Louisiana's 'Islenos' Torn Apart by Katrina

by John Burnett
Morning Edition, December 7, 2005

Heard this on the way to work this morning

Of all the groups in the micro-melting pot of South Louisiana hit by Hurricane Katrina, it's hard to find a more close-knit community than the Islenos. The descendants of Spanish-speaking Canary Islanders who settled St. Bernard Parish more than 200 years ago are now struggling to restore a community that was dispersed by Katrina's winds and floods.

Drive deep into St. Bernard Parish, and you notice the names on the mailboxes: Nunez, Marrero, Estopinal, Rodriguez, Gonzales, Perez. Two-thirds of the parish's 70,000 residents are Islenos.

Like the population of French Cajuns farther west, Islenos came to Louisiana when it was a European colony. They stayed, and today they're a cultural island.

The French get all the attention in South Louisiana. But the Islenos -- literally, Islanders -- have just as rich a history and culture. The colonial government of New Spain brought some 3,000 of them here from the Canary Islands between 1778 and 1783, to colonize the wild swamplands of St. Bernard Parish and serve as a frontier militia against British encroachment.

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