[StBernard] STRONG TRADITION

[Westley Annis]

STRONG TRADITION
Los Islenos Festival gives visitors a glimpse into the enduring heritage of
Canary Islanders who settled in St. Bernard 
Sunday, March 25, 2007
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

With a heritage stretching back more than 200 years, it will take more than
a hurricane, even one as destructive as Katrina, to displace Islenos such as
Jerry Alfonso from St. Bernard Parish. 

 
As a boy, Alfonso would miss months of school every year to help his father
hunt, fish and trap muskrats in the parish's marshes. He later turned to
construction and other jobs to supplement commercial fishing, but he has
always called St. Bernard home. 

Since Katrina, Alfonso, his wife, Ramona, and their children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren all have returned to the only parish they have
known. Since his children are all still engaged in commercial fishing,
Alfonso said they also are continuing an important tradition handed down by
two centuries of the parish's original Canary Islands settlers known as
Islenos. 

This weekend, Alfonso, 74, shared his heritage with visitors to Los Islenos
Festival, sponsored by Los Islenos Heritage and Cultural Society. Alfonso,
who has repaired his storm-damaged Chalmette home, demonstrated duck-calling
using a hand-crafted caller and displayed wooden duck decoys he has created
over the years. 

Displaced from its original festival grounds in the St. Bernard community by
storm damage, the two-day event is being held at the St. Bernard Parish
government complex in Chalmette. It concludes today from noon to 8 p.m. 


A family affair 

The members of the society, which was formed in 1976, have been dispersed
since Katrina, but they are determined to preserve their culture, President
Dorothy "Dot" Benge said. 

Islenos are descendants of the earliest European settlers of St. Bernard,
who came from the Canary Islands in the late 1700s to settle along the
parish's easternmost bayous. 

For Rhonda Rodriguez Hannan, the daughter of Parish President Henry "Junior"
Rodriguez, being active in the Isleno group is a family tradition. Her
father was one of the society's founding members. 

Even though her father had to miss this weekend's festival because of recent
surgery, Hannan said his influence continues to motivate her. 

"You don't have a lot of young people active and trying to preserve our
heritage," said Hannan, 33. "Daddy started the organization with (prominent
educator) Mr. Frank Fernandez, and he always brought me to all the
meetings." 

Hannan said she hopes the event can return to its former site next year.
"The government complex is centrally located, but the festival itself is a
heritage festival," she said. "It's important that it is closer to where the
original land grants were and where the original Islenos settled." 

Benge, dressed in an 1800s-style costume hand-woven on a 500-year-old loom
in the Canary Islands, said it's critical to preserve the culture. Many of
the older Islenos who spoke the unique Spanish dialect have died since
Katrina, including at least one suicide. 


Rebuilding money 

She said her group has offered the parish government the 10 percent up-front
matching funds it needs to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
pay for about $1.2 million in repairs to a 20-acre museum and cultural
complex that has been slowly built through public and private financing as a
way to preserve the Isleno culture. 

The Canary Islands government also has pledged $200,000 to help repair the
complex. 

The society has four bids from architects it will soon present to the parish
so work can begin. 

Benge said the group understands the parish must attend to critical needs
such as repairing its water, sewer and road systems before worrying about
things like the Isleno complex. That's why the group is trying to do its
part. 

Bill Hyland, who manages the complex for the parish and who has been a
longtime board member of the Islenos society, said the large multipurpose
building was moved off its foundation by Katrina but can be repaired. 

Artifacts from two family homes donated for use as museums have been
salvaged. The Ducros Museum has been gutted and can be repaired, but the
Isleno Museum was lost to an 80-foot water oak tree that fell on it during
the storm. There are plans to build a replica of that cottage, and other
historic Islenos cottages dating to the 1800s that the society paid to move
and refurbish on the complex grounds will be repaired, Hyland said. 

The purpose of the compound is to let visitors understand a culture unique
to Louisiana and critical to the state in its early days. 

St. Bernard was one of four settlements formed in the late 1770s when Spain
paid Canary Islanders to come to Louisiana to help protect the colony from
the British. The Canary Islands, a territory of Spain off the northern coast
of Africa, comprise seven islands known for their beautiful waters and
mountainous terrain. 

Festival treasurer Mike Hunnicutt said the event is successful because much
of the food and the labor are donated. While a normal festival before
Katrina raised less than $30,000, last year's event brought in $40,000
because of large cash donations to help revitalize the museum complex. 


Survivors at heart 

Louis "Coon" Molero, 44, is a regular festival volunteer. Molero, his wife
and three young children are among the few commercial fishing families to
rebuild in Yscloskey. 

During a brief break from shucking raw oysters at one of the festival
booths, Molero said he never doubted he would move back when he learned his
family home, built by his grandparents in 1915, had survived Katrina. 

It was on its side, but structurally sound. It has been righted and repairs
are ongoing, Molero said. His family is living in two FEMA trailers on the
grounds. 

Many of the old-time Islenos and commercial fishing families in the parish's
outlying communities have moved inside the levee protection system. Although
they are being replaced in his neighborhood by recreational fishermen,
Molero said, he is sure his Isleno heritage will survive Katrina, just as
his grandparents' house did. 

"You've got to do what is in your heart," he said. "Our house actually
floated off its foundation. It has survived several storms. I think the
people will come back." 

His wife Syvonne agreed: "You couldn't keep him from coming back." 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3321.