What is the origin of the word Cajun?
The American English "Cajun" is derived from Acadian French Cadien. After the American Civil War, bourgeois Louisiana Creoles increasingly used Cajun as the designation for Creoles from the Cajun Country or Creoles from the lower class, replacing the term petits habitants (which referred to Creoles of the peasant class).
Where can I find media related to Cajuns?
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cajuns. Migration of minorities in France (i.e. Basques) can be considered as separate (ethnically) or French migration (by nationality).
What is the difference between a Cajun and an Acadian?
While Cajuns are usually described as the descendants of the Acadian exiles who came to Louisiana over the course of Le Grand Dérangement, Louisianians frequently use Cajun as a broad cultural term (particularly when referencing Acadiana) without necessitating descent from the deported Acadians.
Is Mississippi Queen a Cajun song?
"Mississippi Queen" is a 1970 song by Mountain about a Cajun woman visiting from Mississippi. "Elvis Presley Was a Cajun" is a song from the 1991 Irish film The Commitments, in which a two-piece band plays along to the lyric "Elvis was a Cajun, he had a Cajun heart."
Where do True Cajuns live?
Most Cajuns resided in Acadiana, where their descendants are still predominant. Cajun populations today are found also in the area southwest of New Orleans and scattered in areas adjacent to the French Louisiana region, such as to the north in Alexandria, Louisiana.
What is Cajun country?
Acadiana (French and Louisiana French: L'Acadiane), also known as the Cajun Country (Louisiana French: Le Pays Cadjin), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population.
What is the origin of Cajun?
Cajun, descendant of Roman Catholic French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. The Cajuns today form small, compact, generally self-contained communities.
What race is a Cajun person?
For Cajuns were—and are—a subset of Louisiana Creoles. Today, common understanding holds that Cajuns are white and Creoles are Black or mixed race; Creoles are from New Orleans, while Cajuns populate the rural parts of South Louisiana.
What is the most Cajun town in Louisiana?
Lafayette, LA is at the heart of Louisiana's Cajun & Creole Country, an area known as the Happiest City in America.
What part of Louisiana is considered Cajun country?
Cajun Country, also known as the Acadiana region of Louisiana, is in the extreme southern part of the state, west of New Orleans and east of Lake Charles.
What language do Cajuns speak?
French languageThe word Cajun popped up in the 19th century to describe the Acadian people of Louisiana. The Acadians were descendants of the French Canadians who were settling in southern Louisiana and the Lafayette region of the state. They spoke a form of the French language and today, the Cajun language is still prevalent.
Did Cajuns own slaves?
Like their ancestors, these exiles remained subsistence farmers, producing only enough material goods to survive. Within a few generations, however, a small number of young Acadians adopted the South's plantation system and its brutal institution of slavery.
What race are Creoles?
Here, Creole is used to describe descendants of French or Spanish colonists with a mixed racial heritage—French or Spanish mixed with African American or Native American. The area was first settled by French colonists.
What is a Creole girl?
In present Louisiana, Creole generally means a person or people of mixed colonial French, African American and Native American ancestry.
Which is hotter Creole or Cajun?
While many who are unfamiliar with Louisiana's food culture do use the terms Creole and Cajun interchangeably, there are differences between the cooking styles and seasoning preferences Of the two blends, Creole seasoning is known as the milder and more refined option. Cajun seasoning tends to be the hotter one.
What is the Creole flag?
The Louisiana Creole flag is based on four flags of different regions. The top left corner is a fleur-de-lis, the top right is Senegal, the bottom right represents Castille (Spain) and the bottom left is Mali. The flag celebrates their mixed heritage.