French Quarter: Chapter Twelve

The French Quarter goes as far as the 1718, which makes it the oldest part of New Orleans. As you’ve probably figured out by now, the territory  used to belong to France, then ceded to Spain, than taken back and run by France until 1803, when the USA bought it for 15 million dollars (along with other regions which are now part of fifteen American States: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Colorado, Minessota, New Mexico, Texas etc.).

 

This place is a unique racial concoction of French Créoles, Spanish Creoles, African-Americans, Irish, Germans, Pacific-Islanders, Asians, Native-Americans and Caucasian, an unexpected journey through time, to the 19th and 20th Centuries…and beyond.

It is also a fusion of jazz, aligator parts, porch chairs, beignets, Hurricanes, Hand Grenades, Mufulettas, “poboys”, gas fueled street lamps (can you imagine what a beautiful and rare sight that is?), colours, “one way” signs, strange voodoo rituals and improvised gigs happening on street corners, segway tours, swamp tours, walking tours, galleries, balconies, carriages, American Horror Story vibes, Louis Armstrong themed parties, antiquities,  self-proclaimed street poets that would only write you a poem if the subject seems worthy of their self-proclaimed talent, palm readers, tattooed freaks, the word “creole” finding its way through most conversations, cocktail drinkers, exhibitions, exhibitionists, CVS Pharmacies, paintors, all mixed with a distant Calliope sound that stops the moment you are just about to figure out where it comes from.

 

 

I don’t know where to even begin to present my humble, subjective observations on such an important landmark in American culture and history, but some things have had a greater impact on myself than others.

I guess one of the things I found most fascinating here were the gas fueled street lamps. I’ve been suffering from a cronic obsession for street lamps, for their romantic side more than their practicality and The French Quarter is the perfect place to imagine what hidden, forbidden, interracial love must have felt like more than two hundred years ago, in the semi-obscurity of the gas-fueled street lamps.

 

Other uniquely interesting details were the balconies, galleries and colourful houses, some of the most beautiful trademarks of the New Orleans architecture. Galleries were quite theatrical, made of cast iron filigree frames and supported to the ground by columns or posts, overhanging the width of the sidewalk and making it an experience in itself to get caught in the rain and find shelter underneath. As a matter of fact, the whole neighbourhood is a wonder to those who wish to lose themselves in the magic of the past from once in a while and reconstruct it by using their imagination.

The French Quarter was by far the noisiest place we’ve ever visited. In fact, there was always the possibility of a party starting right there at a crossroads, at 12:30 pm, or whenever a quartet would be spotted preparing their instruments for their next gig. People would gather around sipping from Hand Grenades, some would come dressed up as butterflies, others as Count Dracula, others as futuristic queens, throw 1$ notes in the tip bucket and dance…and dance until their dizziness would turn into a hangover. Or worse.

 

 

 

We never felt safe there. Unfortunately New Orleans is renown not only for the overwhelming out-of-this-century feeling you get to experience there, but also for being the third most dangerous town in America – and this district is no different. Some locals have tried to lure us in strange riddle games for money, others have tried to guess where we’ve got your shoes from – for money, others have simply addressed us, asking for money. Not to mention the pickpocketers, jail birds, convicted criminals, lost souls.

We walked on Ursulines Street and I then couldn’t get that name out of my head. It turns out the term “Ursulines” refers to a number of religious institutes belonging to the Catholic Church whose Patron Saint is San Ursula. One of the first institutions is known to have been founded in 1534 at Brescia, Italy and much later, in 1727 twelve french Ursulines arrived in New Orleans as the first Roman Catholic Nuns in America. They instituted the Ursuline Academy, known as both  the oldest operating Caholic School and oldest girls school in the US.  

And then I realized I had come here for the jazz and got exposed to so much more than that…

With that in mind, we decided to visit the Voodoo Museum, located at 724 Dumaine Street, French Quarter where we learned about grig-gris, Li Grand Zombi, voodoo queen Marie Laveau, Hoodoo, Saint Expedite and many other important details that helped us deconstruct some of the Voodoo myths we believed to be true.

Different religious beliefs rooted in ancestor worship have been practiced and brought to the Louisiana land by West-African slaves (Fon people, Bambara, Mandinga, Wolof, Ebe, Fulbe, Yoruba, Chamba, Ibo, Ado, Hausa, Sango), during the colonial period which lasted from 1719 to 1731 enriching the Voodoo cult.

But one of the most interesting side of New Orleans was, by far, “the Art of Accumulation” in places of pilgrimage, a multitude of altars and shrines (defined as “intersections of matter and human energy”) consisting of ex-voto offerings dedicated to different spiritual entities, divinities and saints as expressions of devotion, faith and gratitude.

  

 

Curious passers-by often stop in front of such altars but are usually not allowed to take photos, touch the offerings or take them away. If any of the rules is broken, maleficent spirits are thought to be haunting the guilty throughout their existence and horrible curses are to be invoked upon them. Offerings can be…anything you can think of, from cigarettes, wedding rings, mini rum bottles, beads, money – from rare 25c coins to 20$ notes, drivers licences, photos, bracelets, pandants, candy, miniatures, shiny stones, dolls, earrings, amulets, letters, depending on the spirit’s personality: some spirits are playful, childkile and enjoy candy, chocolate, funny hats and liquor bottles, others are more profound, enjoying old records, books and poetry and perhaps the “female” spirits would rather be offered shiny, precious, pretty adornments and….shoes.

Green Eyed Kisses,