Spanish business men and their capital financed several buildings in the old quarter of New Orleans. The area was Spanish, not French, for part of the pre-Purchase period. In 1762, Louis XV gave New Orleans and most of Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Charles III of Spain. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 transferred ownership to Spain. France regained control and Napoleon sold it to the States in 1803, but Spanish money continued to be important in the early 19th c. Some of the old patrician families of New Orleans had Spanish ancestry.

It is my understanding that the songs of the Marti Gras 'Indians' change and evolve from year to year, depending on who is leading the singing.

Azucar, if the interpretation is accurate, more likely would come from the Caribbean-Latin American trade in the Port, rather then from the old Spanish days.