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Ethnicity in New Orleans |
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As of 2014, the New Orleans metropolitan area has the largest Honduran American community in the United States. [1] As of that year, over 103,049 persons of Honduran origin reside in the New Orleans area. [2]
The Honduran community originates from the operations of banana and fruit companies such as Standard Fruit Co. and United Fruit Co., which produced bananas in Honduras and had their corporate headquarters in New Orleans. [2] These operations began in the late 1800s. In time many wealthier Hondurans who desired education and healthcare would move to New Orleans. [3] Prior to Hurricane Katrina, there were over 100,000 Hondurans, making up 10% of the total population, in the New Orleans area. [4] Around the 1950s a settlement of Hondurans was in New Orleans. In the 1960s the first large wave of Hondurans, many of whom moved to the centrally-located Garden District, came to New Orleans to escape late 1950s floods, fruit company strikes, and military coups which resulted in the instability of Honduras's economy and political system. The population shifted to the suburbs as it matured. By 2000 Hondurans made up 24% of the 64,340 people of Hispanic origin in the four parishes of the U.S. government-defined New Orleans area. [5]
Within a year of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, over 10,000 Hondurans and Mexicans moved to New Orleans to do work rebuilding the city. At the time the George W. Bush administration suspended some labor laws on a temporary basis, and several federal contractors aired Spanish-language television advertisements promising work to the illegal immigrants without the possibility of deportation. By 2014 several of the immigrants were criticizing officials who were trying to deport them. [6]
By 2014 many Honduran children fleeing crime and violence in their native country were resettled in New Orleans. [2]
The government of Honduras maintains a consulate general in New Orleans. It is planning to establish a Honduran association to protect the interests of Hondurans residing in the city. [7]
As of 2014 and since Katrina many Hondurans in New Orleans operate mobile food trucks and restaurants. [1]
In the 2014-2015 school year Jefferson Parish Public Schools had 48,126 students, 1,467 students (3%) higher than the enrollment of the previous school year. There were a total of 5,634 English Language Learners (ELL) students as part of the overall student enrollment for 2014-2015, and that had increased by about 1,200 (28%). Most of the additional students for 2014-2015 were Hispanic, and of them, most were Honduran. According to ELL director Karina Castillo the East Bank had more of the new students than the West Bank. [8]
New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 according to the 2020 U.S. census, it is the most populous city in Louisiana and the French Louisiana region; third most populous city in the Deep South; and the twelfth-most populous city in the southeastern United States. Serving as a major port, New Orleans is considered an economic and commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast region of the United States.
Jefferson Parish is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 440,781. Its parish seat is Gretna, its largest community is Metairie, and its largest incorporated city is Kenner. Jefferson Parish is included in the Greater New Orleans area.
Metairie is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and is part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. With a population of 143,507 in 2020, Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish and was the fifth-largest CDP in the United States. It is an unincorporated area that would have been Louisiana's fourth-largest city behind Shreveport if incorporated.
Chalmette is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. Bernard Parish in southeastern Louisiana, United States. The 2010 census reported that Chalmette had 16,751 people; 2011 population was listed as 17,119; however, the pre-Katrina population was 32,069 at the 2000 census. At the 2020 U.S. census, its population rebounded to 21,562. Chalmette is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area. Chalmette is located east of downtown New Orleans and south of Arabi, towards Lake Borgne.
The history of New Orleans, Louisiana traces the city's development from its founding by the French in 1718 through its period of Spanish control, then briefly back to French rule before being acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, the last major battle was the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Throughout the 19th century, New Orleans was the largest port in the Southern United States, exporting most of the nation's cotton output and other farm products to Western Europe and New England. As the largest city in the South at the start of the Civil War (1861–1865), it was an early target for capture by Union forces. With its rich and unique cultural and architectural heritage, New Orleans remains a major destination for live music, tourism, conventions, and sporting events and annual Mardi Gras celebrations. After the significant destruction and loss of life resulting from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the city would bounce back and rebuild in the ensuing years.
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $186.3 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure.
As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city’s levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee District. The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.
The disaster recovery response to Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 included U.S. federal government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), state and local-level agencies, federal and National Guard soldiers, non-governmental organizations, charities, and private individuals. Tens of thousands of volunteers and troops responded or were deployed to the disaster; most in the affected area but also throughout the U.S. at shelters set up in at least 19 states.
The reconstruction of New Orleans refers to the rebuilding process endured by the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city on August 29, 2005. The storm caused levees to fail, releasing tens of billions of gallons of water. The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in the New Orleans area and surrounding parishes. About 80% of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage. Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and more than 800,000 citizens displaced—the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Wind damage was less severe than predicted. The damage that took place that needed to be repaired cost about $125 billion.
The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), branded as NOLA Public Schools, governs the public school system that serves New Orleans, Louisiana. It includes the entirety of Orleans Parish, coterminous with New Orleans.
The Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As the name implies, it is part of the 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industrial Canal; however, the City Planning Commission divides this area into the Lower Ninth Ward and Holy Cross neighborhoods.
Jefferson Parish Public Schools is a school district based in Harvey in unincorporated Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. The district operates all district public schools in Jefferson Parish and covers the entire parish. As of 2019 it had 50,582 students, making it the largest public school system in the state.
Hubig's Pies, also sometimes called Hubig's New Orleans Style Pies, are a brand of fruit and sweet-filled fried pies that are produced by the Simon Hubig Pie Company in New Orleans, Louisiana. The product was off the market from 2012 after a fire completely destroyed the factory, but the business was brought back in 2022.
Chalmette High School is a public secondary school in the unincorporated Chalmette area of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of St. Bernard Parish Public Schools.
People from the Gulf States region in the southern United States, most notably New Orleans, Louisiana, were forced to leave their homes because of the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and were unable to return because of a multitude of factors, and are collectively known as the Gulf Coast diaspora and by standard definition considered internally displaced persons. At their peak, hurricane evacuee shelters housed 273,000 people and, later, FEMA trailers housed at least 114,000 households. Even a decade after Hurricane Katrina, many victims who were forced to relocate were still unable to return home.
Recovery School District (RSD) is a special statewide school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform and make them effective in educating children.
The Catholic League is a high school sports league in the Greater New Orleans area.
Leonidas is a neighborhood designation in the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission are: South Claiborne Avenue, Leonidas and Fig Streets to the north, South Carrollton Avenue to the east, the Mississippi River and Jefferson Parish to the west. Although an official city planning district name, the name "Leonidas" is not widely used nor has it any historical usage and the area is usually referred to by the larger neighborhood "Uptown, or "Carrollton".