Cajun South Louisiana
Charles Reagan Wilson, University of Mississippi
Essay Sections:
1900s:
The emergence of the oil and petrochemical industries in
the early twentieth century promoted modernization and movement of Cajuns
off the land and into working class jobs. This broke down
isolation and led to more efforts to bring south Louisiana into the mainstream
of U.S. society. Supporters of Americanization saw public education
as the key to the south Louisiana
version of the melting pot, focused especially on outlawing French speaking.
At the same time, the regional elite began efforts to reclaim a French
ethnic heritage that could coexist with
Americanization. The Roman Catholic Church was one institution that promoted
an ethnic French identity that connected south Louisiana with French
Canada. The growth of tourism in the early
twentieth century led south Louisiana promoters to establish new tourist sites
to attract travelers. Womens clubs played a prominent part in creating
pageants that featured Acadian
history as the defining experience of south Louisiana.
This south Louisiana celebration of its heritage privileged the Acadian exile to south Louisiana as the regions defining experience. Henry Wadsworth Longfellows nineteenth-century poem portrayed the romantic story of Evangeline and her separation from her lover, which became the central legend in a mythic story of Acadian tragic exile and settlement in a new land. Longfellow's poem mentioned St. Martinsville, and that town became the focus of the Acadian memory through the Evangeline Oak, Evangeline Park, and a monument to Evangeline. Politician Dudley J. LeBlanc used symbols of Cajun identity in his campaign rallies, such as Cajun music, food, and women dressed in Acadian costume to evoke Evangeline. He organized visits to Nova Scotia by south Louisiana women, called Evangelines, and he wrote a popular history of the Acadian exile.
The French heritage in south Louisiana has become even more pronounced since the 1960s. Tourism partly drives this new effort, hoping to attract French tourists. In 1968 Louisiana created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), which has successfully encouraged the study of French in the schools, at the same time that French-speaking has declined. The cultures of other ethnic groups in south Louisiana become part of a predominant French-based culture, typically described with a term like gumbo. Food may be the essential metaphor to describe the culture of Cajun Louisiana. The environment supplies specific ingredients, especially seafood. Africans brought okra and yams, French Creole refugees from the Caribbean brought pepper seasonings, and the indigenous Houma Indians use of sassafras leaves in cooking evolved into the thickening agent of file in stews. All of these contributions are now seen as parts of a distinctive Cajun-French cuisine that attracts visitors to the place and symbolizes south Louisiana wherever this cuisine is cooked. Lafayette serves as the cultural center, claiming identity as the Capital of Cajun Louisiana.
This south Louisiana celebration of its heritage privileged the Acadian exile to south Louisiana as the regions defining experience. Henry Wadsworth Longfellows nineteenth-century poem portrayed the romantic story of Evangeline and her separation from her lover, which became the central legend in a mythic story of Acadian tragic exile and settlement in a new land. Longfellow's poem mentioned St. Martinsville, and that town became the focus of the Acadian memory through the Evangeline Oak, Evangeline Park, and a monument to Evangeline. Politician Dudley J. LeBlanc used symbols of Cajun identity in his campaign rallies, such as Cajun music, food, and women dressed in Acadian costume to evoke Evangeline. He organized visits to Nova Scotia by south Louisiana women, called Evangelines, and he wrote a popular history of the Acadian exile.
The French heritage in south Louisiana has become even more pronounced since the 1960s. Tourism partly drives this new effort, hoping to attract French tourists. In 1968 Louisiana created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), which has successfully encouraged the study of French in the schools, at the same time that French-speaking has declined. The cultures of other ethnic groups in south Louisiana become part of a predominant French-based culture, typically described with a term like gumbo. Food may be the essential metaphor to describe the culture of Cajun Louisiana. The environment supplies specific ingredients, especially seafood. Africans brought okra and yams, French Creole refugees from the Caribbean brought pepper seasonings, and the indigenous Houma Indians use of sassafras leaves in cooking evolved into the thickening agent of file in stews. All of these contributions are now seen as parts of a distinctive Cajun-French cuisine that attracts visitors to the place and symbolizes south Louisiana wherever this cuisine is cooked. Lafayette serves as the cultural center, claiming identity as the Capital of Cajun Louisiana.
Essay Sections:
