The Louisiana Décima Project is a music sustainability program focused on curating, reviving, and sustaining the Isleño décima, unique tradition of Spanish folk songs from St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Project director Will Buckingham first fell in love with these funny and hauntingly beautiful songs during his research for his dissertation in the mid 2010’s, and this project reflects his desire to support this tradition and share it with new audiences.

For hundreds of years, Louisiana’s Isleños have given voice to their unique way of life through a distinctive song tradition known as the Isleño décima. Hurricanes, oil spills, and economic forces have taken a stark toll in this place. The once-bustling villages of Delacroix, Reggio, and Ycloskey, once the centers of Isleño culture, have been all but abandoned, and the last generation of décima singers have passed away.

The project will leverage digitized collections of historical field recordings that document the Isleño décima to curate a free online open-access library in order to revive and sustain the tradition for the future. The values and priorities of the Isleños who inspired this project will guide our work. Our collaborators often described the décima tradition as “lost,” and and their desire to see these recordings curated in a way that Isleño descendants, researchers, musicians, and general audiences can access and engage with is what drives our work on this project.

This program is generously supported by grants from the Keller Family Foundation, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

See our work in progress here: https://ldp.reclaim.hosting/

Mozambique!: Una conversación con Leo Moré / A Conversation with Leo Moré

October 18, 2025 5pm.

Free and open to the public.

Mozambique!: Una conversación con Leo Moré / A Conversation with Leo Moré digs into the mozambique, a rhythm that rose to prominence in Cuba in the mid-1960s as the sound of a new, youthful, revolutionary nation. Featuring veteran Cuban percussionist Leandro “Leo” Moré, the event will include a screening of an original documentary (Mozambique: El ritmo necesario / The Necessary Rhythm), a demonstration of the rhythm, and a call to Havana to speak with Mr. Moré, who participated in the development and dissemination of the rhythm, both in Cuba and abroad, with the group Pello el Afrokán y Su Ritmo Mozambique.

Created by percussionist Pello el Afrokán (Pedro Izquierdo Padrón) in 1964, the popular rhythm with carnival origins became an alternative to U.S. rock and roll both for Cuban audiences and listeners abroad at a crucial moment in regional and global politics. Its appeal across racial lines and the prominence of Afrocuban performers and instruments were promoted as proof of revolutionary Cuba’s elimination of racism in the country, and the sound was mobilized in the service of the new revolutionary government – at the express direction of Fidel Castro – to encourage volunteers for the annual sugar harvest of 1965, solidifying the rhythm as central to the narrative of a unified, cooperative society.  

Today, the mozambique remains largely unknown in the U.S. compared to other genres, obscuring its role in Cuban politics and popular culture. Mr. Moré’s passion for the mozambique and the story he tells about it offer audiences in New Orleans a chance to learn about Cuban music and history, but they also speak to the possibilities of meaning in music, even meanings that are multiple, changing, unexpected, or contradictory.