Un Legajo de Orgullo - A Legacy of Pride

UN LEGAJO de ORGULLO - A LEGACY OF PRIDE

KENNETH E. HALL         OCT. 24, 2016            HOUSTON

Residents of New Orleans, by and large, make a big deal about the Crescent City's French colonial past, and how much French culture permeates the city on so many levels. Tourist brochures, history books, and tour guides alike tout this Gallic influence as the driving force behind it's Sui Generis culture and way of life.

The Fleur-de-lis can be seen everywhere, and French place names likewise abound. 

Tourists, often expecting a francophone experience like a visit to Montréal, are sometime surprised that almost nobody in the city speaks French anymore. Languages other than English are to be heard throughout the city, but colonial French or even Créole patois have pretty much died out some time ago.

A stroll through New Orleans' famed French Quarter (locally also called Vieux Carré - old square) reminds some of Old San Juan, or of la Habana Vieja - Old Havana, or of Cartagena, Colombia. 

This is NO accident. 

Truth is, contrary to popular opinion, New Orleans' famous and beautiful "FRENCH" Quarter is not really FRENCH....  It's mostly SPANISH! 

La Madre Patria - Spain - was jinxed from the start when it came to their Louisiana Territory: no sooner had they inherited the vast territory called Luisiana from France, then the biggest city in the place burns to the ground. 

Mala suerte. Bad luck.

But instead of packing up and leaving, as others before had, the Peninsulares stayed, at least for awhile, and rebuilt the city TWICE out of charred French ruins. 

While being proud of our French, American, Irish, German. Albanian, Italian, African and other heritage, let us not forget that it was the SPANIARDS who were so influential in making us what we are today. 

Throughout recorded history of the second millennia, those who had been vanquished and overtaken, themselves sought to do the same to others. Spaniards, freed from the Moorish conquerors, went from land to land in the New World, slaughtering, pillaging, enslaving, and destroying, leaving in their wake death and destruction, all in the name of God and King.

However, let it be said that, at least in the case of the land of "Luís-y-Ana," that they left the city we call home a better place than when they arrived. To those noble souls, we should say ¡GRACIAS!