The Canary Islanders, or Islenos, of Louisiana, like some of the state's other ethnic groups, have received little scholarly attention. Although they are a people who have remained largely unknown both inside and outside of Louisiana, the Islenos constitute a sizable portion of the state's present Spanish-surname population. Utilizing a wide range of source materials, from Spanish colonial documents to oral interviews, Gilbert C. Din's The Canary Islanders of Louisiana provides the first book-length study of the Islenos and a definitive history of their presence in the state.
The few thousand Canary Islanders brought to Louisiana by Spanish governors in the eighteenth century came from a group of islands that, although ostensibly Spanish, had evolved its own distinctive culture and folkways. Settled in frontier areas considered strategic for the defense of the Louisiana colony, the Islenos suffered deprivation, neglect, and eventually abandonment. Living for the most part in remote back-country and delta communities, the Islenos remained isolated from their French and American neighbors. In the twentieth century, pressures to assimilate with the mainstream of Louisiana society have threatened their culture with extinction, though a few Canarians still retain much of their Isleno heritage.
Gilbert C. Din's study of the Islenos covers the entire range of their association with Louisiana. He begins with a brief survey of Canarian history and folkways and concludes with a discussion of the likely ethnic future of the increasingly assimilated Isleno descendants. Din provides a detailed history of the Isleno migration and colonial settlement; post-colonial community development; economic, social, educational, and political patterns; and the course of Isleno assimilation with the general Louisiana population. Offering his own skillfully argued answers to long-standing debates about early Isleno settlements, Din also corrects a number of factual errors on the part of previous historians who did not have access to the same range of archival sources.
The Canary Islanders of Louisiana is a strong piece of historical scholarship. It makes an original and much-needed contribution to the history of a people, of Louisiana, and of the American South.
