Students Taught Isleno Traditions
02-10-1994 Times Picayune

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Members of the Los Islenos Heritage and Cultural Society are
visiting schools throughout St. Bernard Parish to promote a
better understanding of the Isleno culture.

The group recently put on its show at Sebastien Roy Elementary
School in Reggio. The school is home to more students and
faculty of Isleno descent than any other school in St. Bernard
Parish.

The group is targeting middle school students this year, and
Sebastien Roy's sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes
assembled recently in the cafeteria to hear about the Isleno
culture. Historian William Hyland and Michael Hunnicut gave a
slide presentation about the history of the Islenos and their
unique culture from the 18th-century to the modern Isleno of
today.

It was a show of familiar faces and relatives to many of the
students.

Irvan Perez, who has sung his Spanish songs called "decimas"
across the nation - including a performance at Carnegie Hall -
serenaded the students with a decima written about life during
the depression. Perez gave a brief talk about the history of
decimas, and closed by singing a song in English about pride in
one's surname.

The Islenos were glad to hear that the students have been busy
in Boyd Tucker's class creating an art collage based on the
Isleno culture for Museum Days, a spring educational event. It
is this kind of cooperation between the society and the schools
that the Islenos are seeking.

St. Bernard Catholic Cemetery was recently the scene of a solemn
ceremony. The Knights of Columbus dedicated a Tomb of the Unborn
Child memorial as a show of protest against abortion. The
ceremony was attended by more than 20 people.

A color guard of the St. Bernard Assembly of Fourth Degree
Knights of Columbus stood behind the marker while remarks and
blessings were given by the Rev. Donald Byrnes.