[StBernard] Canary Islands descendants hold 30th festival in spite of Katrina

[Westley Annis]

Canary Islands descendants hold 30th festival in spite of Katrina
3/24/2006, 4:27 p.m. CT
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY 
The Associated Press    

CHALMETTE, La. (AP) - Hurricane Katrina wrecked their museum, their homes,
and their lives. But that couldn't keep descendants of Canary Islanders who
came to St. Bernard Parish more than two centuries ago from celebrating
their heritage with the 30th Islenos Fiesta.

"At first, we thought, `Could we have this festival? Could we pull it off?'"
said Kathie Acosta, an evacuee who drove down from Murfreesboro, Tenn., to
help with the festival, which will take place Saturday and Sunday.

"This festival is a celebration to let people know we'll be back," she said.

The hurricane flooded every building in St. Bernard Parish.

In addition, a tree fell on the main building of the museum, a collection of
10 historic cottages donated to or bought by Los Islenos Cultural and
Historical Society. Most were moved to the museum site in the town of St.
Bernard.

Only one of those buildings can be repaired. The rest will have to be all or
partly replaced, said festival chairwoman Rhonda Rodriguez Hannan. "They're
no longer historical structures, basically," she said.

Last year's festival had more than 70 crafts vendors and demonstrators, said
Donald "Put" Nunez, who was stapling palmetto leaves to frames of 2-by-4s -
the post-Katrina version of the palmetto huts which were Islenos' first
shelters.

Most of them are gone. "I think only six will be coming this time," he said.

When he said they'll include a man who builds cypress rockers, Acosta was
delighted. She had brought her two double-seated porch rockers inside for
safekeeping before evacuating ahead of the storm.

"Where your house went?" Nunez asked.

Acosta shrugged and laughed. "I don't know."

Although the festival is smaller, "the food isn't going to be smaller,"
Acosta said.

On Friday, volunteers were chopping onions, green peppers, garlic and other
seasonings for paella, white beans, Canary Islands shrimp, shrimp and grits,
and other dishes traditional either on the islands or in the parish.

Volunteers chopped fruit for sangria until 3 a.m. on a recent night, Acosta
said.

The festival's displays will include the few exhibits salvaged from the
museum - a 200-year-old handcarved cypress dugout, a clay water jug from
Spain found in Lake Borgne, handcarved duck decoys and model ships.

A model ship in a glass case; several jugs; two hand-carved wooden chairs,
one of them child-sized; two flags, six cardboard boxes and a carved wooden
box sat under and next to a trailer ramp.

"This is the museum," Acosta said, her voice catching.

She swallowed her tears while opening the wooden box and showing a small but
ornate silver crucifix, a small silver cup and a few other items. Across the
sidewalk lay two pirogues including the dugout, which held a few other items
including pirogue and cooking paddles.

Los Artesanos de Ingenio, a string band with more than 30 members, is
performing at the festival and brought regional costumes for the museum,
Hannan said.

The bandleader's brother is mayor of the Gran Canaria Island city of
Ingenio, which is a sister city of St. Bernard Parish. Mayor Domingo
Gonzales visited the parish weeks before Hurricane Katrina, and arranged for
the band's visit.

Manuel Mora, who researched a documentary about the connection last year,
will present his subtitled work, "La emigracion canaria a Luisiana (The
Canary Islands Emigration to Louisiana)".

"While he's here, he's going to do a post-Katrina documentary," Hannan said.