Cajun Country
From its language to its food and music, Cajun Culture is a land defined by its people. High-speed interstates and bridges may have spanned the geographic barriers isolating the region, but the people of South Louisiana still possess an indomitable spirit of independence and self-sufficiency. Many still live life close to the land, not untouched, but unmarred by the opening of the countryside in last half century.
The most pronounced difference between the folks in Cajun Country and their upstate neighbors is the predominance of the Catholic Church in the south and the Protestant faith in the North. The Northern boundary of Arcadiana neatly divides the twenty-two Catholic parishes of the south from the forty predominantly Protestant upstate parishes.
The people of North Louisiana are not too different from other rural southerners, scrubbing sustenance from hardscrabble farms and from gas and lumber industries in the piney hills. The people of Cajun country, however, are best known for their leisure skills. Whether they are cooking, making music or recounting a good story over a drink, there is a marked value on the simple pleasure of “passing a good time.” This stems from a “joie de vivre” that separates South Louisiana from the rest of the state ( and country) and makes it a paradise for anyone seeking to get away from the headlong pursuit of work and money for soul-satisfying indulgences in great food and music.

The Cajuns
When the British and French settled their differences in 1763, the Acadians who had spent the last ten years in exile looked to reestablish their families, communities, and lives in freedom. The greatest numbers eventually found their way to South Louisiana, where they again became pioneers in new and unsettled lands. Ironically, when the Acadians began to arrive in Louisiana, the colony had just come under Spanish rule and they were again the subjects of a non-French crown. The Spanish government in New Orleans saw an opportunity to settle the area west of the Mississippi and offered Acadian and other immigrants of French decent a choice of lands on the frontier.
There are nearly a million French speaking descendents of the Acadians living in South Louisiana today. Nowhere else in the nation has a single ethnic group been as successful in assimilating others while resisting total mainstream assimilation. Today there is rich movement to preserve the richness of Cajun culture. Beginning with the interests of the folklorists in the early sixties and continuing with the efforts of the Council on the Development of the French in Louisiana and the Cajun French Music Association, Cajuns have once again begun to cultivate their rich heritage. Their success can be measured in the vibrant music scene on the Cajun Prairie, the great restaurants of LaFayette and Breaux Bridge and the reintroduction of French in many of the public schools. The unique food, music, and language of the region will thrive for at least one more generation among the descendents of the Acadian people, providing visitors to the region and opportunity to enjoy a nearly lost way of life.

The Creoles
The term “Creole” generally fell out of use as a descriptor for those of European descent in the years prior to the War Between the States, but in regard to the black population it developed deeper connotations. Many Creoles became free men before the war. Some of these people had children by their owners or were partial Caribbean descent and were known as Creoles of Color. Some went on to become prosperous businessmen and landowners even plantation and slave owners, prior to the war establishing a rich and undocumented culture of their own.
Today the term “Creole” in South Louisiana is usually used to refer to Creoles of Color or those brought up in the black French-speaking community. This group has a culture very much of their own, including the distinctive zydeco music. The French language has been preserved among the Creole people, as they were often isolated from the educational “opportunities” afforded by the white populace after the War Between the States. Some of the biggest Creole communities today are in St. Martinville and Opelousas areas, where Zydeco dance halls throw open their doors on weekends.