Welcome To Beautiful crescent Tours Channel.
New Orleans is a city unlike any other.
Rich in History,Eligence and charm.
My Family first settled here in 1778 From the caniary Islands.
It was In the home of my Relative Don Jose Vicente Nuñez the Army treasurer that the first great fire Of 1788 started.
It was the Canary Islanders, also know as Islenos, who were among the first colonists throughout the Spanish Empire. They settled in Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Santo Domingo, the Philippine   more...Islands and, of course, America. The Canaries consist of 13 islands off the coast of Africa, seven of them inhabited. Our own St. Bernard Parish was settled by colonists from each of these islands.
After the French and Indian War, the Louisiana Territory ended up in the hands of Spain and Britain. When Spain discovered in the early 1770s that the British were planning to take over Spanish territory and attack Mexico, thus depriving Spain of Mexican silver and gold, they took action. The Spanish officials promoted immigration to Louisiana and settled thousands of people from Malaga and the Canaries to, among other things, defend against British invasion from the east.
It was in 1778 that the first Islenos arrived in Louisiana, and they kept coming for another five years. The officials settled them in four areas around New Orleans. The first settlement was Galveztown, just below Baton Rouge. This was followed by Valenzuela on Bayou Lafourche and Barataria on Bayou des Familles. A fourth settlement was called La Concepcion, later San Bernard, in St. Bernard Parish along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs. Each settlement was carefully selected to guard approaches to the city.
Once they were here, the Islenos began to make contributions. First, they fought against the British during the American Revolution, and then they fought again against the British in December 1814. Although they had very few weapons, the Islenos, organized into three of the companies of the Third Regiment of Louisiana Militia, fought with courage.
San Bernardo was the most successful of the Islenos settlements. The first group had arrived in 1779, settling in the area that extends from Poydras Plantation to Contreras Plantation. From this community, New Orleans received most of its onions, beans, potatoes, garlic and poultry during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
From Tenerife, another Canary Island, came colonists who brought with them the tradition of domesticating cattle for use in the cultivation of crops. Ranchers in the rest of the state and Texas thought this was a pretty good idea and brought their herds to the Islenos of St. Bernard for training.
The Islenos were Roman Catholic, and they established their first church parish -- St. Bernard Church -- in 1785, the first church parish below New Orleans. Two years later saw the construction of the first permanent church building and the founding of the St. Bernard Cemetery. The original Islenos settlers are buried in this cemetery, one of the oldest in Louisiana.
When sugar cane became a major cash crop in Louisiana, the Islenos began to sell their land grants to planters. By the 1840s, there were at least 10 sugar plantations on former Islenos settlements along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs.
Some of the Islenos stayed to work on the plantations, but others resettled and established fishing communities such as Delacroix, Yscloskey and Shell Beach. If you went to a New Orleans restaurant in the 1800s and 1900s to eat fish, shrimp and crabs, they were probably caught by these commercial fishermen. Two other industries that became important and profitable to the Islenos after the Civil War were the trapping of fur-bearing animals and hunting of ducks for the tables of New Orleans.
In time, the previously isolated Islenos began to move to the city. Away from their traditional cultural environment, the children often grew up without learning Spanish.  less