among Southern states. The current religious affiliations of the people of Louisiana are shown in the table below:

• Christian — 80%
  • Protestant — 50%
    • Baptist — 38%
    • Methodist — 4%
    • Pentecostal — 2%
    • Other Protestant – 16%
  • Roman Catholic — 30%
  • Other Christian — 1%
• Other Religions — 10%
• Non-Religious — 10%

A number of cities in Louisiana are also home to Jewish communities, notably Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.[9] The most significant of these is the Jewish community of the New Orleans area, with a pre-Katrina population of about 12,000.

Dishes typical of Louisiana Creole cuisine.