History and Heritage

Defining Cajun and Creole and the upcoming Heritage Manor nursing home move were topics of presentation at a few of the Ville Platte Rotary Club’s July meetings.
Shelia Richmond with the Creole Heritage Center in Natchitoches, said, “I get this question all the time — What’s the difference between Cajun and Creole?”
Richmond, who also teaches at Northwestern State University, was the guest speaker on July 5.
Richmond began her speech by giving background on how and when the Acadians arrived in Louisiana in the mid to late 1700s.
“What is happening about 1763 is the Spanish have taken over the area known as Louisiana,” she said. “Gradually some of the Acadians start to make their way to Louisiana, and the Spanish are very welcoming — ‘Come on in.’ The Spanish want to populate Louisiana, and they are Catholic, too.”
Those first Acadians to arrive in Louisiana had last names like Boudreaux, Broussard, Hebert, Thibodeaux and LeBlanc. French soldiers also arrived in the state and in Ville Platte with last names like Fontenot and Fusilier. Germans arrived in areas like Roberts Cove and the German Coast, and last names like Frey, Huval and Stelly were added to the mix. Richmond said Spanish last names like Dartez and Manuel, and English and Irish names like Smith and McGee also began to pop up in Louisiana.
“When all of these (cultures/ethnicities) get absorbed into the culture, then we are looking at a mixed ethnic group of French, Spanish, German, Irish and English,” she said. “Once the Acadians got here, they intermarried with those already here.”
Richmond continued, “People whose ancestors came directly from Acadia, those are Cajuns. Creole is a little different.”
Richmond also read an excerpt from an article from historian Shane Bernard, son of musician Rod Bernard.
“The term ‘Creole’ has long generated confusion and controversy,” she read. “The word invites debate because it possesses several meanings, some of which concern the innately sensitive subjects of race and ethnicity. In its broadest sense, Creole means ‘native’— or, in the context of Louisiana history, native to Louisiana.”
She continued, “That was the first historical term we had. Creole means native to Louisiana. It is a way to distinguish those people who were born in Louisiana from those people who came here, to show a difference.”
Richmond said the definition of the word Creole changed over time to mean those whose ancestors were European and later to refer to those of of mixed cultural heritage such as those of African and American Indian heritage.
“Creole has a number of definitions, a number of ways that people define it,” Richmond said. “We don’t classify it at the center. If you say you are Creole, you are welcome to come in because there are too many different ways we can define it.”
Richmond highlighted the similarities between the two cultures in areas like music, language and food, and she stressed the importance of keeping each of the cultures together through events like the 2016 Creole Heritage Celebration.
The “French Language in Louisiana —  Creole, Cajun and Native American” event will be Sept. 23 and 24 at the Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville. Sessions will include contemporary programs in language revitalization and maintenance. For more information, call (318) 357-6685.
Trey Prudhomme, director of Heritage Manor Nursing Home, was the guest speaker on July 26.
The facilitiy’s new location is at 2020 West Main Street in Ville Platte. The 24,000 sqaure-foot building can house 124 people.
Pruhomme said, “The construction project is pretty much complete. We will have to move 85 people. We are moving furniture — beds, chairs and armoires — right now.”
Prudhomme said the move will be Sept. 17. The Department of Health and Hospitals and the state fire marshal’s office will do inspections during the week prior to the move.
He added, “We will also have a ribbon cutting and open house that week, but we have not set a date.
“Many people have asked how we will move 85 residents in one day. We will have help and vans from our sister facilities. We will move four or five people at a time. We have been through several moves with some of our sister facilities, most recently with the St. Francisville facility.”
There will be a meeting about the move for resident’s families on July 28.
“We have lots of long-time residents,” Prudhomme said. “The rooms are smaller at the new building, and there will be less room for personal effects. Our resident’s families will also be responsible for moving some of the items.”
Prudhomme said that in addition to moving stuff to the new building, items will also be moved into the corporations’s new evacuation facility located just behind the new building.
“We have three facilities located south of I-10, and there will be room for 235 extra people (in the evacuation facility),” he said. “I hope we never have to use it.”
Prudhomme said that the corporations’s lawyer is looking into donating the old building, which was built in the 1960s and last added on to in 1986.
“We don’t want it to be empty,” he said. “If we cannot donate the building, it may be demolished.”