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For more
information
Call Karen
Turni Bazile at 278-4280 or 874-0980
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Call Karen Turni Bazile, Executive Assistant to the
President
St.
Bernard Parish
278-4280 or 874-0980
April
5, 2008
Isleņo
Fiesta returns to its original site at
the Los
Isleņos Museum Complex in St. Bernard Village
Rains
don’t dampen fiesta; authentic food and entertainment planned
The Isleņo Fiesta returns to its original site at the
Los Isleņos Museum Complex in St. Bernard Village today and
tomorrow.
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 Isleņos Fiesta.
Hours are today 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 Isleņos, or Canary Islanders who settled
in St. Bernard Parish in the 1770s.
Despite heavy rains Friday night, the grounds are
fine, said William Hyland, an Isleņo who is the parish government’s
director of the Los Isleņos Museum Complex and parish historian.
There also is a large tent where visitors can eat and enjoy the
music on the beautiful moss covered grounds in St. Bernard Village.
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 Isleņo 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.
“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 Isleņos
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 Isleņo
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 Isleņo 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.
Isleņos cooks will prepare traditional Isleņos and
Spanish mainland food specialties, including Caldo soup, stuffed
mirliton, paella, shrimp Isleņo, 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
Isleņitas, 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
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