The Spanish presence in Louisiana predates the French, with Spanish explorers’ use of the Mississippi River and much of the present-day state claimed as part of New Spain. The settlement of Los Adaés (1719) was the origin of adaeseño, one form of Louisiana Spanish, and much of its colonial development took place under Spanish rule as part of the Captaincy-General of Cuba, Viceroyalty of New Spain (1763-1803). Throughout the nineteenth century it remained a focal point in what Kirsten Silva-Greusz has called the “Gulf of Mexico System.” Exiles from Spain, Spanish America, and the Caribbean converged here, and the first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States emerged here (El Misisipi, 1808-1810).

But despite some history of scholarship, Spanish Louisiana is very much under-studied. After waves of Americanization following the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, and in the early 20th century due to increased contact with the rest of the country after the discovery of petroleum deposits and World War II, efforts to recover a lost Latin past have concentrated on the recovery of French, and state entities including the tourist board have specifically worked to produce Louisiana as “French.” It is not uncommon to hear of a Louisianian’s surprise upon learning that their ancestors, long believed to be French, came to Louisiana from Spain.

Spanish cultural influence persists, however, often hidden in plain sight; even the architecture of New Orleans’ Vieux Carré or “French” Quarter is Spanish, having been rebuilt following the fires of 1788 and 1794. The Spanish language of Louisiana has been a focus of study in the 20th century by linguists like Samuel Armistead and Raymond MacCurdy, who documented dialectal features of the descendants of colonial settlers from the Canary Islands as well as their oral literature. More recently, these efforts have been continued by linguists like Felice Coles, Charles Holloway, Patricia Lestrade, and Fabiola Varela-García, who have also studied the language and décimas of the Canary Islanders’ descendants. Likewise, Comfort Pratt has documented the Spanish of descendants of the settlers of Los Adaes in western central Louisiana, and John Lipski has done work on both dialect groups. After Hurricane Katrina, with the influx of Latino immigrants, work was done on the “unplanned revival” of the Spanish language in the state (Orozco and Dorado, 2019). There has also been a renewed interest in earlier periods, with the appearance of novels like Lejos de Luisiana by Luz Gabás, winner of the 2022 Premio Planeta, and studies including Bernardo de Gálvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolutiona by Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia, 2018; Hispanic and Latino New Orleans: Immigration and Identity since the Eighteenth Century by Andrew Sluyter, 2015; Adventurism and Empire: The Struggle for Mastery in the Louisiana-Florida Borderlands, 1762-1803 by David Narrett, 2015.

This work, however, is still fragmentary and incomplete. It is our contention that Spanish Louisiana must be brought to light, not just for Louisiana Studies purposes, but because this is a neglected branch of Hispanism. Further, such study will add to and support other important documentary work like that of Kirsten Silva Greusz on 19th century Latino New Orleans, and it will contribute more broadly to current research in U.S. Latinx studies. Our four papers consider the production of identity via document, ceremony, intercultural negotiation, and transculturation. Identity and its construction, and especially its suppression, are crucial aspects affecting the visibility of Louisiana’s Spanish heritage. Documents produced and ceremonies celebrated by civil and ecclesiastical authorities could establish, define, and change official identities. In addition, since the colonial context in brought together inhabitants with diverse origins, which could result in the forging of new identities through transculturation. Likewise, identity could be suppressed. Both during and after the colonial period, the Spanish colonists and their descendants were a minority in Louisiana. Intermarriage with those of French ancestry, in combination with negative attitudes towards those of Spanish descent who resisted assimilation to French language and culture, also fostered suppression and loss of Spanish identity.

Song No, Ashford King, and Benjamin Groth focus on aspects of 18th century culture and writing, while Richard Winters uncovers traces of the colonial period and its lost or suppressed identities in vital records and obituaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Presider Leslie Bary, who will keep each presentation to 12-13 minutes, is the only woman on this panel, but there is diversity in terms of race and ethnicity. Most important in terms of inclusiveness, two of the four panelists are accomplished Ph.D. candidates working on Spanish Louisiana, re-envisioning the field.