A reader points out that what I had taken to be the Hispanic surname of the mother of Sen. Vitter’s natural child is in fact much more likely to be New Orleans Creole.
Names like Nunez, Perez, Rodriguez, Fernandez, Flores are actually old creole names. Given [the lady’s] profession, she was probably a girl who grew up in what we affectionately refer to as “Da Parish” – or St. Bernard Parish. It is a Parish (or county) located between the Lower 9th ward of New Orleans and East St. Tammany Parish.
Back before the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans flip-flopped between being a Spanish and French colony. During a time that it was techinically a French colony, the French were ignoring it to tend to their cash cow, Haiti. So the Spaniards sent folks en masse to claim squatter’s rights. The higher society Spanish Creoles lived in the French Quarter – the FQ street names today are actually translations of their original Spanish names.
And the Spanish sent farmer-types to sustain a Spanish colony who were actually plucked from the Canary Islands and then brought to settle what is now called St. Bernard Parish. the area includes Arabi, Meraux (mee-row), and Chalmette. You can do some more digging on St. Bernard. These folks call themselves “Islenos” and still hold a festival, but they havne’t spoken Spanish in many, many generations. the main boulevard is “Judge Vic Perez” and the current Parish president for St. Bernard is “Junior Rodriguez.” Until Katrina, 99% of folks with Spanish last names come out of St. Bernard parish or a handful of blue bloods who are still in the Garden District. These same folks were the ones who helped Jackson turn back the Brits in the famous battle of New Orleans.
The 2nd inflow of Spanish folks were Nicaraguans who left in the 80’s and they are all mostly out in Kenner, Louisiana – which is a suburb in Jefferson Parish (west of Orleans parish). There’s a few hangovers of Cubans, but that big migration was just a pit stop while they regrouped back in Florida.
So although it remains true that Sen. Vitter has substantial experience screwing Latinas (and Latinos, of course) it is possible that he has never had any sexual experience with them.
I stand corrected.
Update It now appears that the Creole name I thought was Latina wasn’t the name on the lady’s birth certificate; she borrowed it from a former husband.