VOA文化艺术2024--Louisiana’s Creole Culture Extends Far and Wide

Louisiana’s Creole Culture Extends Far and Wide

　　Language experts estimate as many as 10,000 people still speak the French-based language Louisiana Creole.

　　In addition, many others in New Orleans and across the southern U.S. state consider themselves part of the culture that draws tens of thousands of people to events. The celebrations include autumn's Festival Acadiens et Creoles, summer's Creole Tomato Festival, and spring's Tremé Creole Gumbo & Congo Square Rhythms Festival.

　　But for locals and visitors alike, everyday evidence shows how strong Creole culture is in Louisiana. The state's performance spaces and airwaves are often filled with the driving, rhythmic¹ sound of zydeco and other Creole and Cajun music. Louisiana's restaurants offer dishes with rich, complex flavors including gumbo, hot sausage, red beans and rice, and shrimp² étouffée.

　　"To celebrate Creole culture is to wake up and live in New Orleans," said Christina Bragg. She is a member of the Mahogany Blue Babydolls, a parade group for Black and mixed-race women.

　　"Celebrating Creole is celebrating our day-to-day lives. The food we eat. The music we dance to. The way we gather with friends to parade during Mardi Gras," she said. "Every day I open my eyes and breathe, it's a celebration of Creole culture, because that's who I am."

　　Difficult to define

　　So, what is Creole?

　　"It's food, it's music, it's architecture, it's style and it's traditions," Mona Lisa Saloy told VOA. "There are millions of Creole people in countries across the world...we are all so much more alike than we are different. We create beautiful cultures everywhere we go, and I think that's evident here in Louisiana."

　　Saloy is the writer of the poetry collection Black Creole Chronicles and served as Louisiana's poet laureate from 2021 to 2023. She said Creole cultures all over the world have similarities to Louisiana's.

　　"Architectural styles common in New Orleans like the Creole Cottage or the Shotgun home can be found in other places with Creoles, such as in other parts of the American South and the Caribbean," she said. "Much of our music derives⁴ from the rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean, as does much of our food — elements of gumbo such as the long rice and okra, for example, or the prevalence of beans."

　　How the word "Creole" is defined changes from place to place and person to person.

　　The word "Creole" is believed to have come from the Portuguese⁵ word crioulo, which developed from the Latin word for "to create." Some say it was used in the European slave trade to describe a slave born in the New World and not in Africa. The word took on different meanings in different places. Creole in much of Africa and part of the Caribbean, for example, came to mean people of mixed ethnic⁶ or racial backgrounds.

　　In Louisiana, the definition has changed over the years.

　　"Here, the definition kind of depends on who you ask," said Vance Vaucresson. He is a New Orleans-based Creole and owner of a local restaurant, the Vaucresson Sausage Company.

　　"I prefer an inclusive definition," he said. "By that definition, anyone born in Louisiana could be Creole. During our colonial era, it was meant to differentiate⁷ people born in the Americas — usually of French, Spanish or African descent — from those born in Europe or Africa."

　　Describing his definition, Vaucresson added: "...it doesn't matter. If you're born here and embrace the culture, you can be Creole."

　　In Louisiana of the 1700s and 1800s, the more inclusive definition was possibly the most accepted. White people with European ancestry⁸ were just as likely to call themselves Creole as mixed-race people of African ancestry.

　　White Creoles claimed the term because it set them apart from settlers who were coming from Northern states after The Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. Mixed-race Creoles, too, claimed the term because it differentiated⁹ them from enslaved people.

　　Don Vappie is a Creole jazz musician in New Orleans. He described the idea of Creole before the Civil war as organized into three levels. "It was more of a three-tier racial hierarchy¹⁰ here, instead of the two-tiered Black-or-white experienced elsewhere in the U.S," he said.

　　After the American Civil War, however, many of these differences in New Orleans disappeared.

　　"Creole or not, white people had more in common with white people and Black people had more in common with Black people," Vappie told VOA.

　　Saloy believes Creole is firmly connected to African culture and should stay that way.

　　"The ingredients in our food, the rhythm in our music and dance, the details in our architecture — it's all connected to West African culture," she said, "That's our heritage."

　　Words in This Story

　　rhythmic –adj. having a regular sound or movement

　　dish –n. a kind of food that is prepared in a particular way

　　Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) –n. the Tuesday before the Catholic Lent religious observance

　　style –n. a particular way of designing something, doing some activity, or behaving

　　architectural –adj. related to the design of buildings

　　derive³ –v. to come from

　　prevalence –n. something that is widespread or usual

　　era –n. a period of time

　　tier –n. a level, especially one in an organization or a group

　　hierarchy –n. a system in which things are ordered by importance or status

　　ingredient –n. a material that is used to make something, especially food

1 rhythmic   

adj.有节奏的，有韵律的

参考例句：

• Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
• Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。

2 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

3 derive   

v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。

4 derives   

v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• English derives in the main from the common Germanic stock. 英语主要源于日耳曼语系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derives his income from freelance work. 他以自由职业获取收入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

8 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

9 differentiated   

区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征

参考例句：

• The development of mouse kidney tubules requires two kinds of differentiated cells. 小鼠肾小管的发育需要有两种分化的细胞。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

10 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。