My name is Jonathan Tyler Hanks and my presentation is about my family and their move to California. I interviewed my Great Aunt Becky and she told me about my family’s history. They are from Rayne, Louisiana, also known as, “The Frog capitol of the world.” Rayne is a small city, and when my family lived there, people owned farms ns animals.
My great, great grandfather, Jean Julian, was the first from our family to move to California in 1945. He traveled by car and it took about 4 days. Papa was a greyhound dog trainer.
When my great Aunt Becky moved to California, she got a job working in a kitchen at a hotel. She said that things were much different in CA., jobs paid more, people weren’t as friendly, and there was no segregation.
Segregation is the separation of people by race.
Some of the customs and traditions that my family brought with them to California were the Creole language and cooking, and Zydeco music and dancing. The creole language is a type of broken French. Zydeco music is a type of folk music, sung in creole, that originated in Louisiana. It uses a guitar, an accordion, and washboard. I have two clips of the music for you to hear.
These are pictures of my grandmother’s dolls that she had when she was a little girl living in Louisiana. She brought them on the train when she moved to California at the age of 10. The dolls are over 55 years old. This is also my grandmother’s suitcase from Louisiana. My grandmother, Martha Hanks, is also here with me today! Thank you/Merci.
