Trailblazers
5 Acadianians making their mark on their professions, their communities and the region.
Author: David Cheramie
Amber Robinson
No pun intended, but Amber Robinson is a natural for conservation. She comes by it honestly with a father from Grand Isle, a mother from Gueydan, and a childhood spent between Louisiana’s last inhabited barrier island and its coastal marshes.…
Chris Stafford
There’s an old joke around Lafayette and elsewhere that goes something like this: There are 100 bands in town, but only 10 musicians. The joke may be hyperbole but saying that Chris Stafford has played with almost all of them…
Christine VerdIn
When Christine Verdin was born into the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe in lower Terrebonne Parish, Native Americans were segregated into separate schools known as settlement schools. It wasn’t until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the public…
Kerry Boutté
If you’ve ever enjoyed a delicious plate of crawfish étouffée while listening to a Cajun band before two-stepping the night away, you can thank Kerry Boutté, a native of Arnaudville at the junction of two bayous. It may be coincidental…
From the Kitchen Table to the French Table
Fifty years ago, the US census told us that the number of Francophones in Louisiana was over one million. These days it's probably around 200,000, more or less, but no one can…
Lafayette, we are here
On January 17, 1823, by separating it from Saint Martin Parish, the Louisiana legislature created Lafayette Parish. Named in honor of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, "the hero of two worlds", the parish will celebrate its bicentennial throughout…
The Grègue is Hot
With the proliferation of cafés on every street corner, young people would find it hard to believe that coffee in the United States once had a very bad reputation. It was practically undrinkable. Anywhere you ordered a cup of coffee,…
The Restaurants of my Heart
The comfort that comes with the memory of the good smells and flavors that emanated from the kitchens of our childhood is often the source of deep happiness and creative inspiration. The French novelist Marcel Proust started his masterful work,…
Calling Acadiana Home
The waves of immigration that contributed to our culture in southern Louisiana did not cease with the end of the Grand Dérangement or with the last ship to transport enslaved Africans. More recently, the arrival of Vietnamese refugees or Spanish…
From Pointe-aux-Chênes to Pointe-au-Chien: Tenacity at the End of the World.
When people on television said that Hurricane Ida had made landfall near Port Fourchon, despite the horror of this terrible announcement, I had to laugh a little. “Land? At Port Fourchon? There hasn't been land there for at least fifty…
Charlene Richard
In the middle of southwest Louisiana’s prairie, in the village of Richard, is a small cemetery on Charlene Street. Over the years, it has become a place of pilgrimage for those in search of divine intercession. Buried there is a…
Traiteurs, Plants, and Prayers
Long before the establishment of the first medical schools in Europe in the 12th century, people needed healing in every region of the world and in every historical era. Traditional remedies vary from culture to culture, but they all carry…
The Stowaway
I was not exactly what you would call a delicate child. I ate everything you could find on a table in south Louisiana: fried shrimp, po-boys, crawfish boiled or étouffée, spaghetti, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc., etc., etc. American, Cajun, and…
Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler
I admit that every time I see or hear “Laissez les bons temps rouler,” I cringe a little and rub my ears. It is often pronounced with a dreadful accent and as to its spelling, it is sometimes extraordinarily creative.…
Migrating Places
The story of south Louisiana is one of constant flux and migration, going all the way back to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch when the melting Laurentide Ice Sheet allowed the…
Architecture and Nature
My parents’ house, where I grew up, was right behind my grandparents' house. With my childish eyes, I saw a huge house, almost a palace, with a brick staircase that climbed up to the sky. In reality, it was a…
New Thinking on Old Ideas
A culture that does not change and evolve is destined, it is said, to wither and die. Over the last 50 years or so of the “French Renaissance” in Louisiana, there…
The Back Door is Always Open
This July marks the fourth anniversary of the passing of musician D. L. Ménard, the author of "La Porte en Arrière (The Back Door)", the most recorded and performed Cajun song according to folklorist Barry Jean Ancelet. It competes with…
Trailblazers
Acadiana is a region steeped in history, culture and tradition and its people are known for their irrepressible and entrepreneurial spirit. It is with this idea in mind that we created the Acadiana Profile Trailblazers. Some of the honorees are people you’ve…
To Roux or Not to Roux
The question came up innocently enough on a Facebook group page about south Louisiana culture. Some of the most intense discussions seem to revolve around food, which should be no surprise since so many of our conversations involve what our…
Brown Cotton
Long forgotten due to its low commercial value, brown cotton is experiencing a renaissance in popularity among those who want to rediscover the "home-made" aesthetic. Not as commercially coveted as white cotton, its cultivation has long been a family affair.…
The Sacred and the Profane
On the 15-mile drive south from Houma to Chauvin, if we weren’t paying attention, we might have missed the plot of land on our right as we rode along the appropriately named Bayouside Drive. We noticed an incongruous-looking lighthouse on…
Grand Isle, mon amour
LA 1 crosses the state diagonally, from the confines of its border with Texas and Arkansas, to its other extremity, where it ends in a cul-de-sac surrounded by a motel, a restaurant and a small port harboring sport and commercial…
