Southwest Louisiana | |
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Region | |
West Acadiana | |
![]() Five-parish Southwest Louisiana region (Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis) highlighted in red. | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
Largest city | Lake Charles |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 313,951 |
Southwest Louisiana (SWLA) is a five-parish area intersecting the Acadiana and Central Louisiana regions in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is composed of the following parishes (counties): Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis. [1] [2] As of 2020, the combined population of the five parish area was 313,951. [3]
Southwest Louisiana has one metropolitan area: Lake Charles. The southwestern portion of Louisiana is also geographically and culturally attached to Southeast Texas.
Three of the parishes — Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis — are also part of Acadiana, the region of French and Acadian influence defined by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1971. [4]
"Southwest Louisiana" is often used to represent a broader region that includes parishes farther east.
The most prominent example is the college now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Until 1998, UL was known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana, the Southwestern Louisiana Institute, and the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute — despite being located in Lafayette, a city roughly 40 miles east of the five-parish area defined here. [5] Its athletic teams were often referred to simply as "Southwestern." [6]
The Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Festival, the Greater Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras Association, and the Greater Southwest Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce are all based in Lafayette or the surrounding area, not near Lake Charles. [7] [8] [9]
The Cajuns, also known as Louisiana Acadians, are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states.
Jefferson Davis Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,250. The parish seat is Jennings. Jefferson Davis Parish is named after the president of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, Jefferson Davis. It is located in southwestern Louisiana and forms a part of the Acadiana region.
Cameron Parish is a parish in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,617. The parish seat is Cameron. Although it is the largest parish by area in Louisiana, it has the second-smallest population in the state, ahead of only Tensas. Cameron Parish is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area.
Allen Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,750. The parish seat is Oberlin and the largest city is Oakdale. Allen Parish is in southwestern Louisiana, southwest of Alexandria.
Acadia Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 57,576. The parish seat is Crowley. The parish was founded from parts of St. Landry Parish in 1886, and later an election was held to determine the parish seat, ending when Crowley beat Rayne and Prairie Hayes. Acadia Parish is included in the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area.
Lake Charles is the fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcasieu Parish, it is a major industrial, cultural, and educational center in the southwest region of the state. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Lake Charles's population was 84,872.
Lafayette is the most populous city in and parish seat of Lafayette Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located along the Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's fourth-most populous city with a 2020 census population of 121,374; the consolidated city-parish's population was 241,753 in 2020. The Lafayette metropolitan area was Louisiana's third largest metropolitan statistical area with a population of 478,384 at the 2020 census. The Acadiana region containing Lafayette is the largest population and economic corridor between Houston, Texas and New Orleans.
Opelousas is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were constructed with a junction here. According to the 2020 census, Opelousas has a population of 15,786, a 6.53 percent decline since the 2010 census, which had recorded a population of 16,634. Opelousas is the principal city for the Opelousas-Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 80,808 in 2020. Opelousas is also the fourth largest city in the Lafayette-Acadiana Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 537,947.
Eunice is a city in Acadia and St. Landry parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The 2010 census placed the population at 10,398, a decrease of 1,101, or 9.5 percent, from the 2000 tabulation of 11,499.
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.
Acadiana, also known as the Cajun Country, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population.
Louisiana Creoles are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.
Barry Jean Ancelet is a Cajun folklorist in Louisiana French and ethnomusicologist in Cajun music. He has written several books, and under his pseudonym Jean Arceneaux, including poetry and lyrics to songs.
The Courir de Mardi Gras is a traditional Mardi Gras event held in many Cajun and Creole communities of French Louisiana on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Courir de Mardi Gras is Louisiana French for "Fat Tuesday Run". This rural Mardi Gras celebration is based on early begging rituals, similar to those still celebrated by mummers, wassailers, and celebrants of Halloween. As Mardi Gras is the celebration of the final day before Lent, celebrants drink and eat heavily, dressing in specialized costumes, ostensibly to protect their identities. In Acadiana, popular practices include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, drinking alcohol, begging, trail riding, feasting, and whipping. Mardi Gras is one of the few occasions when people are allowed to publicly wear masks in Louisiana. Dance for a Chicken: The Cajun Mardi Gras, a documentary by filmmaker Pat Mire, provides great insight into the history and evolution of this cultural tradition. In popular culture, two HBO series also make reference to the tradition.
KRVS is a radio station broadcasting a public radio format. Licensed to Lafayette, Louisiana, United States, it is currently owned by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and features programming from American Public Media, NPR and Public Radio International.
The flag of Acadiana represents the Acadian (Cajun) ethnic region of southern Louisiana. It consists of two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red (bottom) bearing three white fleurs de lis and a gold castle, respectively, and a white isosceles triangle at the hoist, within which is a gold five-pointed star. It was designed in 1965 and officially adopted July 5, 1974. The flag is referred to as the Acadiana flag or Cajun flag.
Herb Roe is a painter of large-scale outdoor murals and classical realist oil paintings. After attending the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio for a short time, he apprenticed to mural artist Robert Dafford. After 15 years with Dafford Murals, Roe left to pursue his own art career. He currently resides in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Nathan Williams Sr. is an American zydeco accordionist, singer and songwriter. He established his band Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas in 1985.
Louisiana French is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisiana French is primarily used in the state of Louisiana, specifically in its southern parishes.