NOLA.com: Delacroix, LA

A four part series on the Canary Islanders of Delacroix Island, Lousiana.

Today Delacroix and other fishing villages are either ghost towns, reclamation projects for sportsmen, or temporary boom towns for the BP disaster response. Some commercial fishermen still dock along the bayou, but they are commuters, driving in from communities on the protected side of the levees. Families that lived along the bayous for hundreds years have given up, chased away not just by the violence of recent storms, but the certainty of more to come. If there's new construction, it's largely by city anglers building recreational retreats.

See Part 1

See Part 2

See Part 3

See Part 4

Islenos on Dixiemania

During all of my research, I couldn’t help but ask myself time and again why so many Canarios had emigrated to Louisiana between 1778 and 1784. 2736 emigrants from the Canary Islands are officially recorded on the passenger lists of the ships, yet experts suggest a total of almost 4000 people. Today, there are approximately 40,000 Isleños, i.e. descendants of the Canarios, living in Louisiana (and some documents even claim that there are 70,000!).

It is a well known fact that a lot of them emigrated to Cuba, Uruguay, Mexico, Hispaniola and Venezuela (the last great wave of emigration to Venezuela took place between 1936 and 1945). But what made them go to Louisiana of all places?

See http://dixiemania.com/en/dixiemania/louisiana-los-islenos.html

State Land Office Online Documents

These maps are based upon surveys taken in 1828-1830. They can be used to locate the property of Isleno ancestors and the Acadians who arrived in 1785 and settled just south of the Valenzuela district in what is now the Plattenville and downstream area. For example, the Valenzuela settlement can be found in Township 11 S, Range 14 E, west of the Mississippi River.

These documents include U.S. and State historical land title information, including information related to: Land Grants; all severance documents of U.S. and State public lands - which lists the first private owner; all U.S. Official Township Survey plats and field notes; the U.S. and State Tract Books - which are an index of all the other documents mentioned; Section 16 School Lands; State Patents; and numerous related documents.

See: http://1webfn.doa.la.gov/slodocs/SLO/home.asp

The re-launching of the Galveztown

The first planks of an exact replica of the famous brig were laid recently in a ceremony in Nereo, close to the Baños del Carmen, outside Malaga city. For those who do not already know this, the Galveztown was the ship commanded by Malaga hero Bernardo de Gálvez to capture the port of Pensacola in the 18th century.

See http://www.bernardodegalvez.com/?p=6

Amazonas - Canary Islanders in Louisiana

A film about the Canary Islanders of Louisiana by Amazonas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMD4KbDQyG4

Archive.org: Papeles procedentes

This is a web presentation of the Rosco Hill's book on the "Cuban Papers'" , a great reference work to find the file (Legajo) on a specific subject on the Spanish period in Louisiana. Gives a summary of what's contained in each file . Many of the microfilmed Legajos are to be found in the Hill Memorial Library at LSU.

See http://www.archive.org/stream/descriptivecatal00hill/descriptivecatal00hill_djvu.txt

Mgar.Net: Isleños de Luisiana

Shortly after the conquest, the government of Castile and the Crown encouraged and subsidized the emigration of Canarians for colonization and settlement of America. The article discusses the Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society of St. Bernard as well as Gilbert C. Din's book "The Canary Islanders of Louisiana".

See http://www.mgar.net/var/stbernar.htm (Spanish)