Acadiana

Acadiana is the official name for the 22 parish region of southern Louisiana that has historically held much of the state French speaking population, stretching from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf Coast and inland roughly 100 miles to Marksville. Also called Cajun Country, the region is defined by its Acadian and Creole heritage, home to descendants of Acadian exiles deported in the eighteenth century from what is now Canada Maritime Provinces, many of whom identify today as Cajuns or Creoles. The Louisiana State Legislature formally designated the 22 parishes as Acadiana in 1971 in recognition of their strong French Acadian cultural character, with Lafayette Parish serving as its largest city and cultural center; the region had a population of about 1.49 million as of 2020. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/