Looking forward to Bastille Day in Ville Platte. I like the words and origins for them provided by John LaFleur. I'm familiar with many of them and of course the list could go on. Yes it is true. People in Evangeline Parish and surrounding areas back in the day called themselves Creole. Many also said just French. At least that's how Dad explained it to me. But Creole and French were used, not Cajun or Cadien. Those words were mainly used by outsiders to describe the country or prairie Creoles. How Cajun became used is, to me, a good story to continue exploring. But another interesting situation is how many in the area might think once they learn more. Enjoy John's information!
Louisiana Creole French & Metis People, Our Language
& Food "Say It All," copyrighted by John la Fleur II, 2014
A beautiful new Tee-Shirt which will have an original design
logo encompassing the Louisiana Creole flag, will include the too long
neglected or overlooked Indians; the first layer of Louisiana's Metis &
Creole people and culture.
This Tee-shirt, will be for sale at Louisiana's Creole
Families Bastille Day Week-end Festival which will be held on Saturday, July 12
at 10:00 AM at Ville Platte, Louisiana's Northside Civic Center Grand Pavilion,
704 N. Soileau St. and will also sport our proud motto:
"J'sus Fier d'Etre Creole, Cher!" (I Am Proud To
Be Creole, Cher!")
-the sweet words of our many older ancestors, now gone to
their rest!
This Tee-Shirt is historic in its all-inclusive design and
for its educational value seen here-below with its' special definitions, food
and language lists.
These features help ensure that anyone we come into contact
with, from behind or in front of us, will LEARN the TRUTHS about who and what
we are and are not!
They will also see our unusual and unexpected UNITY!
Our historic Louisiana Creole French & Kreyole food
words are tied inseparably to both our shared historic ancestral Louisiana
Colonial period ethnicities and our pre-American and pre-Acadian history; and
the culture of which the Acadians also embraced.
These words, shared with you the deserving public, are taken
from the forthcoming new Louisiana cookbook, "500 Years Of Culture:
Louisiana's Creole Cooking Is Alive & Healthy, Cher!" by John laFleur
II, copyright 2014, and unequivocally reveal cultural truths long
misrepresented by Lafayette's 40 yr. mass-marketed fiction of an
"Acadian-based" culture.
We will also see some very important Acadian-Creoles of
Louisiana's earliest families appear renouncing the 'Cajun" fiction and
identity and re-asserting their own proud and unique LOUISIANA Acadian-Creole
identity; one of whom is a direct descendant of Joseph 'Beausoleil"
Broussard, the Acadian hero!
You don't want to miss any of it! Oh, yeah, the media will
be present.
Please enjoy, SHARE, treasure and learn these remarkable
words which also exhibit our multi-ethnic historical ties and cultures which
are the foundation of Louisiana's beautiful and diverse CREOLE French &
Metis families!
Louisiana Creole French & Metis Culinary & Other
Terms in Roman Script will be printed on the backsides of our beautiful new
Tee-Shirts along with our wonderful, all-inclusive new logo! We are living
history!
Our Louisiana Creole French & Metis People, Language
& Food
Creole = 'native born' as consistently seen in Louisiana
courthouse records, can include or exclude any ethnicity born into pre-American
Louisiana's Colonial French Culture. It's not a race, it's a culture but,
shared by many ethnicities.
Metis = French & Indian mixed race. Sometimes, it may
also represent African & French mixture from the pre-American French
Colonial period.
Creoles de Couleur = 'Creoles of color' or 'free people of
color' usually the descendants of the French, European & Metis peoples.
Sometimes it refers also to descendants of free Caribbean & African men of
pre-American Colonial Louisiana.
Louisiana Acadian-Creole = all of the descendants-black
& white-of the beloved Acadians 'born in Louisiana' and whom assimilated
her creole/'native-born' culture; her creole language, food ways & social
traditions.
"Cajun" = a mispelled form of 'Cadjin' -a term of
disrespect once ignorantly applied to all Louisiana French creoles by
Anglo-Americans, Lafayette's political/cultural honchos forced it upon
Louisiana's true Acadian descendants-who rejected it, immediately-as their
ethnic label. Stolen & exploited for commerce by deceitful white Creoles it
became code for: "white French people only" to the embarrassment of
Lafayette. Like a mantra, it has been enthusiastically embraced by the naive
younger generation weaned on CODOFIL, University of Lafayette 'cultural
condition' and television after and since, 1968.
Now, the term has been prostituted to represent ANYONE, from
ANYWHERE 'who relates to the culture' therefore, again betraying its original
claim of representing the descendants of the Acadian creoles of Louisiana.
Yes, the beloved children of the Acadians considered
themselves, and are also, Louisiana 'Acadian' -Creoles-black and white!
Anisette, Old World French-Italian and Louisiana Creole
punch
Beignet, Old World Creole French donut
Biere, French, originally German-Creole beer
Boucaniere, Metis, 'smokehouse'
Boucherie, French country Creole animal slaughter &
cooking event
Boudin, (w rice) French, w/ Caribbean Creole style seasoned
rice 'n meat filling
Bouillis, French, Beef/pork entrail stew
Bremes, Spanish, French Creole corrruption of 'berenja' or
eggplant.
Cafe-au-lait, French & Creole 'coffee-milk;' latte'
Cameron, Spanish, 'shrimp'. Ex. Cameron Parish!
Chevrettes etouffees, Caribbean-style smothered shrimp stew
Chow-chow, Spanish/French Creole hot peppers 'n vinegar
Choupik, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'mud fish' /garfish
Courtbouillon de goujon, Metis, catfish stew (Catfish
"Couvillion")
Couscous, African-French Creole breakfast cereal
Creme-a-la-glace, Old World French Creole ice cream/sorbet
Croquesignol, French Canadian, Country Creole & Metis
donuts
Cuisse de ouaouaron, French, Metis 'bullfrog' legs
Faquetaique, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'turkey hen'
Farce au riz, French, Metis Rice dressing/'dirty' rice
File,' (Mobilian-Choctaw) Ground sassafras leaves
Fricassee, French, Roux-based stew w/ chicken &
vegetables
Fromage tete de cochon, French, Hog's head cheese, a
Country-Creole pate'
Galette, French, a small pastry; (euphemism for vagina in
Louisiana Creole French)
Gratons, Country French Creole 'fried pig skins, 'cracklins'
Gregue, Creole French Spanish-Greek, coffee pot/drip pot
Grillades, French, Metis special cuts of beef for frying
Gombo fevis, West African roux-less okra gumbo
Gumbo file,' (kombo-lichi), (Mobilian-Choctaw) Indian
roux-less gumbo w/ sassafras
Jambalaya, (Sham.ba.lay.ha!) Ishak-Attakpas) Indian,
single-pot rice & meat dish; Mistaken to be Spanish bc of aspirate h
rendered through Spanish transcription, it means "eat up, be made
full!"
Maque-chou, French, Metis Fried, spicy corn dish
Pacanes, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'pecans'
Pain-perdu, French, toast
Patasa, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'perch'
Pesant, Creole French, from Spanish 'pesanta' an 'incubus;'
a night time demon
Plakemine, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'persimmon'
Plantains frits, "Fried plantains" a Creole
dessert; Spanish, plantain = Caribbean relative of bananas. Ex. 'bananas
foster'
Poudine au pain, Canadian French & Creole bread pudding
Praline, French, Candy confection w/ pecans
Riz au feves, Spanish-Cuban beans cooked in rice
Roux, French, a flour & grease cooking base
Choucroute, French, uncooked German sauerkraut/cabbage salad
Salade pommes de terre aux cornichons, French, German potato
salad w/ pickles
Sauce piquante, French, Hot' n spicy stock sauce
Sassacoua, (Mobilian-Choctaw) "bullshit" or
nonsense
Soco, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'muskadine'
Tasso, French Creole, from Spanish/Mexican for smoked pork
Tchauk, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'blackbird' (also a
euphemism for 'penis' in Louisiana Creole French & Louisiana Kreyole)
Tisane, French & Metis, 'aphrodisiac tea'
T-sale,' French, 'small cut of salted/pickled meat
Tamales, Spanish/Mexican/Indian corn-husk wrap (tamales)
Viande boucanee, (Mobilian-Choctaw) Metis, 'smoked meat'
Viande marinee, French, Marinated meat
--John LaFleur