"La Cuisine Creole" -- The First Creole Cookbook

New Orleans has for long been known as a city of outstanding and unique cuisine. In short, we have great food! Although this tradition goes back many years to the time of the French colonial days, the first cookbook on New Orleans food was not published until 1885.  The author, who was part Irish and part Greek, was a subject of Great Britain; he became a journalist and travelled the world, living in many exotic lands and reporting on his adventures. At various times he lived in Europe, the Caribbean, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Japan.  His named was Lafcadio Hearn.

Although he was usually very poor, despite his writing career, one of the ways he would deal with his limited ability to buy all the fancy foods he wanted, was to write about them. So, when he got to New Orleans, he began to compile all the recipes he could find from the local cooks. The result of this was the first ever published New Orleans cookbook -- La Cuisine Creole.

As was typical -- and we see this even today -- a total stranger to New Orleans could immediately fall in love with the place. Despite the many ills of the city, the allure and charms of New Orleans were overwhelming. For Lafcadio the main charm of the city was its food. Hearn stayed in New Orleans from 1877 to 1887.

Hearn did not specialize in writing about food but wrote on many cultural topics. Additionally, he wrote about, what we would call today, the paranormal. He was interested in ghost stories.

Some of Hearn's recipes are basic compared to more modern versions of dishes. For example, his "Jambalaya of Fowls and Rice" is essentially this: Stew a chicken, add rice and ham, and salt and pepper. Cook.
He sometimes adds comments to recipes, such as for the jambalaya, "Southern children are very fond of this..."  But he adds, "... [it is] very wholesome as well as palatable; it can be made of many things."

Many of the recipes are suitable for cooking even today despite the changes in cooking technology, although some seem very antiquated and are more for historic value than anything else.

Hearn eventually moved to Japan and wrote about Japanese culture. He became wildly popular there, and there is even a memorial museum to him in Matsue, Japan. He took a Japanese wife and became a Japanese citizen. He is claimed by the Irish, the British, the Greeks, and the Japanese.  But his real fame is in writing down all those great New Orleans recipes.

You can read more about him at www.cincinnatilibrary.org/main/hearn.html Hearn spent time writing for two Cincinnati newspapers, and that city claims him as well.

(In the photos we see a copy of La Cuisine Creole from the Cincinnati Library website, and a photo of Hearn himself from the same site. Also see Pelican Publishing's 1967 version of La Cuisine Creole with an introduction by Hodding Carter. Tulane University's library also has good material on Hearn in its special collections section.)
-- Adrian

Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen

In all of the mysterious and unique history of Old New Orleans, there are few individuals who can match the legendary status of Marie Laveau. Although she was born in the late 18th century (she lived from 1794 to 1881), there are people -- often tourists -- who visit her grave today and others who still claim to see her ghost. She was a hair dresser, a devout Catholic, a healer, a nurse, and, above all, the most famous -- or infamous -- Voodoo Queen in the history of New Orleans. Her very name is synonymous with voodoo and witchcraft.

Voodoo -- or Vodu -- was originally a spiritual religion from Africa. It was brought with the slaves to the West Indies -- especially to St. Domingue which was later called Haiti -- and then to New Orleans. As the religion travelled to New Orleans, it changed. From being mainly animism (or a nature/spirit religion) when in West Africa, it developed oddities such as zombies while in Haiti. Zombies were called the living dead, and it was believed these were people who had died but returned to life, more or less, as soulless beings who followed the will of a witchdoctor. In reality, we now know that "zombies" were living humans who had been drugged and were under the psychological influence of a Voodoo Queen or Voodoo Doctor. The "power of suggestion" plus drugs from nature (sometimes derived from the puffer fish) were the real causes of zombiism in Haiti.

Zombies, however, were never really popular in New Orleans voodoo. What was more common was magic -- white magic (which could be positive like a love potion) and black magic (which could be deadly). But the most powerful magic of all was the one used so well by Marie Laveau; this was "gris-gris". This comes from the French word for grey (gris) and was a mixture of both white and black magic. Much like the "power" to create zombies, the power of gris-gris (pronounced in New Orleans as "greeh greeh") was the power of suggestion and the gullible disposition of the voodoo believer. Gris-gris bags were created to help with magic spells. These were very small sacks into which various herbs and natural items, such as hair, were placed. Marie Laveau would make these gris-gris bags, tell a voodoo believer that they had magical powers, and her followers would believe it.

Backing up her power was her ability to know secrets about people in positions of wealth and influence in Old New Orleans, usually these would be white Creoles, descendants of French and European Spanish heritage. Marie would obtain these secrets, she claimed, through voodoo. In reality she learned these secrets from her network of voodoo-believing slaves who worked for the Creoles or from her personal work as a hair dresser to the wealthy people in the city. Foolish wealthy people would chat away while Marie worked on their hair, oblivious to her presence. Marie kept her ears open and learned a multitude of secrets from financial information to aspects of personal lifestyles.

In a world that was male dominated and white dominated -- slavery still existed in America then-- Voodoo was dominated by African-American women. There were some males who were voodoo practitioners, like Doctor John; but women were the most powerful. Marie Laveau became the most powerful of them all.

Marie was not a slave. She was what was called a "free woman of color"; her mother was African and her father French. She was most likely part American Indian as well on her mother's side. St. Domingue (Haiti) was the scene of a violent and bloody slave revolt when Marie was born in New Orleans. Her exact past is uncertain. Some historians actually claim she was born in Haiti. But most believe she was born in New Orleans and that her father, a wealthy French planter, possibly fled Haiti because of the revolt there. Marie lived in the Vieux Carre' (the "old quarter" or the French Quarter today) and married a free "mulatto" or a person of mixed heritage named Jacques Paris. According to some historical accounts, her marriage was performed by Pere' Antoine, the chaplain of the St. Louis Cathedral. (Today there are two very famous alleys alongside of the Cathedral. One is "Pirates Alley" named after Jean Lafitte's pirates, and the other is called "Pere Antoine Alley" named after the chaplain. )

After Jacques Paris died, Marie lived with --and possibly married-- Christophe Glapion and had many children -- some accounts say 15 children! (Years later, people would often confuse Marie with her daughter, who resembled her; and they would conclude that Marie Laveau could appear in two places at once through her voodoo magic.)

In one of her most famous voodoo spells, Marie Laveau took possession of a cottage on St. Ann Street in the French Quarter. A prominent white Creole sought her help when his son got into serious trouble with the law and was on trial for murder. His lawyers told him his case was basically hopeless. But Marie Laveau saved the son by allegedly using gris-gris bags placed under the judge's bench. The more probable explanation is that Marie discovered some secret information about the judge through her spy network of voodoo-believing slaves and used this to "influence" the judge's judicial decisions. With his son now freed, presumeably from Marie's voodoo, the grateful Creole father gave Marie the cottage on St. Ann Street. This case made Marie immensely influential in New Orleans as now even some in the white Creole community began to believe in her magical powers. So, whether it was a love potion or something more sinister, Marie was highly sought after.

Another amazing story about Marie Laveau was her work as a nurse. Her knowledge of herbs allowed her to actually help the sick, and she often volunteered her time bringing homemade gumbo (a seafood soup) to prisoners in jail in New Orleans. Sometimes she would spike the gumbo with special herbs to help calm or heal her patients. It is also claimed that in her youth she worked as a nurse at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

In those days in New Orleans, slaves were sometimes allowed to hold dances at Congo Square which was behind the French Quarter. Although Voodoo was not encouraged by the white rulers of the city, it was tolerated to some degree. Marie would hold spectacular voodoo events on the shore of Bayou St. John in New Orleans. She did this mainly for show and to promote a belief in voodoo, and hence a belief in herself. She would sometimes dance there holding a large snake named Zombi. It was just for show, however, and these dances were often very sensual and enticing. That also attracted many influential visitors from higher levels of society who snuck away to see these spectacles.

Marie's real voodoo practices were done in private homes. Sometimes she would mix Catholic religious beliefs with voodoo --using statues, candles, etc. It was said that Marie Laveau would frequently attend Catholic mass at the St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter while also being a Voodoo Queen, even though Catholicism was clearly opposed to voodoo beliefs.

Marie Laveau lived to be over 90 years old, and she was given a Catholic funeral and buried in a very old and famous cemetery called St. Louis Cemetery Number 1 on Basin Street in New Orleans. Later in her life she renounced voodoo and publicly accepted Catholicism. Nevertheless, to this day she is known for her voodoo practices. Many tourists and voodoo believers go to her grave and some write an "X" on the grave and invoke her spiritual powers.

Marie Laveau remains one of the most famous and controversial persons in the history of Old New Orleans -- perhaps the most famous.

A wonderful traditional Jazz tune -- played so well by the Olympia Brass Band -- is a song about the life of Marie Laveau. Another famous New Orleans musician named Dr. John also has a fine version of this same old tune simply called "Marie Laveau". Some of the words go like this:

"There lived a conjure lady, not long ago, in New Orleans, by the name of Marie Laveau.

"Believe it or not, strange as it may seem,

"She made a fortune selling voodoo and interpreting dreams...

"Folks would come to her from miles around,

"To see her put that voodoo down...

"To the voodoo lady they all would go,

"The rich, the educated, the ignorant, and the poor,

"She'd snap her fingers and shake her head,

"She'd tell mighty lovers, living and dead...

"O, Marie Laveau,

"O, Marie Laveau,

"Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen.

"She got rich from Voodoo in New Orleans..."

Yes, that is so true. She got rich -- and famous -- from voodoo in Old New Orleans.

To read more about Marie Laveau, see this article I wrote over 10 years ago for http://www.parascope.com/ now hosted at http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/en/articles/voodooQueen.htm --"The Voodoo Queen."

Also see Great Characters of New Orleans by Mel Leavitt and Robert Tallant's book Voodoo in New Orleans.
(The photo is in public domain from wikimedia commons. It is allegedly of Marie Laveau.)

Dr. Antommarchi: Napoleon's Death and New Orleans

A connection exists between the death of Napoleon Bonaparte and the city of New Orleans. The link is a medical doctor named Dr. Francis Antommarchi. When Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena (see stories below), he was assigned a medical staff by the British. Napoleon never trusted the British doctors, and relied instead on his own physician from Corsica named Dr. Francis Antommarchi. (Napoleon, of course, was also from Corsica originally.)

The death of Bonaparte is a controversy. While most historians believe he died of natural causes (stomach cancer), some suspect that he was slowly poisoned -- most likely by the British who feared his possible escape and re-emergence to power as he did after his first exile to Elba in the Mediterranean.

As was common in those days when a "great man" died, Dr. Antommarchi made a cast of Napoleon's face from which a "death mask" was made. This death mask was carried by the doctor, on one of his travels, to the city of New Orleans -- which was then decidedly pro-French -- and donated to the city. The mask eventually made its way to the Cabildo which was once a functioning government building -- the Louisiana Purchase was signed there-- and then a museum.

The death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte is still at the Cabildo today, and it reveals the strong ties between New Orleans and France.

(Note: In the photos we see the death of Napoleon on St. Helena, a portrait of Dr. Antommarchi, a photo of the death mask of Napoleon, and a photo of the Cabildo in New Orleans. All of the photos are in public domain from Wikimedia commons except the one of the Cabildo which I took pre-Katrina.)

--Adrian

Napoleon's Civil Code and New Orleans

Napoleon Bonaparte did more than leave behind a legacy of war and glory. He also created a code of laws which last to this day in many parts of the world. In 1804 Napoleon assembled a small body of jurists who devised the Code Civil. This was a revolution in the history of law. Now law was for the common man, not just for the elites. The code was the will of the legislature, and it set out in clear terms how society would be governed in matters relating to persons (such as marriage), property (including community property which gave greater rights to women) and to obligations (contracts or the aquisition of property).

The Code Civil was based on ancient Roman Law, and it was different from the British Common Law. Furthermore, it reflected the spirit of the more egalitarian French Revolution.

Long after his defeat at Waterloo and his demise at St. Helena, Napoleon's Civil Code endured. It became the basis for many laws in the state of Louisiana in the USA. (All the other states in the United States use law based on British Common Law, but Louisiana is based on Napoleon's Civil Code.)

The term worked its way into New Orleans history also through literature. There is a famous line from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams where Stanley Kowalski says, "Now we got here in the state of Louisiana what's known as the Napoleonic Code..." Stanley was so right; we are so different down here.

(In the photos above we see a painting of Napoleon at the battle of Jena with his Imperial Guard. There is a street in New Orleans named for this battle, Jena. We see a photo of a page from the French Civil Code. Finally, we see a photo of the title page from my copy of the Louisiana Civil Code -- which was given to me by my sister and my brother-in-law many years ago. All three photos relate to the influence of Napoleon on New Orleans. The photos of Jena and the French Code are from Wikipedia Commons and in public domain. I took the photo from my Louisiana Code.)

--Adrian

The Isle of St. Helena and New Orleans

Somewhere lost in the South Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa is St. Helena. It is a rocky, even mountainous, volcanic island about 47 square miles big (or small); and it is one of the most isolated places on Earth. In fact, the nearest large land mass, Africa, is about 1,200 miles away. As in olden days, it is accessible today only by ship. Because in the 18th century it had value as a supply depot for ships of the British Navy as they travelled between Europe and the East via the Cape of Africa, the British controlled the island with a small military force and sea power. Other than that, St. Helena had no real value and could have disappeared into history... except for the unfortunate presence of one extraordinary resident of the island. This resident was in fact the most famous person in the world in the early 19th century. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of France, the man who almost became the ruler of the world.

In 1815 after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon had a vain attempt to escape to America -- which had been an enemy of Britain in the recent War of 1812. That war between the United States and Great Britain had ended with the stunning victory for the Americans by General Andrew Jackson and his pirate allies led by Jean Lafitte at the Battle of New Orleans. But Britain ruled the waves and foiled Napoleon's escape attempts. Not wishing to repeat the mistake of exiling the Emperor of France to a nearby location, as when they had earlier exiled him to Elba in the Mediterranean Sea from which he did escape, the British decided to isolate Napoleon on the distant, bleak Isle of St. Helena. So, from 1815 until his death from cancer in 1821, Napoleon remained on that wind-swept island. (Note, there are some historians who now speculate that Napoleon was in fact poisoned secretly by the British to prevent him from escaping again. It would have been too vulgar and politically controversial to execute him publicly.)

Oddly enough, although it is thousands of miles away, St. Helena has a connection to New Orleans. Although some historians see this as more legend than fact, the assertion is that the wealthy pro-French mayor of New Orleans, Nicholas Girod, formed a plot with former French Army officers now in exile in New Orleans and pirates from Barataria led by Jean Lafitte -- who had fought the British at the Battle of New Orleans -- and his brother Dominque You to send a pirate ship to St. Helena, over power the British garrison there, free Napoleon, and take him back to New Orleans. Mayor Girod had in fact already prepared a house for Napoleon on Chartres Street in the Vieux Carre' (French Quarter).

A small island called Tristan da Cunha which was south of St. Helena had been captured by the British earlier to prevent it from being used as a base by the French or anyone else planning a rescue attempt of Napoleon. So, a rescue attempt was not seen as being far-fetched to the British Admiralty.

As the story goes, on the very day that the pirates were to set sail under the command of Dominique You from New Orleans, word arrived in the city that Napoleon had died. Thus the rescue plot was cancelled.

What would have happened had Napoleon actually arrived in New Orleans? It is something historians would love to speculate about. Certainly the British would have questioned the involvement of the American government, and this could have possibly led to another war. Would Napoleon become a man of peace suddenly and be content to live in the French Quarter in New Orleans or would he embark on some new military adventure? Would he join the American Army and lead US troops? Well, of course, no one knows. But it is interesting to think of such things.

The reality is that Napoleon Bonaparte died on lonely St. Helena, a prisoner of his lost glory. The Irish, who often saw Napoleon as a savior from their British enemy, created a sad song long ago, which now has many variants, about Napoleon and St. Helena. It lives on as a popular folk song to this day:

"Oh, Bony he has gone from his wars and all his fighting

He has gone to the place where he takes no delight in.

And there he may sit down and tell the scenes that he's seen of

When full long doth he mourn on the Isle of St. Helena ...

No more in St. Cloud will he appear in great splendor

Nor step forth from the crowd like the great Alexander.

He may look to the east while he thinks of Hana

With his heart full of woe, on the Isle of St. Helena...

... so, all you with wealth, pray beware of ambition.

For it's a degree of fate that may change your condition.

Be steadfast in time, for what to come you know not of

For fear you may be changed like he on the Isle of St. Helena."

(My favorite version of this song is by Mary Black, by the way.)

Napoleon never did make it to the French Quarter in New Orleans. But we have a street named after him. Several streets in Uptown New Orleans are named after his famous battles -- Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena. A street by City Park called De Saix is named for one of his generals. A Mardi Gras parade is named after Napoleon. And, of course, as the story goes the house in the French Quarter which Mayor Girod had set aside for the Emperor now bears the name of Napoleon and is a popular bar and restaurant listed with the National Historic Registry.

New Orleans knows how to treat a man who would be the ruler of the world.

For more about the pirates' plot to rescue Napoleon, see Lafitte, the Pirate by Lyle Saxon.

(Note: In one photo above we see Napoleon standing next to British officers in his exile on the Isle of St. Helena. In the second photo we see the three pirate brothers Pierre and Jean Lafitte and Dominique You, who was to lead the expedition to free Napoleon. These two pictures are from Wikimedia Commons and are in public domain.)

-- Adrian

Photo from Jimmy LaRocca: Remains from "Old" Salaparuta

As I reported two stories below, Salaparuta, Sicily suffered its own Katrina in 1968 in the form of a massive earthquake. It destroyed the entire town and made the whole population of 3,000 people homeless.

The people who returned after the disaster rebuilt the town in a different location. Today the new town is prospering, and it has a new cultural center called the "Nick" LaRocca New Orleans Jazz Cultural Arts Center. It is attached to the auditorium, the "Nick" LaRocca Concert Hall.

The "Old" Salaparuta is just ruins today. The photo here from Jimmy LaRocca is a small piece of the floor from a destroyed church in "Old" Salaparuta which he acquired on a trip to Sicily in 1999.

Like Katrina in New Orleans, the earthquake of Salaparuta makes us realize what we have lost, and that we should never take things for granted.

To learn more about the "New" Salaparuta and the new Jazz cultural center, see www.odjb.com

Thanks again to Mr. Jimmy LaRocca for the great photograph.

--Adrian

Photos from Jimmy LaRocca: ODJB and the First Jazz Recording Ever

These two great photographs come to this blog courtesy of Jazz musician/bandleader Mr. Jimmy LaRocca himself. After doing research on Salaparuta and its amazing connections to Jazz in New Orleans, I emailed Mr. LaRocca for information. He was kind enough to send to this blog three excellent pictures which I am posting here and above. The first photo is of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band with"Nick" LaRocca, Jimmy's father, on cornet when they were in New York in 1917.

The photo of the record is of the first Jazz song EVER recorded by anybody. It is "Livery Stable Blues" recorded in New York by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) with "Nick" LaRocca -- Victor #18255. It sold over 1,000,000 copies in 1917. As Mr. Jimmy wrote, "It was recorded February 26, 1917 and released March 7, 1917. It's the recording that changed forever how music would be interpreted."

"Nick" LaRocca was born in New Orleans, but his father was born in Salaparuta, Sicily. Mr. Jimmy LaRocca follows in the footsteps and leads the ODJB today. Read much more about the tremendous influence of the LaRocca's on New Orleans Jazz and connections to Salapuruta at http://www.odjb.com/

Mr. Jimmy also pointed out something else to me that we will see more of on this site later. The Sicilian immigrants not only influenced New Orleans music, but they also absolutely influenced New Orleans' great food. Another point he made is that many of the early Jazz musicians in New Orleans were actually Sicilian. What could be more New Orleans than great food and great music? Yes, we have a lot to thank Sicily for if we really love New Orleans.

Once again, our profound thanks go to Mr. Jimmy LaRocca for sending us these great photographs.

--Adrian

Salaparuta

The levees did not break in Salaparuta; the earth did. For this small town in western Sicily, January 26, 1968 was the same as August 29, 2005 for us in New Orleans, the day Hurricane Katrina came. During the night of January 26 a massive earthquake tore through the town and the nearby region. A village that had existed for 900 years was totally destroyed in a matter of 30 seconds. All of the ancient, historic buildings lay in ruins. The 3000 inhabitants of Salaparuta now had to wait on the slopes of a hill for the quake to pass. When the land finally became quiet again, the entire town was left homeless. The people eventually did rebuild their 900 year old town, but not in the same place. Many of the citizens left the town for good, but some returned. Again, in its own way, it was like Katrina.

(See http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0.9171.837724.00%20html )

People had been leaving Salaparuta for a long, long time, however, long before the 1968 catastrophe. In the 1800's people left because of poverty and civil instability. Some went elsewhere in Sicily or Italy or in the Mediterranean region. Others sailed across the Atlantic to America's eastern seaboard and New York City. But some came here to New Orleans.

From some research I did, I recognized some of the last names of families from Salaparuta who came to America since the late 1800's and specifically to New Orleans -- Palumbo, Bruno, Cangialosi, Capo, DiMaggio, Drago, Ippolito, Lupo, Mandina, Navarra, Oliveri, Prima, Russo, Trapani, and Giarraputto. (See www.graffagnino.com/familytree/salaparu.htm )

Among the multitudes of poor, desperate Sicilian immigrants was a man who, seemingly, had no connection whatsoever to New Orleans and its unique culture of exquisite foods, priceless architecture, and the only truly unique art form ever created in America, namely, Jazz. This impoverished son of Salaparuta was named Girolamo LaRocca who married Vita DeNina, also of Sicily. They immigrated to New Orleans, where many Sicilians faced strong discrimination initially, and had a son named Dominic, who was called "Nick" for short. And "Nick" LaRocca became one of the most famous and most significant Jazz cornet (trumpet) players and Jazz bandleaders in all of New Orleans history. He became the director of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band which sprang from New Orleans but influenced Jazz across the country in Chicago and New York.

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) is credited with the first ever recording of a Jazz song, "Livery Stable Blues," which was recorded in 1917 and which made the band internationally famous. The ODJB was also said to be the first Jazz band to tour Europe before a large audience, and this made Jazz extremely popular there to this very day.

Nick LaRocca died in the early 1960's but his son still continues the tradition of New Orleans Jazz with the ODJB. (See http://www.odjb.com/) The mayor of New Orleans sent a letter to Salaparuta acknowledging the historic ties between the two cities. Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana sent a certificate to the mayor of Salaparuta for honoring New Orleans Jazz music. (Again see www.odjb.com which has copies of the letter and the certificate online.)

In August 2008, three years after Katrina, a Jazz center -- Nick LaRocca Cultural Arts Center -- was established in Salaparuta in honor of Nick LaRocca and his family who helped connect that small town in Sicily, which was destroyed by an earthquake, to a large city in America, New Orleans, which was devastated by a hurricane.

But earthquakes, hurricanes, immigration, exile, poverty, prejudice and every other hardship known to woman or man could not stop the beat of the drum and sound of the cornet and a genuine love for music which exists like no place else on Planet Earth except for New Orleans ... and Salaparuta.

--Adrian

(Note: The ODJB photo above is in public domain from Wikimedia Commons. "Nick"is playing the cornet in the photo, third from the left. The certificate from Lt. Gov. Blanco appears with permission of Mr. Jimmy LaRocca and is from the attachments file at www.odjb.com)

Palermo: Gen. Patton and WW2

Here's one more thing to add about Sicily and Palermo: Not only did Sicilians come to America, but Americans once went to Sicily. In this case it was between 12 July and 17 August, 1943 in what was called Operation Husky. The British 8th Army under Bernard Montgomery and the US 7th Army under the famous Gen. George S. Patton invaded the island and drove out the Nazis.

Although the Itlalian Army was present and did some fighting, it was clear that the average Italian soldier, and certainly the vast majority of civilians, did not like the Germans and did like the Allies; especially they loved the Americans. As a result large numbers of Italian troops quickly surrended to Patton's Army, and Gen. Patton was warmly welcomed as a liberating hero in the streets of Palermo. I am not certain how many US soldiers from New Orleans were present in this operation, if any. That, of course, is a detailed research question. A good source of information on the invasion of Sicily would be the National World War ll Museum in New Orleans. (The museum began as the D-Day Museum and has grown over time. See http://www.ddaymuseum.org/)

After taking Palermo (which, by the way, Patton did on his own without orders), the general drove to the Straits of Messina trying to trap the Nazi Army on the island of Sicily. But the Germans escaped and went to mainland Italy where they would fight again until the war's end.

In the photos above we see a team of US soldiers with a mortar as they fire on German positions near Palermo. The next photo shows Gen. Montgomery and Gen. Patton shaking hands in the liberated city of Palermo. In reality, they did not like each other very much, as was shown in the famous movie with George C. Scott. Lastly, is a US Army map showing the movements of the US troops in the invasion of Sicily. Palermo is in the middle at the top. (Note: Both photos and the map are in public domain and at Wikimedia Commons.)

-- Adrian

More About Ustica and New Orleans

The relationship between Ustica and New Orleans is fascinating, and I was fortunate to be able to interview via email two people who live in the New Orleans area who are partly of Ustican descent. One is the manager of the outstanding website called http://www.ustica.org/ which has the most accurate and detailed information on Ustica and its relationship to New Orleans that I have found. He is Chris Caravella.

And the other is a New Orleanian, now living in Houma, Louisiana, who is a lawyer and an expert of Sicilian/ Ustican genealogy. He also happens to be my cousin, Kerry Byrne. His last name is Irish, but his mother's side of the family -- Debelo/DiBello -- is from Ustica.

I asked Chris about the percent of people in New Orleans who could be descended from Ustica. He said, "A typical 3rd or 4th generation Italian American can probably claim a few cities in Sicily as our grandparents freely intermarried in the US thus clouding the dictinction of being 'from Ustica.' The closest I've come to generating statistics is the 1880 census. From that census, I estimate that the Usticese were about 15% of the total Italian American population of New Orleans. The 1880's were just the start of the mass migration from Ustica so I would expect the percent [would increase] in the following decades. Today [there] are estimated that easily 30 to 50,000 Italian Americans in New Orleans area can claim some ties to Ustica."

Chris added that Usticese people are Sicilians and share the same culture and language.
"What set them apart, " he said, " were the circumstances of living on an island that is only a mile and a half across." The island became over populated and thus people needed to leave. The largest population of emigrants went to New Orleans, California, Algeria, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Naples. Some went to New York.

I asked Chris about the infamous lynchings of Sicilians in 1891 in New Orleans (discussed in my other article on Ustica below). He said that no one from Ustica was lynched in the incident, but that the restaurant called the Oyster Restaurant was somehow involved in the incident and was owend by a family named Verdichizzi which was from Ustica.

Chris also mentioned that the foods on Ustica are Sicilian and that Ustica is known for lentils and capers and wonderful desserts called Giggi (which is like Piniolata) and Cassateddi, a horseshoe-shaped pastry.

Here is Chris' link to Usticese pastries www.ustica.org/san_bartolomeo/catalog/baking.htm

He added that Palermo, Sicily is the closest large city, and that this means there have been many ties between the two. But most of the people on Ustica originated from the island of Lipari near Messina.

My cousin Kerry had some other interesting things to say about Ustica. The island of Ustica started with about 300 families, most from Lipari. This grew to a population of about 5,000. Then people transplanted to New Orleans where there are about 50,000 Usticese descendants today. The population of Ustica today is only about 1,500.

Kerry said that about 95% or more of the people in New Orleans claiming to be "Italian" are actually Sicilian or from the nearby islands like Ustica.

Of his own family --and mine through my uncle-- some of the Sicilian or Ustican names are Mascari, DiBello, Caezza, and Verdichizzi. Also, he told me that several mayors of Kenner, Louisiana (a suburb of New Orleans) were of Usticese descent. Most of Kerry's Sicilian relatives came to New Orleans in the 1860's and 70's.

The impact on the city of New Orleans of the Sicilian and Usticese culture has been tremendous affecting various fields from operating small businesses and groceries, to food services, restaurants, to even participation in law and politics and, of course, religion. (Note: The map above is from Wikimedia Commons of Ustica and the region.)

--Adrian

Ustica

The photograph is that of the island of Ustica taken from a ferryboat as it approaches the coast.

Ustica is an island about 50 miles northwest of the city of Palermo in Sicily. A ferryboat runs regularly between the island and the city. The island itself is very small, just a few square miles; and it would seem to have little or no significance to people thouands of miles away in New Orleans.

But, amazingly enough, it has a major connection to the Crescent City.

Although my own background is mainly Irish, I first learned of the existence of Ustica from my aunt whose family has roots there. Most of the people historically called "Italians" in New Orleans are actually from just one part of Italy -- Sicily. And many of the people we call "Sicilians" actually can trace their ancestory back to another single place -- Ustica.

One of the leading sources of information today about Ustica and New Orleans comes from the San Bartolomeo Society (St. Bartholomew Society). This society was created in New Orleans in 1879, although many people came from Ustica to America from the 1850's. Incredibly, most of the immigrants who left Ustica for political or economic reasons came to settle in one place in the world, New Orleans. The society was at first created to help immigrants re-settle, but today it is a way to help preserve a unique and amazing heritage and history. (See more about the San Bartholomeo Society at www.ustica.org/san_bartolomeo/index.htm )

As an example, one of the most famous musicians from New Orleans was the trumpet player Louis Prima. (I recall seeing him in person only once when he visited Jesuit High School in New Orleans when I was a student there and also a trumpet player in the school band.) His mother was actually born on Ustica, although she eventually came to New Orleans. Other members of Trumpeter Prima's family came from Palermo, Sicily; and it appears that there were many historical ties between those two locales -- Ustica and Palermo. (From my days studying military history, I recall the epic campaign of Gen. George Patton during World War ll when he drove the Nazis out of Sicily by taking Palermo and then racing to Messina. Although Italy was technically "the enemy" under the rule of the Fascists, the Sicilian people clearly sided with the Americans and welcomed Gen. Patton.)

Another amazing connection between New Orleans and Ustica is the world-famous, superb resturant Commander's Palace in the Garden District. Although today it is associated with Brennan's (a restaurant in the French Quarter), originally in the 1880's it belonged to Emile Commander. Emile was born in New Orleans; but his father, Peter, was from Ustica. Peter Commander -- whose actual name was Pietro Camarda -- is thought to be actually one of the first people from Ustica to come to New Orleans. Peter's family had ties to Palermo; for business purposes, most likely, he changed his name from Camarda to Commander.

The Italians (really Sicilians) came to New Orleans and settled right in the French Quarter where rents were actually low in the 1880's. The old Vieux Carre' became known as "Little Italy." It was there that the Sicilian and Ustican influence was felt first in New Orleans. The famous muffuletta sandwich was invented there at an Italian grocery called The Central Grocery on Decatur Street. The Progresso Food company began in the French Quarter in New Orleans by a Sicilian named Giuseppe Uddo. Today its products are sold nationally.

Many Sicilians -- despite the many cultural benefits they brought to New Orleans-- suffered from terrible discrimination upon arrival here. This culminated in a notorious case of lynching in 1891where many Sicilians (perhaps some were from Ustica) were faslely accused of a crime, and though found innocent, were hanged to death by a bigoted mob, some from lamp posts. It took a long time for the Sicilians to gain acceptance in the city.

Ustica itself has a long and fascinating history. Its modern history began in 1763 when 100 families came from the island of Lipari north of Messina to Ustica. The Government was afraid of pirates operating in the region and felt the best way to stop this was to inhabit the island of Ustica -- which had been a pirate base -- with civilians and then defend those civilians with soldiers. There is a very interesting yet complicated history about all this concering the "Kingdom of Two Sicilies." And a real study of the island's history could go all the way back to the days of the Roman Empire.

But for our purposes in modern-day New Orleans, it is just fascinating to think that so much of our culture in music and food in the Crescent City (and even relatives of my Irish family) come from a tiny island north of Palermo that, for most of my life, I never knew existed.

The best source of information I have found on the internet about Ustica can be found at http://www.ustica.org/; much of the information in my little story here came from that excellent site which also has wonderful color photos of the island.

For more about the history of the Sicilians in the city, see Beautiful Crescent by Joan Garvey and mary Lou Widmer, Queen New Orleans by Harnett Kane, and A Short History of New Orleans by Mel Leavitt. (Note: The photo above of Ustica is from Wikipedia Commons and in public domain.)

-- Adrian

Margaret Haughery: The Bread Woman of New Orleans

Where Camp and Prytania Streets meet in New Orleans is a small park called"Margaret Place." On it is a statue of a middle aged woman seated in a chair with a small child nearby. The plaque on the statue has only one word: "Margaret."
When the statue was built, after the death of the woman in the chair, everyone in New Orleans knew who she was. I wonder how many people, sad to say, remember who she was today?

We often forget our history, and this is a tragedy. One of the reasons for this blog is to help us remember the important but often over-looked stories of Old New Orleans.

Margaret Haughery (pronounced as HAW -a- ree) is someone we should remember for all time. In her day she was called the "Bread Woman of New Orleans" because she gave freely to the poor and hungry from her own bakery. In addition to feeding the poor, she helped fund and build many orphanages throughout the city.

When she died in 1882 thousands, including prominent politicians, businessmen, and members of the clergy, attended her funeral. Her obituary was printed on the front page of the Picayune newspaper, the main paper in the city. The citizens of the city, who adored her, raised the funds to build a statue to her. (See the photo I took above pre-Katrina). It is believed by many historians to be the very first -- or certainly among the very first-- public statues ever built to honor a woman in the USA. But many people today do not even know the statue exists.

Margaret Gaffney Haughery was born into poverty possibly in County Cavan, Ireland in 1813. (Note: Most older sources say that Cavan was the place of Margaret's birth. Some sources claim, however, that she was  born elsewhere in Ireland, such as in Tully, Carrigallen, County Leitrim. See the "comments" at the end of this story for more information and discussion on this.)

When she was five years old, her parents left Ireland --which was a land plagued by destitution, political turmoil, and oppression under British rule -- and came to America. But within a few years, Margaret was left an orphan as both her parents died of disease. She was cared for by a neighbor and later married at 21. Her husband, Charles Haughery, was not a well man. To escape the cold climate up north, the couple moved to New Orleans in 1835. Here, however, they -- like other New Orleanians -- suffered from rampant epidemics of yellow fever and cholera. Soon her husband died as did her newborn child. So, within a period of a few years, she had lost every single person in her life that she loved.

Despite these tragedies, or because of them, Margaret was determined to do something in her life to help the condition of widows and orphans -- something she understood very well. However, now she was destitute, totally uneducated and illiterate, and totally alone in essentially a foreign country.

She found work in the laundry of the St. Charles Hotel, a very fine establishment in the French Quarter which no longer exists. Then she worked for a dairy, selling fresh milk in the Vieux Carre' (French Quarter). She became acquainted with the Sisters of Charity and worked with them, specifically with a nun named Sr. Regis Barrett. It was at this point that her business experience combined with her philanthropic goals. She and the nun would work together for many years helping neglected orphans and widows in the city. Although a Catholic, Margaret made certain that all her charity work was opened to people of all religions and backgrounds.

Eventually, Margaret worked for a bakery and became the owner of businesses. She helped open the St. Teresa's Orphan Asylum on Camp Street. One of her businesses called "Margaret's Steam and Mechanical Bakery" became very popular, and she advertised her products by her first name. (Hence as in the plaque on her statue years later, everybody knew her by her first name). The bakery sold "Margaret's Bread," and she became the "Bread Woman of New Orleans." Eventually, she owned a popular store in the city called the Klotz Cracker Factory.

Some of the orphanages she built were St. Elizabeth Orphan Asylum on Napoleon Ave., the Louise Home on Clio Street for girls, St. Vincent Infant Asylum (at Race and Magazine Streets) , and an asylum and church on Erato Street that became St. Teresa of Avila Church. She donated to the Protestant Episcopal Home as well and gave to Jewish charities in New Orleans. In her will she gave to the Seventh Street Protestant Orphan Asylum, the German Protestant Orphan Asylum, the German Orphan Catholic Asylum, the Widows and Orphans of Jews Asylum, and to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and many others.

In her will she left everything to charities, without distinction of religion, for widows, orphans, and the elderly.

I first learned of Margaret Haughery -- as I learned about all the Irish things in this city -- from my mother and my sister. The story of Margaret is truly remarkable, and it is no accident that I chose it as the first historical story on this blog. It is a GREAT story of Old New Orleans.

To read more about Margaret see the following;
The Immortal Margaret Haughery by Raymond J. Martinez, 1956.
Great Characters of New Orleans by Mel Leavitt, 1984.
Margaret: Friend of Orphans by Mary Lou Widmer, 1996
Gumbo Ya Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana, compiled by Lyle Saxon (This book is a great source book on all things New Orleans and Louisiana created by the WPA Writers' Project during the Great Depression.)
-- Adrian

My Thanks to Sarah and Rachel

Without the repeated encouragement of two ladies, I would never have begun this blog. Sarah Fischer of Literacy AmeriCorps New Orleans and Rachel Nicolosi of the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans inspired me to undertake this quest to record in blog form the fascinating world which is the history of Old New Orleans. (See more about Sarah and Rachel's work in literacy education at http://www.literacygno.org/ .)
In this blog you will meet kings, paupers, and pirates, scalawags and heroes, men of genius and total fools, honest men, holy men, Voodoo Queens, liars, and rogues. You will visit the Dueling Oaks, the Cabildo where the Louisiana Purchase was signed, the banks of the Bayou St. John where Marie Laveau held Voodoo ceremonies; and you will travel along the mighty Mississippi River. You will visit (virtually) graveyards and ghosts, famous back alleys in the Vieux Carre' (named for pirates and a priest), and the finest Creole restaurants in the grandest hotels where the best cuisine in the world was created. You will see many wars, slavery, freedom, and peace. You will meet a general named Jackson and a buccaneer named Lafitte. You will see death on a battlefield in Chalmette and on a more massive scale from "Yellow Jack" or Yellow Fever. And you will see the birth of the madness of Mardi Gras, the most extreme celebration event in American history. You will learn where Jazz came from. You will see a Southern city that is unlike the rest of the Anglo South. You will see a parade of immigrants (both free and enslaved) -- the French, the Spanish, the Africans, the Irish, the Germans, the Italians and Sicilians, and others, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish -- who made-up the most multicultural city in the South and perhaps in all of America. You will see all this and more because it all happened in Old New Orleans, in Old NOLA.
This entire blog, Old NOLA Journal, is dedicated to these two ladies who led me to tell this fascinating tale. Thank you, Sarah and Rachel ! I hope my blog will be worthy of your encouragement.
-- Adrian

Welcome to Old NOLA Journal !

Welcome to Old NOLA Journal. At this site you will be able to read much about life in Old New Orleans. NOLA is a term used by people here as an abbreviation for New Orleans, Louisiana; and it is pronounced like the woman's name, Nola. Because I will be emphasizing the history of the city, rather than current events, the journal is called "old."

Join us for an interesting trip into the past of America's most unique city. Join us at www.oldnolajournal.blogspot.com
--Adrian