New Orleans – 1. Unique and beautifull

<Note: I sincerly apologize for all the spelling and gramatical mistakes, and for nonsense as well. >

New Orleans, why are you so attractive?

“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”

– Tennessee Williams

As I have some personal grief against San Fran and New York radiate it’s culture all over the world so much that you know it even before stepping in (we all have watch How I Met Your Mother), I have officially edited that quote: “America has only one surprising city: New Orleans”.

< By the way, I know, that last edited quote is BS and widely subjective, no need to rage about it, yell or cry >

The city draws its peculiarities from the mix of influences from three different continents, blended in the warmth of the south. Let’s have a quick look in the rear-mirror.

Which cultures are involved and where do they come from?

At First, Native Americans were living there, among them Choctaws and Houmas Indians. Between 1500 and 1700 few European settlement were based in the south. It’s only in 1718 that New Orleans grows out of the swamp, under the french governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne. After 45 years of french domination, Louisiana had been handed over to Spain, then back to France and immediately after to the USA in what is known as the Louisiana purchase. At this time Louisiana represented one-third of US territory. Really good deal Thomas Jefferson.

**Fig 1:** Sum up of New Orleans domination during 18^th century.

The second Source of influences come from migration. Anecdotally, some were willing to come, mostly working class from Ireland, settling down in what is still named the « Irish channel ». Some German and Italian came along. Sadly, most of them were not too keen on coming and were dragged down there as slaves, massively brought by boat from Africa to Louisiana between 1719 and 1860.

You can find here a nice sum up of NoLa history from 1718 to 2015, by my pal Matt.

Is your milkshake tasty?

Well, sometimes you are really hungry, you open your fridge, scan what’s inside to note that all you have is just tricky-patchy ingredients from random places. Oh well, it’s Sunday evening, you are with your partner in crime, there is no way you are unfreezing a pizza, so you just take everything out and start working on it. With a bit of creativity you end up having a brand new tasty dish (like hamburger mac and cheese pizza with teriyaki sauce) and everyone is crazy about it. That’s pretty much what happened there.

Cooking & Drinking:

New Orleans number one resource is drink and food. Tourists from the whole world come around to taste the creole cuisine and local cocktails. One would start with Bloody marry for breakfast, then a good gumbo/jambalaya, a huge ass beer To-Go, a hurricane at Pat O’ Brian patio, and finally few Herbsaint on Frenchmen street.

Why not going for a Po-Boy in between two drinks? Basically, they are sandwiches, but worth it one. The name originated from ”poor boy”, as poor eat bread… at least in Europe.

<I think i’m myself around one baguette and a half per day>

Yep, f you go there, do not forgot your mouth, nor your liver.

Religion:

African religions and spiritualism syncretized with catholic one to become Voodoo.

languages:

Creole languages mean a mix of french and something else. The two languages evolved really differently, so much so that a french and a Creole can hardly communicate. When it comes to English, there are few noteworthy differences. The legendary Dat, punctuate many sentences, and everyone calls you baby.

celebration:

The most famous one is definitely Mardi Gras, coming from medieval Europe, but once again, in new Orleans, you do stuff New Orleans way. Krewes Parade all around the city, costumed, throwing beads at the crowd. And the crowd, damn, they keep asking for some more, more beads, more coins, more anything they can get, the aim of the game? Collect as much shit as you can, and get the rarest crafts from the most beautiful ladies. It is literally a three weeks party, the kind of things you rarely see somewhere else. But be careful, you have to be trained, they are not kidding. The day after fat Tuesday is national hangover day.

Over time, Indians and African-American interaction resulted in an important miscegenation. The fact that both populations lived on the margins of the white society created some sort solidarity. Today, we can witness this through some alternative Mardi Gras. In response to segregation and oppression, some Afro-Americans folks dance wearing costumes heavily inspired by traditional Indian clothing. The usual « Krewes » are substituted by « Tribes ».

music:

From all the suffering and pain is born another pearl, The jazz, finding its roots in Congo square, where blacks were allowed to celebrate, dance and play freely. It started end of the 19th century and encountered a huge success. It has quickly spread to the rest of the Us and later on, to Europe.

Even though so many catastrophes happens all the time, New Orleans people always face them with hope and overcome difficulties turning them into a party. My favorite example happened the last 5th of may. At the same time as some were celebrating the « cinco de mayo », some other were celebrating the « sinkhole de mayo » as especially large sinkholes appeared in the city. they Gathered were around them, printed T-shirt and turned all that into joy and nice memories.

In Simple words, it is unique and it is damn cool.