Posted on 10/06/2002 6:10:13 PM PDT by blam
ISLENOS, CANARY ISLANDS
The archipelago of the Canaries consists of seven main islands, having a total area of less than 6 percent of the size of Louisiana, lying about sixty-five miles west of Morocco in Northern Africa.
They were formed as a result of volcanic activity. It is a rugged, mountainous terrain, and plains are almost nonexistent. Lack of water is a serious problem. The westernmost islands receive the most rain, while the two islands closest to the Sahara Desert and lower in elevation have some deserts. The higher elevations on some of the western islands have pleasant temperatures, and crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, dates, chestnuts, bananas, sugarcane and other subtropical plants can be grown.
The ancient natives of the Canary Islands were the Guanches, who lived in a Stone Age way of life. The language is related to the ancient idioms of North Africa, but has disappeared except for a few words.
The Guanches never developed writing and did not know the use of boats in the fifteenth century. They lived a pastoral life, caring for their goats, sheep, and pigs. Some of them lived in huts, but the majority lived in caves. Adults dressed in skins or grasses sewn together, while the younger people went about naked. They developed a system of government that included judges, laws, and kings.
The Gaunche weapons were mainly sticks, spears, and stones. Their religion consisted of belief in a single god, and they carefully buried their dead after embalming the bodies.
The origin of the Guanches has mystified scholars. The earliest Gaunche inhabitants have been described as robust, fair skinned, and handsome. Recent studies classify the people into two groups called Cro-Magnon and Mediterranean.
The Cro-Magnon type is described as broad-faced, robust, long headed and fairer than the Mediterranean type. The Mediterranean type is described as long faced, delicate, and having a short, broad skull. Evidence points to Northwest Africa as the origination point for the Gaunches, sometime between 2500 and 1000 BC.
Stories about the Canaries circulated around the Mediterranean before the times of the Romans. King Juba II of Mauretania who reigned between 25BC and AD 25 sent an expedition to investigate the islands.
They found no human but encountered ferocious dogs. King Juba named the islands for the dogs, canine in Latin being canaria. The well-known songbirds derive their name from the islands rather than giving it to them.
After the collapse of the Roman era, the islands disappeared from recorded history for nearly a thousand year. The Genoese arrived in 1291, followed by the Portuguese in 1341, and the Majorcans in 1342.
Beginning in the fourteenth century, the Europeans often sacked and enslaved the natives. Gaunches were sold as slaves before 1400 in Seville and Valencia and though the fifteenth century. The Spanish crown of Fernando and Isabella finally defeated the remaining Guanches and the Canaries came under Spanish control. Spanish names, religion, and customs were forced upon the Gaunche. Spanish nobles seized the best agricultural lands, treating the Gaunches in the most barbaric manner, coercing them into serfdom. Economic conditions deteriorated. The native tenant farmers and their families were starving.
War erupted in the English colonies of North America in 1776. Spain's vast Louisiana colony in 1763 had only approximately eleven thousand people, less than half of whom were white. England seized several Spanish boats on Lake Ponchartrain in May 1777. In August 1777, the Spanish Crown commanded the governor and commandant general of the Canary Islands to enlist seven hundred men for service in Louisiana.
Emigration to Louisiana offered to the islanders opportunity to escape the deplorable conditions in which they lived. More than three hundred inhabitants of Gomera chose to leave for Louisiana. The recruits appear to have come from five of the seven islands: Hierro and Fuertenventura yielded no volunteers.
The immigrant soldiers needed to be between 17 and 36 years of age, at least five feet one-half inch tall, robust and without noticeable imperfections or vice. Preference was given to married men. The wives, children, and close relatives of the recruits would be transported to Louisiana at royal expense. Eight ships transported the 2,010 Islenos from the Canaries. The last ship, El Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, departed on May 31, 1779, but was detained in Havana because the Governor of Havana did not think Louisiana was a safe place due to proximity of the British troops at Baton Rouge.
Many of these Islenos never finished the journey to Louisiana. Copies of the passenger lists of the eight ships are in the books referenced.
Louisiana Governor Bernardo de Galvez welcomed the first group of Canary Islanders in November 1778. He decided to employ all the immigrant-recruits as settlers only, because of the impossibility of keeping the married recruits in the regiments with their large families.
He established the first community, Valenzuela, on Bayou Lafourche, just past Donaldsonville. Today, this is the site of Belle Alliance plantation, and there is an historical marker marking this site as Valenzuela. Galveztown was established on the banks of Bayou Manchac where it joins the Amite River, and as a buffer to the British who controlled the area north of Bayou Manchac. Barataria was established on the west side of the Mississippi River below New Orleans and Terre-aux Boeufs on the east bank. The settlements at Galvez and Barataria both failed because of continuous flooding. The Islenos in St. Bernard parish quickly adapted to the area and increased their income by fishing and trapping in addition to farming.
The Islenos in Ascension and Assumption parishes settled down to farming, the main crop being sugar cane. Many Canary Islanders' descendants today still live in the Bayou Lafourche and St. Bernard areas.
The land grants were supposed to consist of approximately three arpents of bayou front (576 feet) by 40 deep (7,680 feet), but the grants were irregular in size, due to the curving of the bayou.
The government supplied them well, sometimes lavishly. Some of them received a cart and two horses valued at 125 pesos. One example, a family numbering seven persons received: 150 ounces of cloth, 30 ounces of printed linen, 4 hats, 10 plain and 4 silk handkerchiefs, 6 pairs of stockings, 16 ounces of cloth of white thread, 4 needle cases, 8 thimbles, 1,000 pins and needles, 3 fusils (flintlocks), 3 pounds of gunpowder, 4 shaving razors, 5 axes, 8 hoes, 2 shovels, 10 ounces of Limburg cloth, 2 1/2 pesos in coin per person, 20 pesos for the purchase of a mare, and a number of other items. The government built the colonists at Galvez wooden houses, 16 x 32 feet, with a gallery on one side.
Sugar cane was brought from the Canary Islands and introduced into Louisiana agriculture. Canary Illanders have labored in the sugar industry continuously and have had a large part in making the industry the success it is today.
Islenos have distinguished themselves in the War of 1812, Civil War, and WWI and WWII. Although, many remained clannish and aloof from outsiders until the early 1900's, most have since valued education and many have served honorably in governmental positions. All Isleno descendants should be proud of their unique heritage.
Sources:
Canary Island Migration by Sidney Villere The Canary Islanders of Louisiana by Gilbert C. Din.
These pictures have helped me greatly. I did a long search years ago for such things and never found them and it fell by the wayside. More later.
GGG Ping.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Just a couple ideas..
The article suggests a time period of 1000 to 2500 BC.. Thus, Pict, Celt, possibly Iberian, for the fairer, "longer faced" group. ( storm blown fishermen, etc..)
They could have come from as far as england or ireland, blown south by heavy storms.. Quite a trip, but possible..
Likewise, the mediterranean group could have come at that time as well.. or earlier, or later.. (ejected into the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar and blown there by storms..)
The trip wouldn't be anywhere near the one from england, there are extremely strong currents in the straits of Gibraltar, and the addition of a storm could catch fishermen or travellers unaware..
Neither group, as survivors, would have much knowledge of where they had ended up, or how to get back to their homeland, and many would have stayed.. Few would have attempted the journey back to the mainland..
If dogs were there in 25 BC to 25 AD, I would guess that humans were there as well, just not willing to show themselves.. they are evidence of human habitation in and of themselves..
In both cases, I am assuming that these group classifications came from burial sites, and not necessarilly living examples.. although I recall reading accounts stating that the "natives" were light-skinned or fair in complexion, those accounts were in connection with mysterious atlantean symbols and such, which discredits it in my opinion..
Some of those words survive today in Cuba and remote parts of Louisiana, notably the word "guagua" (wawa) to describe a bus or van. In Cuba, Canary Islanders are also referred to as "Isleños" (islanders) which is funny because obviously every Cuban is an islander, what with Cuba being an island and all...
And Isleños are definitely not Cajuns, even though many people who think of themselves as Cajuns have got Spanish/Isleño blood.
I think the word "mojo" comes from the Spanish "mojar," to dampen. I don't think mojo the marinade is related to mojo the gris-gris (Louisiana term for a magical charm).
Fascinating. I'm glad that I read the 2 year old comments because I couldn't figure out how you were getting Cajun out of the Canary Islands! Hasn't anyone on this thread heard of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "Evangeline"?
When I lived in Texas (Ft. Bend County), every 8th grader in our school district had to make an Evangeline notebook. It was a BIG deal -- sort of like a middle school thesis. Evangeline was an epic poem about the Acadians fleeing Canada and settling in Louisiana.
Strange you should mention that. I just purchased a first edition print of the book circa 1910 in pristine condition - haven't read it, though.
Do they have their own Communist National Liberation Movement? You ain't a ethnic without a Communist National Liberation Movement to call your own. (That's how we know that Anglo-Saxons are the only non-ethnic folks on the face of the earth.)
mark for am read. 6th generation Louisianan here. plus 1/8 coonass.
FYI: THe Isleno accent is VERY similar to that of Cuba, due to the fact that the largest wave of immigration to Cuba (yes, larger than all the Gallegos who arrived in the late 19th century) was from the Canary Islands.
Be sure to read the article linked in post #51, I just posted it a little while ago. It's got some DNA data too.
Thanks!
FYI winning Kentucky Derby jockey is From LA
You’re right, there are a lot of Isleno features in Cuban speech. People from the Canaries were very, very important in the settlement of the New World, and we really don’t pay much attention to them now.
Gallegos were a major group in the Caribe in the 19th century, but folks from the Canaries were earlier than that. Even here in St. Augustine, we got a fair number of our early settlers from the Canaries. It was partly geography (Spanish ships stopped there) and probably partly the island effect (I want to be anywhere but this island) because the Canaries were very poor at that time.
The Canary Islands were also often attacked by Huguenot pirates, so life there was very difficult and risky even for your common, ordinary peasant. It’s no wonder they fled when they could...
I forgot to thank you for the ping! This was very interesting and I would have missed it otherwise.
We can start a whole website on migration and culture, just on the former Spanish colonies. If you meet a Cuban American with a French last name (such as a gentlemen I knew named Rosquette), they are probably descended from refugees fleeing the slave revolt in Haiti.
BTW: I used to work for a descendant of one of the original St. Augustine settlers whose family later moved to Cuba. There is a Horruitiner house in St. Augustine named after one of his ancestors.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.