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One day in June 1900, a census visited the New Orleans house of Joseph and Louise Martinez, the grandparents of Pope Leo XIV. They lived in North Prieur Street, just north of the French neighborhood, considered a neighborhood as the cradle of Louisiana’s Creole people of color.
Joseph N. Martinez was recorded as a black man, born in “Hayti.” His wife, two daughters and a aunt, were also marked “B” in a column indicating “color or race”.
Ten years later, the census came to beat again. The family had grown – there were now six daughters. Other things also changed: This time the birthplace of Mr. Martinez was mentioned as Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. And the family’s race is recorded as “W”, for White.
That simple switch, from “B” to “W”, suggests a complex and very American story.
For a large part of the 19th century, New Orleans operated under a racial system that distinguished itself between white people, black people and Creole people with mixed race such as the Martinezes. But by the beginning of the 20th century, Jim Crow was the order of the day, and it tended to act in black -white, with countless limitations imposed on a person of color.
The selection of Robert Frances Prevost as the first pope from the United States, and the Subsequent revelation of his Creole rootsHave those historical realities forward – and an interview with the brother of the Pope John Prevost, 71, has connected them to this day.
At the end of Thursday, Mr. Prevost, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, told the New York Times that his brothers always considered themselves white. As far as his mother is concerned, he said, “I really couldn’t tell you for sure, she might just say Spanish.”
And so a story of American racial rigidity also suggests a certain fluidity, limited by the often hard racist past that is an inevitable part of the story of the country. New Orleans is not unique in his exposure to such stories. But it knows them well.
Jari Honora, a local genealogist and historian at the Historic New Orleans collection, a museum in the French neighborhood, discovered the roots of the new Pope New Orleans on Thursday. Since then, he and others, including in the Dominican Republic, have insisted to find out as much as possible about Leo’s family history.
In addition to the census records, many of the information found so far has come through the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which keeps up thousands of records that go back to 1720. Katie Beeman, the director of the Archdiocese archive, has found wedding records of 1887 for the Pope’s Maternal-size and 1864 for his back.
Mrs. Beeman was particularly excited when she discovered the record that Eugenie Grambois, the great -grandmother of the Pope, was baptized in 1840 in the cathedral of St. Louis, the Spired Basilica in the heart of the French neighborhood that is one of the most recognizable sights of the city. Mrs. Beeman called her mother to share the news.
During a special mass in the cathedral on Friday, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans drawn attention to the discovery. The pope’s ancestor had received her first sacrament in the same font that is still behind the church.
“There are many connections that we have with him,” said the Archbishop in his homily.
Similar feelings were expressed in New Orleans, especially among those who share Leo’s Creole heritage and now feel a special bond with the new pope.
“This is like a reward from God that has been given to us for everything we have struggled through,” said Denease Sorapuru, who identifies as Creole and descend from an ancestral mix of Irish, Italian, Basque and Indian heritage.
On Friday, Mrs. Beeman and other researchers and genealogists continued to dig, hoping to identify even more of the Pope’s pedigree in Louisiana and beyond. “It seems that it just goes on,” she said.
An important question that historians hope to solve is the birthplace of the Pope’s grandfather. Although he married an old family from New Orleans, records indicate that Joseph Martinez might have been relatively new in the city.
His marriage certificate corresponds to the Census record of 1900 which shows that he was born in Haiti. But other documents mention the Dominican Republic or Louisiana as his birthplace.
Nagelen that it is down has become a goal for historians in the Caribbean, said Edwin Espinal Hernández, a genealogist and the director of the law study in the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre Y Maestra, a Roman Catholic University in the Dominican Republic.
Experts have yet to find the birth certificate of Mr Martinez, but have found other indications that he was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, said Mr Espinal Hernández.
Whatever the answer, many in New Orleans knew enough about the roots of the family on Friday to feel a greater relationship with the pope.
Michael White, 70, a jazz clarinettist, band leader and retired music trainer who grew up on Catholic in New Orleans, said that Leo’s selection had “shocked and surprised and happy”.
“I think he will get a lot of support from people here,” said Dr. White. “I think an outpouring of not only will be proud, but you know, a desire to help him and hope that things can get better for the Catholic Church, but also for people here.”
Mrs. Sorapuru had a modest request. She remembers the sensation of Pope John Paul II’s visit to New Orleans in 1987. Leo must also come, she said, and the mass for the Mass in St. Louis’s cathedral.
As far as she is concerned, his roots are sufficient to make him a product of New Orleans. And she wants to welcome him at home.
Robert Chiarito And Frances Robles contributed reporting.
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