A Lesson in Cultural Geography: How the Spanish influenced Cajun cuisine.

When one imagines the state of Louisiana, in a cultural perspective, many people take note of the Cajun and Creole influences. This is no exception when it comes to the food. However, some people do not think of other influences in Louisiana's cuisine.

One particular dish of note is jambalaya. Rice, andouille, peppers, shrimp, onions, celery, tomatoes, chicken, and other ingredients make up this dish. It has alot of notoriety as a Cajun dish. However, jambalaya actually originated from Spaniards who settled in Louisiana. The cultural geographical part about this will be explained.

As mentioned before, Louisiana gets alot of notoriety for its French heritage. You can see it in the city's symbol, the fleur-de-lis. However, not as much attention is given to Louisiana's Spanish heritage. In fact, the first Europeans to land in what is now the state of Louisiana were Spaniards. An expedition lead by Panfilo de Narvaez went all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi river.  France did rule Louisiana for hundreds of years. However, between 1763 and 1800, Spain ruled Louisiana. Under Spanish rule, Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Canary Islands, also know as Islenos, were brought to Louisiana. St. Bernard, Ascension, and Assumption parishes. Later on, some settled around Plaquemines Parish.

When Spain ruled Louisiana.

Around 1800, Louisiana would be turned back over to France, and in the hands of Napoleon. However, Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the USA, also known as the Louisiana Purchase.

What does any of the this have to do with the food? Well, the Spanish brought along some of their own food to Louisiana. Look at jambalaya. Jambalaya is actually a derivative of the Spanish rice dish paella. Paella required the ingredient of saffron, Saffron, a spice derived from the Crocus sativa flower, was not available in Louisiana. Tomatoes were used in place of saffron as a result.

Cajuns did play a part in rice being a staple food in Louisiana. French-speaking Acadians were expelled by the British from the Maritime Provinces of eastern Canada during the 18th century. As many of them made their way south, some stopped in the Carolinas. Many who continued south into Louisiana brought rice with them from the Carolinas. However, the Spanish were cooking with rice long before. Many Spanish people mingled with the French, and in a way, contributed to Louisiana's cuisine. Jambalaya can be thought of as a Cajun dish, but with Spanish roots. It shows how cultural diffusion has worked to create something similar, but unique.



http://ccet.louisiana.edu/tourism/parishes/Greater_New_Orleans/plaquemines.html
http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/geography/courses/310/text/11chapter(spanish).htm
http://www.usarice.com/doclib/188/219/3677.PDF
http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/espana_la.html
http://www.tinycooker.com/jambalaya/

Breakfast City

Judging by the title of this entry, one might be inclined to believe that Battle Creek, Michigan is the subject of interest. And in many ways, one would be justified in feeling that way. However, this is not the subject of interest. The Twin Cities metropolitan area is the subject of interest.
If one has taken a course in economic geography, then this should be an easy topic. However, if not, well, here is a crash course in economic geography, at least on this topic.
In the American Midwest, there are three major agricultural belts.
1) Corn Belt
2) Wheat Belts
3) Dairy Belt.

The Corn Belt covers mainly covers and area from southern Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri in the west, to Ohio in east. This region has the soil types needed for growing corn, and an adequate rainfall.
The Wheat Belt stretches from northern Texas to North Dakota, and even touching parts of western Minnesota and eastern Montana. The Dairy Belt covers the area of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These are areas where wheat or corn cannot be grown easily for commercial use, but grass is plentiful.

The common denominator for this is Minnesota. Minnesota is the state where the corn, wheat, and dairy belts all meet. It is no coincidence that Minneapolis gained a nickname of “Flour Milling Capital of the World”. This would become a major center for grain milling. There was corn from southern Minnesota, and wheat from nearby western areas. It would be no coincidence that General Mills is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It is no coincidence that Land-O-Lakes butter is headquartered in suburb Minneapolis, in Arden Hills. With three major agricultural belts meeting in Minnesota, Minneapolis should have the title of “Breakfast City”.  Think of all of the breakfast foods eaten. Anything made by Pillsbury, a General Mills subsidiary. Think of Toaster Strudels. Think of Wheaties, Chex, and Cheerios. All of these products are made in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

Maybe next time when you sit down to have a bowl of Cheerios or Wheaties in the morning, and you look at the address and see “Minneapolis, MN” on the box, you might want to consider that General Mills has a reason for making that cereal in Minneapolis. Or the next time you put some Land-O-Lakes butter on your pancakes (which could be made by General Mills depending on what you use to make them), you might want to consider that Arden Hills, MN is a fitting place to have a butter company. Minnesota is located within the dairy belt after all. It gives a different meaning to breakfast.

http://schillerinstitute.org/strategic/2011/us_food_crisis.html

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/pdf/CR-PL11-RGBChor.pdf

http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/atlas02/

http://www.millcitymuseum.org/flour-milling-history

The Original Gateway To Latin America.

Take this image into your head. There are bananas being brought in from Honduras, along with other various tropical fruits.  You can find people who are coming from places like Cuba, Honduras, and Haiti. French Creole and Spanish are languages that can be heard. The climate is quite warm and humid, much of the time with ample rainfall. Well, given this vivid description, you could say this is Miami, Florida, USA. And you would be right in saying this. This is indeed Miami, today. It is important to consider that this is not the city of subject. The city being spoken of is really New Orleans from years past.

Miami is the current gateway to Latin America today. However, New Orleans is the original gateway to Latin America. In fact, even before Miami was even thought of, New Orleans was a major point of transit to and from Latin America.

Geographically, this actually made perfect sense. New Orleans was founded at the southern end of the Mississippi river, just as the Mississippi river is beginning to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. While New Orleans is not technically on the Gulf of Mexico, its relative proximity to the Gulf of Mexico has provided an important role. New Orleans was founded by the French, but it was also ruled by the Spanish. This is a lesson in historical geography.  New Orleans under Spanish rule began to prosper. It was a major seat of power for the Spanish in North America, as was the city of Havana, in Cuba. Spanish galleons coming from Cuba would often go to New Orleans, bringing in people, and commerce.

One influence of the Spanish is that Louisiana would be the first place in the modern-day USA to have Asian settlements. The Philippines used to be a colony of Spain. While under Spanish rule, galleons would come from The Philippines, bringing with them Filipino servants. Sometimes they would jump overboard and settle in the swamps of what is now Plaquemines Parish. Because of this, the village of St. Malo was founded by Filipinos.

Even after Spanish rule ended, New Orleans would continue to have influences from the Caribbean and Latin America. After the Haitian Revolution, Napoleon gave up his colonial hold on North America, selling French-held lands to the USA in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase. New Orleans was now under American control. At the same time, people from Haiti went to New Orleans, the nearest major port to Haiti. At the time, Miami didn’t even exist, so New Orleans was a major point of entry for many immigrants. New Orleans would also be the first major city to have a sizeable Honduran population. The American Fruit Company had land holdings in Honduras, mainly banana plantations. Honduran immigrants were brought to New Orleans by the American Fruit Company during the early 20th century.  To this day, the Greater New Orleans area has one of the largest Honduran communities in the USA. During Castro’s revolution in Cuba, many Cubans went to Miami. However, a sizeable number of Cubans went to New Orleans.

From the outside, New Orleans doesn’t seem like it would have ever been a gateway to Latin America. It doesn’t have the aesthetics that Miami has. No Art Deco buildings, mostly English being spoken in the streets, you hear jazz music and dirty South hip-hop, most of the buildings look like they date from the 18th and 19th century.  However, if you scratch the surface, and look at New Orleans from the perspective of historical, cultural, and physical geography, you will find that New Orleans was the original gateway to and from Latin America.

http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/multicultural/multiculturalhistory/latino.html
http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/Hondurans1.html
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04152004-123822/unrestricted/Euraque_thesis.pdf
http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2012/01/ties_with_cuba_the_times-picay.html
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-28-Haiti-New-Orleans-connection_N.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/new-orleans-haiti_b_1841502.html
http://blog.prcno.org/2010/01/13/haitian-roots-in-new-orleans/
http://www.filamako.com/2010/04/saint-malo-oldest-filipino-settlement-in-usa/

Seattle. The Perfect Port

It should be obvious to all that Seattle is a major port on the Pacific Rim. It has all of the makings for a good port. It has a natural harbor, thanks to be located within the Puget Sound. It is ringed with mountains, shielding it from the brutal Arctic winds. This keeps the water from getting iced over in the winter. A productive hinterland helps very much. In the eastern portion of the state of Washington is a cornucopia of goods, with crops like apples, cherries, mint, lentils, pears, grapes, and wheat. The Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area has its own products to boast, such as airplanes, paper, and light technology. A good hinterland, warm water, and a natural harbor, all of these things working in concert to make a perfect harbor. All of this is part of what makes Seattle what it is.

However, there Is still a wonder of why Seattle didn’t grow to have as large a population as New York City? Both cities had productive hinterlands, good harbors, and Seattle had a higher likelihood of being a useful port in the winter. Seattle has historically been a major center for lumber. William Boeing didn't come to Seattle by accident. He chose this location because of the ample supply of wood. The very wood needed to make airplanes, for which Seattle would get its nickname "Jet City", based on its Boeing airplanes. Tacoma didn't have paper mills for nothing. A by product of the lumber industry is paper. Seattle experienced a large amount of growth when the Klondike gold rush. Seattle was a major supply center for miners headed for Yukon and Alaska.

 One thing to consider is that Seattle’s location created an interesting situation. San Francisco, not Seattle, was a major processing center for immigrants coming from East Asia. There were more immigrants passing through San Francisco than through anywhere else on the West Coast. While there were many Asian immigrants going to Seattle, there weren’t as many people passing through Seattle as through San Francisco.  And this would nearly come to a stop as immigration from Asia was being restricted in the 1920s. New York had immigrants coming through Ellis Island, and for this reason, New York was the major stop for immigrants coming to the USA.

 Seattle’s location on the railroads could have played a factor too. New York City was located close to other major cities. Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore were other ports located up and down the Atlantic seaboard, in relatively close proximity to one another. New York beat out all of these ports because of a productive hinterland. Goods sent through the port of New York could go up the Erie Canal and to the city of Buffalo. With Seattle, there isn’t an Erie Canal, but there is a way to transport goods from the east to Seattle, via railroad. Seattle has the hinterland and the warm water. However, its remote location has created a disadvantage.  Between Seattle and Minneapolis, there were basically no large cities of any scale. The next big city of any scale, in any direction was either Portland or Vancouver   (in Canada). The eastern USA was heavily populated, and had been heavily populated since the founding of the USA. This brings up two very important reasons why Seattle’s population hasn’t grown as large as New York City did. Seattle and New York both have similar reasons of why they became major ports. Seattle has a climatic advantage over New York. However, New York has age and a relatively density of population on its side.

However, why did Los Angeles grow to be larger than Seattle or San Francisco? Los Angeles never really had a productive hinterland until the 20th century? Los Angeles grew very fast throughout the 20th century. People were drawn to Los Angeles because of the sunny climate and the cinema industry. Aircraft companies started building facilities in the Greater Los Angeles area. Fruits grown in the area were being shipped. Oil was also discovered in the area.

In the end, what has made Seattle an important port is its commerce with East Asia. As long as certain goods are in demand in Asia, there will be goods coming out of the Puget Sound. There is not a guarantee that the oil in California will last forever. Because of this, if oil does go far below peak levels, then this could present a blow to the port of Los Angeles. This is not a blow that Seattle has to worry about.

Perhaps Seattle’s geographic legacy as a port is not in how large Seattle became, but in the fact that it was a great place to have a major port from the start. Its geographic legacy is having the geographic ingredients necessary to making a perfect port. These ingredients include warm water, a natural harbor, and a productive hinterland behind it. Perhaps this is why Seattle is a major economic engine in the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps its legacy is that of being a jewel in the rough.

A Geography of Faith

It has been a while since the last post. However, the PanGeographic blogger is back.



When many people think of the Christian faith, there are certain images that come to the mind. One idea is that Christianity is often considered a religion founded by Europeans. If one looks at historical geography, it should be obvious that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, in modern-day Israel, a place in Southwestern Asia. The peoples here are people of Middle Eastern descent, of the Arab peoples.

However, speaking from a geographical perspective, there is something else to consider. The diffusion of the Christian faith needs to be considered. The teachings of Christ started in Israel, and spread into Lebanon, into other parts of the Mediterranean to the north, into modern day Greece and Italy. Another pattern of diffusion was sent into the Caucasus Mountains.  Another pattern of diffusion went to the South, into the African continent, into modern-day Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the first place in Africa where Christianity was practiced.

Early Christians even went as far east as the western coast of India and into China. Early Christians were proselytizing as far east as China in the early days.

Why bring this up? This is why. When many people think of how Christianity got to Africa or anywhere else outside of Europe, most people think of the missionaries who went to Africa from Europe to bring Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization to the continent. When many people do not know is that the Christian faith had arrived in Africa thousands of years before. That part of history is never considered.

What does any of this have to do with geography? Well, this leaves alot to consider. In a sense of historical geography, hierarchical diffusion meant that Ethiopia would be the first place in Africa where the Christian faith was being proselytized. Its relatively close location to Israel compared to the rest of Africa means this would make sense. However, the arrival of the Christian faith in Ethiopia might raise another question. Could the Christian faith have been spread even further into the African continent before the arrival of colonialism? Could it have reached every end of the earth before colonialism started?

http://www.palgrave.com/history/shillington/resources/maps.html
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/eras/era4.php
http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1553&C=1363
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum213/Maps/Maps2HistoryAncient.htm