Acadiana (also called Cajun Country) (French: L'Acadiane) is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Cajun population. Of the 64 parishes that comprise Louisiana, 22 parishes, or about one-third of the total, make up Acadiana. [1]
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The word Acadiana reputedly has two origins. Its first recorded appearance dates to the mid-1950s, when a Crowley, Louisiana, newspaper, the Crowley Daily Signal, coined the term in reference to Acadia Parish, Louisiana.[2]
However, KATC TV-3 in Lafayette independently coined "Acadiana" in the early 1960s, gave it a new, broader meaning, and popularized it throughout south Louisiana. Founded in 1962, KATC was owned by the Acadian Television Corporation. In early 1963, the station received an invoice erroneously addressed to the Acadiana Television Corp. Someone had typed an extra "a" at the end of the word "Acadian." The station started using it to describe the region covered by its broadcast signal.[3]
In 1971 the Louisiana state legislature officially recognized 22 Louisiana parishes for their unique Cajun and Acadian heritage (House Concurrent Resolution No. 496, June 6, 1971), and made Acadiana the official name of the region.[4]
Today, there are numerous business, governmental and nonprofit organizations that utilize Acadiana in their names, e.g., Mall of Acadiana, Acadiana CARES, and Acadiana High School.
In 1965, Thomas J. Arceneaux designed a flag for Acadiana[5]. Arceneaux was a professor at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and had derived the flag from the University seal. In 1974, the Louisiana legislature officially adopted Arceneaux's design as the official Acadiana flag, (House Concurrent Resolution 143, passed 5 July 1974).[6] The three silver fleurs-de-lys on the blue field represent the French heritage of Acadiana, the gold star on the white field symbolizes Our Lady of the Assumption, patron saint of Acadiana (the star also symbolizes the active participation of the Cajuns in the American Revolution, as soldiers under General Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish governor of Louisiana). The gold tower on the red field represents Spain, which governed Louisiana at the time the Acadians arrived.[7] (Purely by coincidence, this flag closely resembles the Philippine flag.)
Cajuns are the descendants of Acadian exiles from what are now Canada's Maritime Provinces, particularly Nova Scotia. They prevail among the region's visible cultures, but not everybody who lives in Acadiana is culturally Acadian or speaks Cajun French, nor is everybody who is culturally Acadian or "Cajun" descended from the Acadian refugees.
In addition to the Cajuns, Acadiana is home to several Native American tribes and enclaves of black Creoles.
German settlers also found their way to Acadiana as early as 1721, preceding even the Cajuns.[8] More recently, political refugees from southeast Asia (Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, among others) have brought their families, cultures, and languages to the area, and have contributed significantly to its fishing industry.
Despite the frequent association of Cajuns with swamplands, Acadiana actually consists mainly of low gentle hills in the north section and dry land prairies, with marshes and bayous in the south closer to the coast, increasing in frequency in and around the Atchafalaya and Mississippi basins. The area also is filled with fields of rice and sugarcane.
Acadiana, as defined by the Louisiana legislature, refers to the area that stretches from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and about 100 miles inland to Marksville. This includes the 22 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jeff Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion, and West Baton Rouge. The total land area is 37,746.756 km² (14,574.105 sq mi). At the 2000 census its total population was 1,352,646 residents.
Of those 22, eight parishes make up the Cajun Heartland, which is the central portion of Cajun Country initially settled by the majority of relocated Acadians. These parishes include Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary and Vermilion. The total land area of the Heartland is 14,554.693 km² (5,619.598 sq mi). Its census population was 601,654 residents.
Three of the parishes, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, are considered the River Parishes, along with occasionally included Ascension Parish. Present-day St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes also made up an area called the German Coast of Louisiana.
The largest metropolitan area in Acadiana is Lafayette (the hub of Acadiana, from which it derives its nickname, "Hub City"), followed by Houma-Thibodaux, and then Lake Charles. All three of these metropolitan areas are among the six largest metropolitan areas in Louisiana. Other large cities and towns within Acadiana are Abbeville, Breaux Bridge, Broussard, Carencro, Crowley, Donaldsonville, Eunice, Franklin, Gonzales, Jeanerette, Jennings, Kaplan, Marksville, New Roads, Morgan City, New Iberia, Opelousas, Patterson, Plaquemine, Port Allen, Rayne, Scott, St. Gabriel, St. Martinville, Sulphur, Ville Platte, and Youngsville.
The traditional industries of the area: tourism, agriculture, and petroleum initially drove the need for transportation development. In recent years, hurricane evacuation plans for the area's growing towns and cities have hastened the planning and construction of better roadways. The abundance of swamps and marshes previously made Acadiana difficult to access, a major reason for the near isolation of the early Cajun people, until oil was found in the area in the early 1900s.
The eastern Acadiana region was among those affected by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005 (although not severely like areas from Greater New Orleans eastward). The western Acadiana region and east Texas were most affected by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005.
On October 3, 2002, central Acadiana region suffered a direct hit from category one Hurricane Lili. The hurricane caused most of Lafayette to lose power. In addition, some high-rise buildings in downtown had windows broken and many homes had roof damage.
