The Cajuns: Americanization of a People
I’ve been reading the book, The Cajuns: Americanization of a People, by Shane Bernard and I highly recommend it. I think that this book is one of the main reasons I exhausted all of my vacation time today by booking a flight to Lafayette (Woohoo!)
I’m going to go back home to interview my grandma and a few other older family members to see their perspective of what it is to be Cajun and if they remember the exact moment they decided to stop teaching their kids Cajun French. Only 2 out of 9 of my paternal grandma’s kids speak Cajun French. My dad was one of them. All of my mom’s 8 brothers and sisters speak/spoke it but it was not passed on to any of their children. This book details the reasons for that.
It’s gotten great reviews at Amazon.com, one of them in particular hit home for me.
This book changed my life! Mr. Bernard does a great job of putting the culture in perspective. His history is accurate, interesting and inspiring. As a full blooded cajun, living outside of Louisiana, this book really hit home. I’m convinced I must return and learn the cajun french language and encourage the rest of the younger people in my family to do the same. Thanks for a great book.
I feel the same way, to a degree. I suddenly find myself scrambling, trying to find a way to preserve what is left of our culture. I want all of my friends in Louisiana to read this book and just.. understand that *we are* Cajun. It’s not just something we name our businesses. We take so many little things for granted. We assume that our little fais do dos happen all over America. We think that everyone eats rice and gravy every day and there’s a reason we don’t "get" Asian rice jokes.
Check out NPR’s coverage of the book. There’s an audio section where you can hear Shane’s slight accent and some good Cajun music. You can also hear a clip of Dennis Quaid’s god-awful fake Cajun accent in the movie The Big Easy. For the record, the soundtrack is mostly a stinker too.
So in about a month, I’ll be down in Louisiana eating crawfish at Richard’s in Abbeville! I’m so excited.. I really miss home. I’m also going 4wheeling on some Broussard’s property. Maybe we’ll hunt too. I’ll be there with my cameras (both video and still!) to capture it all.
Speaking of eating crawfish, I got some great pictures of a crawfish boil that I’ll be talking about in my next post. MmmMMM.
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Hi chrissy. I have a question for you. I grew up in South Louisiana. My family is what I once read is referred to as “mis-placed Bible Belt types” (in a book by Tim Gautreaux). But I grew up here, and I love it. I will never leave. My husband’s paternal side is of cajun descent. I have always felt it was so tragic the language and heritage of cajuns has been forgotton, at least where I’m from. That my husband’s generation does not speak the language, nor does his parent’s generation. This is something that should have never happened. I decided I want my children’s heritage to be preserved. I wanted them to learn french, so I looked up schools that I could send them to. I have been doing research about french immersion programs in schools (8 parishes, 26 schools, 60% french speaking classes and 40% english- I see you have the link to actioncadienne posted). I decided along the way that I would like to be a part in reviving the language and culture. I am an education major right now, and I have been looking into francophone studies at LSU and ULL. Do you think that I will be accepted as a french teacher? Do you think it would be acceptable for a non-cajun to teach french? Maybe since I’m cajun by marriage . I’m sure that there are some teachers in the immersion programs who are not cajun also. I’m just looking for some kind of approval I guess. By the way, I love you blog. Beautiful pictures!!
I’m going to Grand Isle with the family this summer. I guess we’ve gotten all uppity and are too good for Holly Beach, but I haven’t been to Grand Isle in 14 damn years. That’s INSANE.
Mrs. Bertrand,With a last name like “Bertrand”, I don’t think you’ll have a problem. I do think you’ll be accepted as a French teacher. I think there is only mild resistance to teachers from Europe ..at least there was for me in 6th grade.I couldn’t really tell at ActionCadienne.org what kind of french they were teaching. Is it Parisian or Cajun? If its Parisian, I think it would do the kids some good if you were to sneak in a few things from the Cajun dialect. I really hope they are pushing to keep not just French alive, but Cajun french. I also feel that anyone with a desire to keep our heritage alive will be warmly welcomed. It’s so awesome to hear that you are interested in reviving the language. I’m envious that you have the chance to take French studies at ULL. If I lived in Lafayette, that would be my first choice.I hope you go through with it all!
ken, im going to HOLLY BEACH!! I just got it confirmed!! I’m so excited!
Well, I just spoke to the dept head of francophone studies at Lafayette, and he said that they now have a hybrid program for those who wish to teach in french immersion programs. You major in Francophone Studies with the concentration area of your choice, and then you minor in a certicfication program for education to get teaching certs. They have a wide variety of french concentrations- From Parisian to African to Quebec and Louisiana dialects. Of course, my concentration will be Louisiana. I was surprised at how many different variations there are! I know what you mean about the European teacher resistance. We learned very little from our french program, and the teachers were sometimes critical of the Louisiana dialects (which offended many of course).I am so very excited about this! I really think this is so important and I hope things work out! I will have to move to go to UL Lafayette, but to me, it’s worth it. It’s two hours away from my home (which I have never left). But it will be an adventure. And when we come back, I hope to be a part in spreading the immersion programs.I’ll also be visiting your weblog again! Good stuff!
Wow, that’s so amazing. I’m so envious of you! I also agree that it is extremely important. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help to keep our heritage alive!
CHRISSY,YOUR MAW-MAW AND DEM’S CAJUN BLOG IS TRULY WONDERFUL…..BEING PURE BLOOD CAJUN I SO MUCH ENJOY SEEING AND HEARING THINGS ABOUT MY HERITAGE…..HOWEVER, YOU HAVE A SUBSITE CALLED CAJUN BLOGGERS…..”TIMSHEL”, “KEN WHEATON”, “IAN MCGIBBONEY” HAVE STORIES THAT ARE BLASPHEMOUS, PICTURES OF DEAD PEOPLE AND ARTICLES NOT RELATED TO OUR WONDERFUL CAJUN WHATSOEVER….PLEASE REVIEW AND RECONSIDER THESE SITES SO THAT PEOPLE LOOKING AT THIS OTHERWISE WONDERFUL SITE WILL NOT BE CONFUSED BY THIS OBIVIOUS WEBSITE BLOG TRASH…..THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR ELIMINATING THESE OFFENSIVE WEBSITES….
David,Thank you for your comments. I checked out all 3 blogs and could not find pictures of dead people. I believe I am the only blogger dedicated to talking about Cajun Culture. All other bloggers listed under Cajun Bloggers are bloggers who are Cajun by ethnicity thus I link because of ethnicity and not content.