Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society

EL MUSEO DE LOS ISLEÑOS
LOS ISLEÑOS MUSEUM

Museo de los Isleños was established in 1980. It is housed in a traditional Louisiana brick between posts Creole cottage built about 1840 by Vicente Núñez de Villavicencio. The structure was donated by Marie Louise Molero O'Toole and Mabel Isabel Molero Quatroy in memory of their parents, Manuel Molero and Camille Sylvera. 

Manuel Molero was born in eastern St. Bernard Parish at the end of the 19th century to a family of Spanish-speaking Isleños.  His parents died early in his youth and he was reared by his maternal family. As he grew to maturity he pursued a subsistence livelihood, trapping, fishing and hunting. He learned important lessons of familial and community unity which sustained him throughout his life.

Ultimately, he founded Delacroix Corporation, a land holding company. Fur trapping was gradually supplanted by the development of oil and gas resources on acreage of swamp and marsh belonging to Delacroix Corporation.  

Mr. and Mrs. Molero imbued their children with their love of Spanish heritage and a strong sense of community and familial unity. This dedication to family and community, as exemplified by Manuel and Camille Molero, induced the Molero family to the museum property for its present use. 

Los Isleños Museum consists of six rooms, including a bathroom and kitchen. Exhibits in two rooms facing Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs, depict through the use of historic imagery and three-dimensional items, the history of the Canary Islands, the settlement of Isleño colonists in Louisiana and the cultural evolution of Isleño descendants in this region as they adapted to a new environment. A third room adjoining the first mentioned rooms serves as a meeting room for Los Isleños Society. The office, adjoining the meeting room, contains a research library of nearly 1,000 volumes, many in the Spanish language. These volumes relate to the history, folk culture and literature of the Canary Islands, Spain and the Isleños of Louisiana.  

Between 1984 and 1986, Parish Historian Emeritus Frank Fernandez conducted more than 200 oral history interviews in the idiom of Spanish spoken by the Isleño Community of St. Bernard.  Several of the videos are housed in the Los Isleños Museum library. The full oral history collection is archived in Nunez Community College Library. Other videotapes about the St. Bernard Isleños, the folk art, folk crafts and folkways of the Canaries, are housed in the Isleño Museum. 

In 1996, the Society commissioned Robert J. Cangelosi, A.I.A., of Koch, Wilson Architects, to compose a master plan for the development of a museum complex, utilizing existing historic structures and acreage, and projecting the acquisition of endangered historic structures and additional adjoining property. The Society has moved the Coconut Island Barroom, a 1920 cypress board and batten structure, and the Estopinal House and kitchen, dated circa 1800. 

The Coconut Island Barroom is one of perhaps less than six board and batten commercial structures remaining in St. Bernard Parish. Barrooms like the Coconut Island were centers of commerce and community gathering places. 

The Estopinal House and kitchen building were moved to the museum complex in October 1999. The main house is constructed of hand-hewn cypress posts and bousillage, a mud and moss mixture originally used by Native Americans. The bousillage was placed between posts and used as insulation. The house is identical in floor plan to the original homes built by the Spanish Government for Isleño colonists in St. Bernard in the 1780's. The structure will be restored as a house museum, depicting life in the earliest days of Isleño colonization in Louisiana. 

A new multi-purpose building funded through a grant from the office of Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster should be completed by June 2000. The structure was designed by Isleño descendant Brian Borne, A.I.A., an architect employed by the architectural firm of Bradley, Brewster and Associates in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Borne and his firm of employment donated all design services for the multi-purpose facility. 

The above-mentioned buildings are situated on property donated in 1997 by Dorothy Louise O'Toole Benge and Mabel Isabel Molero Quatroy. The donations of historic structures and land are in compliance with the provisions of the museum complex master plan. 

The museum complex has been renamed Los Isleños Heritage and Multi-Cultural Park in an effort to involve the diverse cultural groups, which have molded the Isleño identity in Louisiana. When the Isleños arrived in the region, they joined French and German colonists who had settled along the Mississippi River earlier in the 18th century. The Isleños also met Native Americans and learned much about their new environment through interaction with local Indian tribes. At the behest of Los Isleños Society, Parish Government entered into a cooperative agreement with the United Houma Nation in June 1999.  The Houmas have constructed a palmetto hut on the park grounds and are in the process of developing plans for moving a permanent, historic structure to the site. They participated in the 1999 Museum Days educational program and have sponsored several interpretive sessions for children on the grounds. 

The Society is actively seeking the involvement of the French and Filipinos in establishing a permanent presence in the multi-cultural park.

(See more in pictures in Virtual Tour below!)

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