What is the Difference Between Creole and Cajun?
In the United States, Southern Louisiana is one of the most culturally diverse areas of the country. This area is home to the Cajuns and the Creoles. Although people regularly hear the words Creole and Cajun, when referring to the people and food from this area, many are not aware of the differences between Creole and Cajun.
When referring to people the differences between Creole and Cajun are many. A Creole is part of a specific race of people in Southern Louisiana. The world Creole comes from the Spanish word, criollo, which roughly translates to native or local, and was used to describe things that were part of the New World during the times that the Spanish and French controlled Louisiana.
Eventually, the word Creole was used to describe the people that were born or brought to the New World. The slave trade brought over a large amount of “people of color” from West Africa and some of those people also had roots that extended back to Europe. When the Afro-European blended with free people of color in Louisiana that migrated from the Haiti and the West Indies, the result has been referred to as Creole.
In contrast to a Creole, a Cajun is a descendant of an Acadian. The Acadians were a group of French settlers in modern day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. When the English expelled the Acadians from Canada in 1755, they moved to the French colony of Louisiana. Once the Acadians arrived in Louisiana they mixed with the Spanish, French Creoles, Germans, Native-Americans and Anglo-Americans. A new ethnic group of Cajuns erupted from the mixture of people.
In addition to the differences between Creole and Cajun people, there are differences between their foods, which are many times lumped together in one group. The differences between Creole and Cajun food are parallel with the differences of the Creole and Cajun people. Creole food is Afro-European in nature with an urban flair from its French ancestry and Cajun food has a French influence that had to be reinvented by the Acadians when they started farming in Louisiana.
Although the difference between Creole and Cajun has been highlighted, it is important to note that as more time goes by the differences are blurred together and the words have very similar meaning. With the intermingling of people, cultures and food in Southern Louisiana, it is very difficult to say that any one particular person or thing is exclusively Cajun or exclusively Creole.
Written by Jessica Hobby
