Houston is a melting pot of cultures and one of the most diverse cities in the United States. One can find street signs written in Vietnamese, Hindi and Spanish. Nigerian Christian Churches, Shinto temples, Mosques and Buddhist temples mixed in with Southern Protestant and Catholic Churches are scattered throughout the city. Sikhs, Colombians, Ethiopians walk the streets with Egyptians, Guatemalans, Mexicans and Indians. It isn’t strange to see trail riders blasting zydeco, R&B and country music through the speakers while riding horseback in the streets. Houstonians with surnames like Guillory, Joubert, Rideau, Comeaux and mingle easily with names like Williams, Smith and Garcia thus blurring and entangling the genealogies of everyone.

Houston is southern, urban and cosmopolitan with a laid back country feel. Local Creole culture is also a part of Houston culture and has been for nearly a century ever since the first rural migrants from Southwest Louisiana settled in the Bayou city within the historically African-American communities of 5th and 3rd Ward. One enclave in 5th Ward became known as “Frenchtown” by the locals.

Houston is the birthplace of Zydeco music where Louisiana French music merged with American Blues the same way Jazz evolved in the New Orleans. Despite the historical clashes between Anglos and Creoles in Louisiana, the meeting of the two groups created a pollination of culture that hasn’t stopped since.

My existence is the embodiment of what it means to be Creole in Houston. Opelousas-born, Houston raised with an African-American mother from Northern Louisiana and a Creole father from rural Southwest Louisiana. I grew up on the Southside surrounded by trail rides, the early underground sounds of DJ screw, Tejano, Southern hip-Hop, Zydeco, country, BBQ, crayfish broils and fish fries. Most of my classmates were the sons and daughters of East Texans, Creoles, Anglophone Louisianians and sometimes Latinos. If I want a hot plate of gumbo that isn’t from home, I can check out the Catholic Bazaar. Or if I want some fried fish, the Baptist churches are great places to go. I see no conflict between my Creoleness and Anglo-American background. I’m just your typical Texas Creole.