[StBernard] Isleno Fiesta a success in St. Bernard Village

[Westley Annis]

Isleño Fiesta draws record crowds of nearly 27,000 visitors 

Traditional food, crafts & music celebrates Isleno heritage 

 

The Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society held its 33rd annual Isleño
Fiesta March 21 and March 22 drawing record crowds of nearly 27,000 visitors
to the grounds of the Los Isleños Museum Complex in St. Bernard Village. The
event is meant to highlight the heritage of St. Bernard’s Isleños, or Canary
Islanders who settled in St. Bernard Parish in the 1770s. 

 

“Parish President Craig Taffaro and his staff, particularly the Recreation
Department and the Public Works crew excelled in completing all preparations
for the 33rd annual Isleño Fiesta,” said William Hyland. Hyland is an Isleño
who is the parish government’s director of the Los Isleños Museum Complex
and parish historian. 

 

Hyland said the fiesta ran out of food at the end of the day on Sunday,
thanks to the throngs of visitors. “That only happens in the best years, and
this was a very good year,” Hyland said. 

 

“Parish government will use FEMA funding to begin construction this year on
the Los Isleños Museum Complex buildings damaged and destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina,” Parish President Craig P. Taffaro said at the opening ceremony.
Taffaro thanked Dot Benge, president of the Los Isleños Heritage and
Cultural Society, and Hyland, who also is on the society’s board of
directors. He also thanked the other festival co-chairs, Rhonda Rodriguez
Hannan and Monte Brown as well as all of the volunteers.

 

The design work for the restoration at the complex is nearly complete, and
is expected to cost more than $2 million, Hyland said. The work will include
building a replica of the Isleño Museum, demolished after a tree crashed
through it during Hurricane Katrina. The 2,700-square foot multi-purpose
building, a replica the Coconut Island Dance Hall, will be restored. Several
historical Isleño cottages that dot the site and comprise the historic
village will be restored, in addition to Ducros Museum. A replica of the
trapper’s cabin, also destroyed by trees during Katrina, will be built.

 

Antiguos Coros y Danzas de Ingenio, a well-respected folkloric group from
Ingenio in Gran Canaria, performed the traditional folk music of the Canary
Islands. The group performed folk music concerts at Gauthier Elementary
School, St. Bernard Middle School, Chalmette High School and Trist Middle
School during the week before the fiesta, reaching 2,000 children. The
Canary Islands government paid the airfare for the 31-member folkloric band,
which performs regularly in festivals throughout Europe. President Taffaro
and the Parish Council also honored the visitors and gave them proclamations
and goody bags at the Council meeting. 

 

Other bands at the fiesta included August Rush, Fredy Omar and the Top Cats.


 

Fiesta 2009 featured the menu of traditional Spanish food including paella,
empanadas, croquetas and flan. Fried seafood platters, poor boy sandwiches,
gumbo, grilled and raw oysters also were served. 

 

Taffaro made preparing the site for the festival’s return a priority for his
first 100 days in office in 2008 and ordered interim repairs to some
buildings in the historical village. Except for the first three Isleño
festivals, every event was held at this site in St. Bernard Village until
Hurricane Katrina swamped the area. The festival never missed a year and was
held in 2006 and 2007 on the parish complex grounds in Chalmette. 

 

In early 2008, St. Bernard Parish Councilman Fred Everhardt Jr., who
co-organized the oyster booth this year with Parish Road Manager Louis
Pomes, donated his time to demolish the Isleño Museum that was critically
damaged by an 80-foot Water Oak that fell on it during Katrina. Because of
bureaucratic delays at the federal level, Everhardt volunteered to take down
the cottage before the 2008 festival and to make way for the construction of
a historically correct replica of the 1840-single story gable roofed house. 

 

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