Culture
When you make a list of all the unique things Louisiana has to offer visitors, you quickly see the long-lasting influences of our French, Spanish and African ancestry. In fact, there’s not another state, save Hawaii, that has preserved its past with a living history that can be experienced each and every day through the lives of its local population. Our own style of architecture --wrought iron balconies and port coheres of the French Quarter, plantation homes along the Mississippi River and raised cottages found through out Cajun Country are being built and rebuilt to this very day. Walk into any fourth or fifth generation Louisiana home and you’re sure to find gumbo on the stove, pecan pie in the fridge, home-grown tomatoes on a window sill, or some variation of uniquely Cajun and Creole foods that date back to the days of Evangeline. Our music, too has a sound and a story all its own. A wailful mix of West Indies voodoo chants, African tribal drums and Nova Scotian fiddles that tell tales of loves and lives lost and a new world found. Louisiana. As rare as an oyster’s perfect pearl, as raw as a gator’s hide, as mysterious as the fog that blankets the bayous, as illusive as the aroma of jasmine on a hot summer night. Louisiana. Custom-made. Just for you. Click here to learn more.
African American
Discover the culinary delights of local chefs. Learn all about the colorful Mardi Gras Indians. Call on Melrose, a plantation once owned by a freed slave. Explore Laura Plantation, where you’ll learn how West African slaves brought the Bre’r Rabbit stories to America. And stroll the grounds of Destrehan Plantation, home to a successful Freedmen’s Bureau Colony during Reconstruction. Louisiana has been the birthplace of many famous African Americans. Come celebrate achievements of African Americans in art, architecture, law, education, sports, the culinary arts and more. We invite you to wander through exhibits in the Cabildo and U.S. Mint. Give your kids something to think about at the River Road African-American Museum near Burnside, the Kent Plantation House in Alexandria or the African American Museum in Shreveport. The Hermione Museum in Tallulah includes an exhibit on Madam C.J. Walker, the first black self-made millionaire in the U.S. For a free copy of Textures, the official African American travel guide to Louisiana, call (800) 753-6194 or visit textures.louisianatravel.com.
Cajun
The Cajun culture sprang from the traditions of the Acadians who settled in South Louisiana following their expulsion from Nova Scotia in 1755. This French colonial culture melded with mainland French traditions already in place in Louisiana and with Spanish, Native American, English and German influences as it evolved to form the distinctive and unique Cajun culture found today in South Louisiana. Click here to learn more.
Creole
The term Creole was originally used by those "born in the colony" as a way of differentiating themselves from the many Americans who settled in the city after the Louisiana Purchase and from the waves of German and other immigrants arriving in the area. Creole in its broadest sense can refer to a variety of combinations of French culture with Spanish, African or Caribbean cultures in colonial Louisiana. In rural Southwestern Louisiana, a blending of French, African and Caribbean cultures was considered Creole. Natchitoches Parish includes many historic sites significant to the Creole culture. Click here to learn more.
Hispanic
The contributions made by los Españoles who came searching for gold in Louisiana in te 1500s, and ruled here from 1763 to 800, deserve to be recognized, studied, and celebrated. Did you know, por ejemplo, that New Orleans’ famous French Quarter is actually of Spanish design, built when earlier French structures were leveled in a fire? It’s true! Without the Spanish, we may never have had sugarcane, citrus fruits, and a cultural concoction peppered with phrases, traditions, and practices that are, in reality, of Spanish origin. To find out more about our Spanish roots and the Spanish influence in recent years, visit the Canary Islands Descendants Association Museum in Braithwaite, the Los Adaes State Historic Site near Robeline, or Click here to learn more.
Native American
Before the Mayan Temples in South America, before the pyramids in Egypt, before Stonehenge in England, ancient peoples built mounds in Louisiana. Here, mounds date back to around 4000 BC, which makes them some of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. But our Native Americans created more than mounds-they influenced the way we eat. We owe the file in our gumbo and the turtle soup served in our fine restaurants to Native Americans. Today, you can learn all about Louisiana’s Native American cultures at Poverty Point State Historic Site near Epps and the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport. In addition, the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Museum in Marksville is home to a collection of European and Native American artifacts from the Colonial Period. For a brochure on ancient mound sites in Louisiana, call 225-342-8170 or visit the Louisiana Division of Archaeology site.
There is so much to see and do in Louisiana. Here are a few ideas to get you started.