Creole Historian in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana
Melinda Palacio -- January 6, 2006
Brian J. Costello dedicates himself to preserving the stories and language of the peoples who settled Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. The small city of New Roads is as old as New Orleans and literary luminaries such as Ernest P. Gaines hail from the little known town on an oxbow lake called False River in the parish. Costello, a historian, local writer, and 11th-generation Pointe Coupeean, has written 16 books on the history of the region, covering subjects as varied as folklore and Mardi Gras to the History of Pointe Coupee Parish to Louisiana's 20th Century Department Stores.
Costello sees his challenge as staying true to the historical record despite some people's personal mythologies of family wealth and often glorified views of the antebellum past.
The writer's early interest in writing began at age five. In the second grade he wrote a historical play about King Henry's six wives and for his fifth grade classroom newspaper he wrote an article on Evel Knievel's motorcycle crash. But what really fascinated the young writer were the stories he heard from his French and Italian grandparents who spoke Creole.
"I had my grandparents next door. When I wasn't reading, I was listening to old people talk about the past, about who is related to whom. I picked up the Creole dialect from my grandparents, and when I was older I started reading Louisiana history."
One of the biggest misconceptions about Pointe Coupee Parish is that New Roads is a Cajun town. Costello's books explain the strong Creole, not Cajun, background. During his time as a journalist for the Pointe Coupee Democrat, he started a column called Retrospection to share facts about the town's Creole history. During 1988 through 1992 he continued his historical interest column, adding folklore, customs, and cuisine, in his Reminiscences column at the Pointe Coupee Banner, while at the same time he was a history major and English minor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Costello worked as editor of the Banner from 1993 through 1996.
Outsiders not familiar with South Louisiana history might wonder what the difference is between Cajuns and Creoles. The terms are often incorrectly used as though synonyms, especially to describe Louisiana cuisine. The Acadian exiles from Nova Scotia, eventually to be called "Cajuns", didn't arrive in Louisiana until nearly half a century after the colonial French, Spanish, and African settlers and their descendants who spoke the patois Creole dialect of French and African.
In his book, Quintessential Creoles, Costello expands on the amorphous and often debated meanings of the term Creole.
"To this very day, persons of pure African ancestry in Louisiana often call themselves Creole, simply because they speak the Creole patois and/or follow the Creole cultural traditions. For this author, the term Creole as an ethnic identifier includes anyone who has or had at least some French and/or Spanish genetic heritage. As an adjective, he defines Creole as a description of anything that has been influenced by the culture of the French and/or Spanish in Louisiana (e.g., the Creole patois, Creole cooking, Creole architecture, Creole burial customs)" (Quintessential Creoles).
Recording an accurate history of his town and ancestry has been a labor of love for the 39-year-old writer. "Some of the stuff out there was not enough, not all encompassing," said Costello. "People were embarrassed of their past." English-only laws from 1922 prohibited Louisiana students from speaking Creole and French in schools.
Costello's History of Pointe Coupee Parish explains that Creole remained the primary language of all races for much of the 20th century. "The fact that the overall education level remained low is one reason why Creole remained active in the white population. In the black and colored communities, however, migration from the fields of Pointe Coupee to other jobs outside the community required a knowledge of English and, therefore, many black and colored Creoles abandoned the Creole dialect long before their white neighbors did."
However, only a handful of Pointe Coupeeans, most in their 80s and 90s, currently admit to speaking Creole. Costello himself didn't speak much Creole until he met Tom Klingler, a French and linguistics professor at Tulane. Now Costello says he sometimes dreams in Creole. His favorite and most popular book is C'est ca ye dit: Creole Folk Tales, Supersitions, Remedies, Customs, Nicknames and Linguistic Peculiarities of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. The title says it all.
His historical books set records straight and offer a more inclusive history of the parish. He's most proud of his book, Creole Pointe Coupee. "I felt like I had to do it. So many people's voices were silent for so long. People with the same family name deny that they are related."
At his home on False River Road, Costello is modest and humble about his role as the Parish historian. "He has a memory that is unbelievable," says his wife Mary who proofreads his books. "Most black people in the community don't realize what a strong advocate he is," she said.
The prolific historian says he writes a book in a month. "I do the research all through my life. I go to libraries and courthouses." One of his upcoming books is on Louisiana furniture. He's also flirting with the idea of writing fiction.