The Friends of the Cabildo opened C+Islander+US, an exhibition about the Canarian Descendants’ Community in St. Bernard Parish and Louisiana, on Thursday, December 20, 2018, in the Cabildo/Arsenal museums, Louisiana State Museum facing Jackson Square.
Thenesoya Martin de la Nuez and Anibal Martel Pena, both natives of Gran Canary Islands, researched and designed all components of the exhibition. Their work began in 2012 and continued until its debut showing in the Casa de Colon Museum in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in August of 2016. The photography illustrated the faces and environment of the Canary Islander descendants’ in Louisiana, known historically as Los Islenos or the Islanders.
Anibal Martel was born in Gran Canaria in 1978. He is an independent professional photographer whose work in the print and digital media is highly recognized and respected. He has worked for international press agencies and magazine publications such as Forbes. His photographic essays have been published in Europe, Latin America and the United States.
Thenesoya Martin was born in Gran Canaria in 1976. She earned a master-of-arts from Harvard University and is currently a doctoral candidate and fellow in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature. Additionally, she is teaching full-time as a professor at Vassar College. Her research focuses on the cultural production of insular spaces, displacement, and peripheral identities.
C+Islander+US will be shown in the Cabildo-Arsenal from the end of 2018 through June 2nd, 2019. Following the New Orleans show, the exhibition will be on display in the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge, from August 2019 through March 2020.
Substantial grants provided by the Friends of the Cabildo and the St. Bernard Parish Tourist Commission funded the installation of C+Islander+US in both exhibition locations. “We are so proud of our distinct cultural heritage, particularly as represented by the Islenos in St. Bernard that we are thrilled to share this knowledge with visitors from around the world who visit New Orleans and Baton Rouge” said director of the St. Bernard Parish Office of Tourism and Film Katherine J. “Katie” Tommaseo. “Cultural tourism continues to expand in popularity throughout the United States and the world,” said Tommaseo.
Support for C+Islander+US has also been provided by Los Islenos Heritage and Cultural Society, the Canary Islands Heritage Society, the Museo Casa de Colon (Christopher Columbus house museum) in Gran Canaria and the Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria. For more information visit www.cislanderus.com.
