What is the meaning of Creole?
Ask anybody what a Creole is and you may get many
different answers. As a noun Webster's define Creole as (1) a person
of French or Spanish descent born in Latin America. (2) a
person descended from the original French settlers of Louisiana,
and French as spoken by such people. (3) Loosely; a person with
both Creole and Negro ancestry.
Sort of confusing isn't it? Unlike the noun Cajun.
Creole has many connotations. When you say you a Cajun, we know
you are a descendent of the Acadians who were exiled from
Acadia (now Nova Scotia) by the British in 1755.
So what is a Creole? Historian George Cable wrote:
"Even in Louisiana the question would be variously answered. The
title here did not fist belong to the descendants of Spanish,
but of French settlers."
In a July 5,1960 column in the Baton Rouge Sunday
Advocate, Claire D'Artois Leeper writes, "Prof. Harrison says that
he deduces the word, though with many misgivings, from the
Spanish criallo, a native of America or West Indies; a corrupt
word made by the Negros, said to be a contraction of criadilla,
a diminutive of criado- one educated, instructed or bred up,
past participle of criar, literally to create, also to nurse, instruct."
Historian Charles Gayarre says the word Creole was
invented by the Spaniard to distinguish their children, native
of their conquered colonial possessions from the original
inhabitants, and that to be a criollo implied a certain excellence
of orgin and so early came to include any native of French
and Spanish descent by either parent, whose non-alliance
with the slave race entitled him to social rank.
George W. Cable wrote this about the Creole: "They will not
share their distinction with the worthy 'Acadians', he is a Creole
only by courtesy, and in the second person singular.
There are not Italian or Sicilian, nor any English, Scotch,
Irish, or Yankee' Creole, unless of parentage married into,
and themselves thoroughly proselyted in Creole society."
Historian Lyle Saxon writes that many German families
changed their names to become Creoles. For an example he
says the Zweig (which is German for twig) family became the
LaBranche family.
According to the 1990 U.S. Census, with 187,658 persons
speakng the language, Florida ranks number one with Creole
speakers. Those Florida Creoles are mostly immigrants from
the Caribbean including Haiti, Martinique and Guadaloupe,
who were at one time under French rule. When I was sailing
the Caribbean Sea as merchant seaman I had no trouble
communicating with them. There is not that
much difference between Cajun French and
their dialect.
Father Jules Daigle in the preface of his
"Dictionary of the Cajun Language," which
was published in 1984, writes that "In Louisiana
the term Creole applies to both the
Spaniard and the French whose ancestors
came to Louisiana directly from Europe. The
Cajuns, whose ancestors came from Acadia
are obviously not Louisiana Creoles. In the
same way, Negroes and Mulattoes, even
those with some white blood, cannot properly
be considered to Creoles without falsifying
the very definition of Creole."
Father Daigle concedes that "the adjective
Creole has a much broader meaning. Thus
we speak of Creole horses, Creole chicken,
creole Negroes. By common usage this adjective so applied,
simply means indigenous or local. When applied to
animals, it also carry the implication of being
smaller than those 'imported." In the case of Negro Creole, the
ability to speak some French is implied."
Robert Hendrickson, who published his
book "Whistlin' Dixie: A, dictionary of Southern
Expressions" in i993 did not help my confusion
when he wrote the word Creole
comes from the French creole, meaning 'a
native.' By the end of the 18th century, however,
Creole began to black salves of the Creole
as well as to themselves, was next applied to a black
person with any French or
Spanish blood, then came to mean a native
born black as opposed to one born in Africa,
and by the end of the 19th century described
any Louisianan with the state of Louisiana
dubbed the 'Creole State.' The word is confusing
and can be defined in the context it is
being used, for creole also means a pidgin
language spoken by a second generation of
speakers, and in Alaska of the last 1960s it
even meant a native of Russian and Indian
blood!" (Really, how about an Eskimo and a
Russian?)
In the 192Os, Lyle Saxon was the most admired
Louisiana author with his "Father Mississippi",
"Old Louisiana" and other books.
About Creoles Saxon wrote, "Although the
term Creole was adopted by Negroes, the
word was not conceded to them and the use
of the word in that sense is very properly resented
by the French and Spanish descendants. In fact,
the erroneous use of the word
Creole in reference to Negroes caused Louisianians
in the 1880s to discard the popular title
"The Creole State."
Of course today we have Creole music,
Creole culture, Creole cooking and even Creole
coffee (with chicory). Remember Creole
Belle coffee dans l'paquet bleu?
My paternal progenitor, Gabriel Fuseller
de la Clare, and my maternal progenitor
Frencois Marcantel, came to Louisiana circa
1748, on different boats directly from Europe
so as their seventh generation progeny born
in Louisiana no one will argue that I'm not a
Creole. But down the some, whom I'm directly
descended from, married Acadians, so I am also Cajun.
So after doing much research and studying,
and lots of soul-searching it is my conclusion
and belief that regardless of the
pigmentation of a person's skin any Native
Louisiana who has French or Spanish blood
running in their veins are right when they
tell you: "moi je suis un Creole." (Me, I am a
Creole.)
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