What is a creole person?

Answer 1

Always a controversial and confusing term, the word Creole, to put it simply, means many things to many people. It derives from the Latin creare, meaning "to beget" or "create." After the New World’s discovery, Portuguese colonists used the word crioulo to denote a New World slave of African descent. Eventually, the word was applied to all New World colonists, regardless of ethnic origin, living along the Gulf Coast, especially in Louisiana. There the Spanish introduced the word as criollo, and during Louisiana’s colonial period (1699-1803) the evolving word Creole generally referred to persons of African or European heritage born in the New World. By the nineteenth century, black, white, and mixed-race Louisianians used the term to distinguish themselves from foreign-born and Anglo-American settlers. It was during that century that the mixed-race Creoles of Color (or gens de couleur libre, "free persons of color") came into their own as an ethnic group, enjoying many of the legal rights and privileges of whites. They occupied a middle ground between whites and enslaved blacks, and as such often possessed property and received formal educations.

Answer 2

Latin cultures in the New World (Spanish, Portuguese, and French) used words, such as the Spanish word criollo, to mean a person of pure blood (not mixed). Spaniards believed that a person direct from Spain (a peninsulare) was somehow superior to a pure blood Spaniard (a criollo) born in the New World. The Spanish were real nit-pickers about racial percentages of individuals. (The French developed a similar system regarding people of mixed white and black blood: a quadroon was one-fourth black, an octaroon was one-eighth black, a person of equal amounts was called a mulatto, which was a word that came into much use by the Spanish, French, and English, regarding slavery.) Blacks who were not mixed were also called criollos by the Spanish. There were criollo (creole) whites, just as there were criollo (creole) blacks. Over time the words' meanings became obscure and people continued to use the word creole (as to their ancestry) eventhough they were of mixed creole white and creole black, so that eventually the word creole meant what is the opposite of its original intent (purity of racial origins). Now, most people regard creoles as a mixture of many heritages, especially in the Louisiana area. And to many, it has come to mean people of any percentage of black blood.

Answer 3

A creole person is of French decent.

Answer 4

Elvis Presley knows the answer...King Creole.

Answer 5

I'm Creole! I'm mixed with Black, French, British, Native American, and a little bit of Guyanese.

Answer 6

I'm Guadeloupean (French West Indies) so I am a creole, it is our vernacular language.

Answer 7

It is a person who is of mixed heritage...usually French and Black, from Louisana.

Answer 8

a person from lousiana and france mixed in a blender

Answer 9

It is a person from the LA bayou.. Its a language.
CC