BATON ROUGE, LA – Declaring that “being born in Louisiana and being born Cajun are two completely different things,” Governor Jeff Landry unveiled a new plan Tuesday creating a 10-year pathway to Cajun citizenship for children born north of Interstate 10.
Calling it a long-overdue effort to protect Louisiana’s cultural heritage, Landry said babies born in cities like Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, and Ruston would no longer receive automatic Cajun recognition at birth. Instead, they would be issued temporary “Provisional Cajun” status while completing the state’s new cultural integration program.
Under the proposal, parents must spend the first decade maintaining their child’s eligibility by attending Cajun festivals, hosting crawfish boils, and signing an annual affidavit confirming nobody in the household has ever referred to crawfish as “crayfish.”
Beginning at age 10, children enter a state-approved Cajun assimilation program, where they’ll receive instruction in proper roux preparation, gumbo etiquette, and how to correctly pronounce “Atchafalaya” without sounding like they’re reading it off a highway sign.
At 18, each applicant must appear before the Louisiana Cajun Citizenship Board, a panel made up entirely of grandmothers from Acadiana, who will evaluate their accent, boudin knowledge, and ability to casually use the word “cher” in conversation.
Successful applicants will receive an official Cajun Citizenship Card, granting them full cultural privileges, including unlimited festival attendance and the right to declare someone else’s roux “too light.”
Landry acknowledged the policy will almost certainly face legal challenges, but vowed to defend it all the way to the Louisiana Supreme Court, insisting that “automatic Louisiana citizenship and automatic Cajun citizenship have never been the same thing.”
Until the courts decide the matter, children born north of I-10 will remain under Temporary Cajun Protection (TCP), though officials clarified they’ll be restricted to crawfish boils where the seasoning is added after the crawfish are already cooked.
