Learning Los Isleños
The Spanish origins of the settlement first known as San Bernardo
Before it was ever St. Bernard Parish, the coastal community neighboring New Orleans was known as San Bernardo to those inhabitants who first called it home. The city's former name is a nod to its Spanish heritage, originally settled in 1778 by Spanish colonists from the Canary Islands, during the period of Spanish rule in New Orleans.
These settlers, known as the Isleños, or Islanders, brought their own culture, history, cuisine, language, and customs across the Atlantic. Like the Cajuns, they were a people of the land, hunting and fishing to fill their bellies and making a living by working on the sugar plantations in St. Bernard Parish. Many of the descendants of the original settlers still maintain a community in the parish today, striving to keep their distinctive heritage alive in our collective memory through a variety of efforts.
One such endeavor is the Isleños Museum & Village, founded in 1981 by the Los Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society with the mission to preserve their oft-overlooked culture, the last vestige of Spanish Colonial Louisiana. Its galleries exhibit an array of informative displays and cultural artifacts that chronicle the Isleños’ history in Louisiana, as well as antiquated hunting, fishing and trapping equipment. The museum's campus, which sits on twenty-two acres and includes nine structures, also houses a research library with a collection that spans nearly one thousand volumes of history and literature relating to the Canary Islands, Spain, and Louisiana. To learn more, visit losislenos.org.
Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Office of Tourism.