The Gumbo that is New Orleans

During our three hour tour, I again realized how many cultures and people contributed to what New Orleans is today. Milton described New Orleans as a gumbo, and I am fairly certain I heard another tour guide say the same thing. I believe what they mean by this is, like an gumbo, New Orleans is a mixture of different things and the end product just somehow works, and it works perfectly. I believe that it is absolutely true. We were even told that in the city of New Orleans, a German bakery makes a lot of the French bread. At first, I thought it was mainly Spanish, French, and African people, but there are many different Europeans in New Orleans that came over when the city was first being populated. This includes German, Italian, and Irish, which was surprising to me because when you think of New Orleans you mainly think of the French.
Something that I was unaware of before arriving in New Orleans is the crazy amount of firsts. New Orleans had the first opera, the first cocktail, first pharmacist, first movie theater, and many others. It seemed as if during every tour, especially this three hour tour, there was a multitude of firsts mentioned.
Another interesting fact I learned while in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, was Protestants had their own section of mausoleums towards the back corner of the cemetery. This is because the cemetery is a Catholic cemetery, and they felt the need to separate the Protestants from the Catholics, even in death. It was amazing to me that in a city that had the most free people of color, and women had more rights than anywhere else during that time period, they still separated people according to their religion. Even when Protestants and Catholics both believe in the same God, and mostly the same principles because they are both Christian faiths.

It felt like we were only in Congo Square for a short time, but it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the tour. While standing in the square, I could almost see in my mind's eye the gathering of many enslaved Africans singing, drumming, and dancing. It was amazing to me that they could raise money to escape slavery by selling and trading goods. This was also the birthplace of music as we know it today, at least that is what was said to us by Milton. Creole folk music was developed in Congo Square, and the rhythm of this music is what inspired Jazz music. Jazz inspires the blues, the blues inspired rock and roll and hip hop, and so on and so forth. So, in a way, Congo Square is one of the places, if not the place, where music as we know it in America today started. This is extremely interesting to me because I have always been a lover of music, and to see the place that inspired Jazz, and subsequently other genres of music, is incredible.

Picture displayed in Congo Square