The first Spanish speakers in Louisiana were the members of the De Soto expedition nearly five hundred years ago. Since that time, diverse Spanish-speaking communities have called Louisiana home.
Linguists generally recognize three distinct dialects of Spanish that arose in Louisiana during the colonial period and endured into the late twentieth century.
This project brings together audio and video materials from across these three traditions to engage researchers, Spanish-language learners, and general audiences with Louisiana’s diverse Spanish-language heritage.
About the Institute for Public Ethnomusicology
The mission of the Institute for Public Ethnomusicology is to sustain and facilitate engagement with diverse musical cultures through research, education, programming, and curation. We are a New Orleans-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to fostering engagement with the arts and addressing the crises of continuity faced by marginalized musical cultures through open-access resources and free public events in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.