PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Call Karen Turni Bazile, Executive Assistant to the President
St. Bernard Parish
278-4280 or 874-0980
March 30, 2008
Isleño Fiesta to return to its original site at
the Los Isleños Museum Complex in St. Bernard Village
The Isleño Fiesta will to return to its original site at the Los Isleños Museum Complex in St. Bernard Village on Saturday and Sunday, April 5 and 6.
Traditional Spanish and local fare will be served and Spanish entertainment and history will be on display at the complex located at 1357 Bayou Road for the 32st annual Los Isleños Fiesta. Hours are Saturday from noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon until 8 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free to the weekend that highlights the heritage of St. Bernard’s Isleños, or Canary Islanders who settled in St. Bernard Parish in the 1770s.
Visitors will be able to walk the rehabilitated half-mile nature trail that boasts abundant local wildflowers, blackberries, palmetto plants and cypress trees in beautiful pastoral setting. They also will be able to tour museum buildings in the historical Isleño village.
St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro Jr. – who made restoring the site a priority for his first 100 days in office – directed all parish government departments to work together to prepare the site for the festival’s return, including interim repairs to some buildings in the historical village so residents could have a feel of what was there pre-Katrina.
“It’s important not only for maintaining the momentum of our recovery, but the promotion of St. Bernard’s family oriented and cultural heritage is a key part to our overall marketing and recruiting residents’ campaign,” Taffaro said.
William Hyland, an Isleño who is the parish government’s director of the Los Isleños Museum Complex and parish historian, agreed.
“Returning to the museum complex signifies the rebirth of this cultural and historic resource so significant to the quality of life of St. Bernard Parish,” said Hyland, who also is one of three co-chairman of the festival sponsored by the Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society. The group has held the festival since 1976.
Aside from the first three festivals, every event was held at this site in St. Bernard Village until Hurricane Katrina swamped the area and downed an 80-foot water oak on the Isleño Museum. The festival has never missed a year and was held in 2006 and 2007 on the parish complex grounds. It was the first festival to be held in St. Bernard after Katrina.
St. Bernard Parish Councilman Fred Everhardt Jr. recently donated his time to demolish the Isleño Museum so the unsound structure could be taken down before the festival and to make way for the construction of a historically correct replica of the 1840-single story gable roofed house. Repairs are planned for the other structures as well.
Isleños cooks will prepare traditional Isleños and Spanish mainland food specialties, including Caldo soup, stuffed mirliton, paella, shrimp Isleño, Canary Islands bananas which are bananas wrapped in bacon, alligator sausage, empanadillas or meat pies, croquette which is ground chicken and ham, and shrimp and grits.
A special feature of the fiesta will be the music of Princesa Dacil, a folkloric group from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands that will perform both days.
Parking will be provided nearby at the site of the former P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School that is now the Camp Home volunteer housing camp at 1201 Bayou Road. St. Bernard Parish shuttle busses will carry visitors to and from the festival site.
Entertainment
April 5th
Noon Opening Ceremony
Isleñitas, Junior and Senior Heritage Programs.
1-2 p.m. Princesa Dacil folkloric musicians from Gran Canaria
2-5 p.m. Benny Grunch and the Bunch
5-9 p.m. Fredy Omar con su Banda
April 6th
Noon-3 p.m. Ovi-G and the Froggies “Los Ranas”
3-4 p.m. Princesa Dacil folkloric musicians from Gran Canaria
4-8 p.m. The Top Cats
