V.1. “Lâche pas la patate”: French Language Cultures in Louisiana

Daniel Paul Sampey


Entrepreneur Jennifer Ledet (2011) describes the resiliency represented in the old Louisiana French
adage “Lâche pas la patate” (Don’t drop the potato), or as she translates it “‘Hang in there!’ or
‘Finish strong!’”[1] The idea of perseverance under seemingly impossible conditions has resonated
throughout Louisiana for centuries through challenges including social and economic upheaval,
floods and hurricanes as well as man-made environmental disasters such as oil spills. This text
will sketch out a few details about the development of French cultures and language in Louisiana,
featuring the 20^th-century schism between what has been called “Cajun” and “Creole,” and, finally,
the possibilities entailed in the narrative of Louisiana Créolité, which problematizes several
periphery / center binaries.


A gumbo with hundreds of ingredients

Carl A. Brasseaux refers to the “cultural landscape” of Louisiana as “one of the most complex, if
not the most complex, in rural North America [with] at least eighteen distinct groups, each with
subgroups.” (Brasseaux, 2008: 1-2) When in 1536 the Spanish first reached (what came to be called)
the Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico, people had already been living there for
at least 10,000 years. Archeological excavations show “an enormous trading network [built] with
impressive engineering skills” among “mound-building cultures [which] existed as early as 4,500
BCE.” As European colonization began in earnest in the early 1700s, an indigenous population of
approximately 14,000 people were living throughout the territory of present-day Louisiana, with the
many tribes, notably the Houma, Choctaw and Tunica-Biloxi, communicating among themselves using 22
or more languages. (National Park Service)[2] From 1719 until 1820, chattel slaves were imported
into Louisiana, mostly directly from West Africa (“listed as brut in French or bozal in Spanish”),
but also from French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. (Louisiana Slave Database 2000)
Further, Brasseaux lists some of the numerous immigrant groups that have flavored the gumbo of life
in Louisiana over the centuries:


les voyageurs; the 1699 Canadian settlers; voluntary immigrants of the John Law era; forced
immigrants of the early eighteenth century; les filles à la cassette; French military personnel
(many of whom opted to remain in the colony); Alsatian religious exiles; Acadian exiles;
Saint-Domingue refugees; refugees from the French Revolution; Bonapartist exiles; waves of
nineteenth-century French (known within Louisiana’s Francophone community as les français
étrangers); Belgian and Swiss immigrants seeking economic opportunity; French Jews fleeing
religious persecution in provinces along the German border; French, Belgian, and Canadian Catholic
missionaries; Alsatian and Lorrainer refugees from the 1870 Franco-Prussian War; Lebanese Christian
immigrants; twentieth-century French and Belgian war brides; European and French-Canadian teachers
in the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana’s bilingual programs; and Vietnamese,
Cambodian, and Laotian refugees fleeing the communist takeover in their homelands. (Brasseaux,
2008: 2-3)


Articles and books have been published on many of these groups within the disciplines of Louisiana
Studies,[3] Creole Studies and Francophone Studies as well as other academic fields such as
ethnography and comparative linguistics. As pointed out by Barry Jean Ancelet (Ancelet, 2007:
1248-1249), retired director of the Centre de folklore acadien et créole at the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette, “[t]he development of the Francophone Studies program has been naturally
interdisciplinary from the beginning.” All of the diverse populations listed above were
acculturated to the French language in Louisiana.[4] In fact, this cultural environment was the
very reason that over the centuries many immigrant populations chose Louisiana instead of, for
example, a(nother) place in the new nation of the United States. (Ancelet, 2013: 320-322) This was
the case even as late as the second half of the 20^th century in the case of refugees from former
colonies in Southeast Asia, as Louisiana had a “French influence, a similar climate, and a fishing
industry.” (Donato, Hakimzadeh, 2006)

Ancelet (2007: 1237-1238) marks out “three main currents” of the French language before the US
Civil War: the “colonial French” of the original settlers beginning in 1699; the Creole French of
the descendants of settlers, indigenous peoples and African slaves; and the Cajun French of the
descendants of exiled Acadians (1753) and other later immigrant populations.[5]

By the end of the 19^th century, the majority view is that the first group above was largely
assimilated either into the second two groups or into the mainstream English-speaking culture of
Louisiana. Regarding the second two linguistic currents, a claim can be made that their populations
and culture overlap(ped) so much that a strict differentiation between them did not come about
until after Louisiana was purchased by the United States, when an English-speaking population with
a widely different language, culture and worldview began to show more and more influence in the
region.[6] Today there are many “white” Louisianans who speak variations of what linguists call
Creole French (kréyòl la Lwizyàn), and many Louisianans that identify as “Black” use Cajun French
(français de la Louisiane) (Valdman et al., 2010: xii).[7] While in this text the distinction
between Creole and Cajun French will be maintained, in practice the situation is much more
complicated, as French-based language is used in Louisiana in dozens of interconnected regiolects.
Speakers among the language variations can generally understand each other with no difficulty
(Klinger et al., in: Valdman (ed.), 1997: 173-177; Ancelet, 2007: 1237-1238).


The colonial period until the Civil War

Before and after European and North American women arrived, the original groups of settlers —
mainly fur trappers, later farmers and ranchers — mixed considerably with Indians and African
slaves. During the first decades of colonization, the children born in Louisiana and their
descendants came to be called Créoles (from Spanish Criollo or Portuguese Crioulo) simply to
distinguish them from those not born there. (Spitzer 1985) One subsection of the original
population eventually developed into the affluent planter class who used the “Colonial French”
language current listed above. This landed wealthy included many families of gens de couleur libres
(free people of color), groups of mixed race descendants of the original settlers, indigenous
peoples and slaves who lived throughout Louisiana (Brasseaux, 2005: 12-16; Ancelet, 2007:
1238-1240).

The Créoles created poetry and belles lettres which can be closely related to trends in France of
the period. This gentry class was able to secure private instruction for their children based on
materials and pedagogy from France (Peknik, 2019: 172), or in rare cases even send their sons and
daughters to France to be educated, as was the case for young Marie Hachard in 1726. (in:
Robenstine, 1992: 199) They also appreciated opera at Théâtre St. Pierre (opened in 1792) and
several other opera houses in New Orleans, often experiencing the latest works from France and
elsewhere in Europe before New Yorkers or Philadelphians had the chance. (Belsom, 2006) Many gens
de couleur libres also owned “slaves and extensive landholdings” on plantations which their slaves
worked. This gens population “enjoy[ed] most of the legal rights but few of the social privileges
of whites [and] modeled their existences upon the lives of Louisiana’s white Creole elite.”
(Brasseaux, 2005: 12-16) This period is today often idealized by contemporary residents of
Louisiana as one during which race was not the divisive issue it became after the initial mass
influx of les Américains and especially following the US Civil War.


The Civil War also threw black Creole society into an uproar that would last at least for the
better part of a century. The complexity within the black French-speaking community was in effect
eliminated by the same laws that freed the slaves. After Reconstruction, one was simply white or
not. The descendants of landed, educated, and cultured gens de couleur libres suddenly found
themselves legally below the lowest whites, including many subsistence-farming Cajuns. The tensions
that understandably developed strained the cultural and social exchange that had previously
characterized the relationship between Cajuns and yeoman black Creoles, who after all shared a
common language and similar economic conditions. (Ancelet, 2007: 1239-1240)


In the last decades of the 20th century, invoking the unique legacy of the “free people of color,”
or simply the “free people,” a population came to reclaim the term “Creole” for themselves as a
distinct cultural marker. This will be briefly discussed below (Dominguez, 1997: 23-25, 135-136,
passim; Hall, 1992: 257-270, passim; Brasseaux, 2005: 13).

A landmark narrative of wide-spread notoriety outside of Louisiana is that of the Grand
Dérangement, literally the great “upheaval” or “disturbance,” but which is usually translated as
“Expulsion” or “Deportation of the Acadians.” This series of events became valorized by a
population who became known as “Cajuns” (derived from “Acadians”).[8] In 1753 approximately 11,500
French colonists were brutally forced from their homes by the British and deported from the
Port-Royal area on present-day Nova Scotia.[9] Over the next few years half of this population
died, many at sea, less of starvation and disease. Some were scattered throughout British-American
and French colonies and a few were sold into bondage, including children (Bernard, in: Breaux,
2011b). Some returned to France for good and others left France again. By 1800 about 4,000 members
or descendants of the original population (and their new families) had arrived in Louisiana,
generally moving into rural areas to continue their traditional subsistence farming and fur
trapping (Faragher, 2005, passim; Bernard, 2003: xvii-xviii, 50-53; Ancelet, 2007: 1235-1236).

The Dérangement narrative, which features French heroes and victims along with cruel British
villains, has taken on elements of legend among lay residents of Louisiana, with many details over
the centuries simplified, ignored or forgotten. It does not diminish this etiological narrative
(nor the possibilities for storytelling and merchandizing) to admit that it marginalizes every
other group who immigrated to or was brought to Louisiana before and after. When the Acadians
arrived, Louisiana was a Spanish colony where the French and Spanish mixed freely with few
conflicts, united by the Catholic religion. When the Louisiana Purchase was completed and even
after the tiny boot at the end was made a US state in 1812, nothing much changed in the region for
decades. Nevertheless, as the 19^th century progressed, the Romance-based culture of Louisiana
became a source of frustration for les Américains as the newcomers gradually began to assume
political and economic power (Dessens, 2015: 174-174, passim; King, 1921, passim; Hubbs, 2021:
619-620).

The French cultures of Louisiana continued to prosper for 60 years after the US purchase of the
territory in 1803. Yet a separation steadily began to form, with English used for official, legal
and commercial activities, “French for family, entertainment and cultural purposes” (Heylen, 1993).
It seems that the French in New Orleans looked somewhat bemusedly upon the uncultured strangers,
for instance taking advantage of the language barrier to gently ridicule the values and customs of
the newcomers from the United States, itself a nation only a few decades old (Hubbs, 2021: 619-621;
King, 1921: 250-252).

The contemporary written literary output of post-colonial Louisiana in French represented a
thriving culture of verse, journalism, nonfiction and, by the late 19^th century, a bit of fiction,
all derivative of European models. Perhaps a sample of “Afro-Creole” poetry from a New Orleans
newspaper of the mid-1800s would demonstrate one popular style, which as we can see exudes an
ebullient Romantic idealism not unlike works of the period in other literary fields:


                                        “Poésie! Vox Dei!”

                           N’entends-tu pas sonner à l’horloge lointaine

                       L’heure de tant d’espoirs, l’heure sainte et certaine

                                      De la pure Fraternité?

                           N’entends-tu pas vibrer ces voix mystérieuses

                           Qui passent en courbant ces têtes sérieuses,

                                    Ces voix fortes de Liberté?

                                              (Lélia D. [Adolphe Duhart] in: Bruce trans. 2020)[10]


In English nuanced by French influence, Local Color fiction of the period, for example that of
George Washington Cable and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, portrays in fine detail the language négociations
(not to mention those of class, race, and gender) unfolding in late-19^th century New Orleans:


[Q]uotation marks and phonetic spellings representing speakers’ French accents mark out their
occasional English exclamations; otherwise, English is provided by the stories’ third-person
narrators, who translate characters’ words and thoughts from French. When Creoles blast English as
“a vile tongue,” [from Cable’s “Madame Délicieuse”] they almost never voice their condemnation in
English. (Hubbs, 2021: 619)


Written literary production and reception in French on a significant scale would not be created in
Louisiana again until the 1970s, when a major attempt at the formal codification of French grammar
and vocabulary was undertaken (Barry, 1989: 47). Outside of (literary and literate) urban areas,
throughout the 19^th century there was practically no contact at all between native Louisianans and
the new merchant and investor class that represented the first Anglo-Americans who ventured into
the newly declared state. For centuries rural Louisianans had maintained a healthy French oral
literary culture of folk tales, nursery rhymes, songs and games passed down through the generations
(Ancelet, 1988a: 36-39; Brasseaux, 1992: 29-30, 115; Peknik, 2019: 1-21, passim). Here is a verse
from a traditional folksong, versions of which were made into popular recordings throughout the
20^th century. The song is still performed today, sometimes by a male singer, sometimes by a
female:


Jolie blonde, tu croyais qu’il y avait juste toi,

Il y a pas juste toi dans le pays pour m’aimer.

Je peux trouver juste une autre jolie blonde,

Bon Dieu sait, moi, j’en ai un tas.[11]

                              (“Cleoma Breaux and her brothers” recorded 1929, in: Peknik 2019, 48)


While culturally (including linguistically) the situation for most of Louisiana had barely changed
in the six decades since it was incorporated into the United States, a major inflection point came
with US Civil War, as it did for the entire country not yet one century old. Even after the
occupation by Federal troops was officially ended in 1877, pressures remained upon the
French-speaking population towards total acculturation to the customs, values and language of the
United States. These efforts would culminate in Federal and State educational initiatives in the
early 20^th century (Ancelet, 2008: 1240-1242).

These transitions from French to “American” are depicted in literary works in several genres,
including belles lettres as well as the Local Color of writers like Cable and Dunbar-Nelson as
mentioned above. (Hubbs, 2021: passim). Nearly all regional French-language newspapers such as Le
Pionnier De L’assomption, La Sentinelle De Thibodaux and Le Louisianais folded during the Civil War
or Reconstruction periods. (Library of Congress) By the end of the 19^th century there was much
less space or patience in the new, progressive ethos of Realism for the difference once brought by
Louisiana French cultures.


“I must not speak French on the school grounds.”

In several of the contributions to this book it has been documented how during the era of
colonialism a particular Romance language in an area was privileged to the detriment of local
languages and cultures. The Romance language and European ethos associated with it often came to
dominate educational systems to form an elite class of administrators who accumulated cultural and
economic capital. In the mid-20^th century, as colonialism waned and the English language gradually
began to dominate internationally, with Anglo-American mass cultural products (including
literature) penetrating so many markets around the world, new layers of periphery/center
relationships began to develop. New negotiations had to be made among local languages, the Romance
language of the former colonizer, and English, often resulting, on the one hand, in homogenization
according to Anglo-American models, and on the other, the emergence of sometimes provocative hybrid
cultural artifacts incorporating influences from multiple streams. These moves can be related to
what has been called “Janus-headed Postmodernism” (Jansen, 2016) — the desperate loss of “truth”
versus the playful creation of new models. The evolving status of French in Louisiana reflects
these types of complex negotiations in potentially surprising ways. In contrast to the colonial
(mis)uses of French, in Africa for example, in Louisiana it is the Romance language that was and
remains under threat of absorption and even annihilation.

David Barry (in Breaux, 2011a) points to three factors that heavily influenced French in Louisiana
in the 20^th century: the discovery of oil in 1901, the legal imposition of English as the only
language of school education in 1921, and the experiences of French-speaking Louisianans serving
abroad during World War Two. We will now briefly explore the first two negative influences on
Louisiana French, followed by the third factor, which is positive.

As outlined above, after Louisiana became the 18^th state in 1812, the increased economic activity
of large cities like New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport created a strong incentive for
residents to incorporate features of the largely Protestant-based culture of the United States,
including the English language, into their lives (Brasseaux, 2005: 75-76; Ancelet, 2007:
1236-1240). Large populations who did not speak French became a major part of the population,
eventually dominating sections of urban areas such as new neighborhoods west of Canal Street in New
Orleans, in contrast to the older sections of the city such as the Vieux Carré, (Faubourg) Tremé,
and Faubourg Marigny. In rural areas, however, the oral French culture continued to dominate, with
music and food serving as two primary ways of transmitting the language from generation to
generation (Brasseaux, in: Bernard, 1996: xvii-xviii; Gutierrez, 1992: 121-138; Peknik, 2019: 68,
94). As fiddle-player and chanteur Marc Savoy has commented, “Music is the glue [le coll] that
holds the culture together.”[12] (in: Lomax, 1991)

In the first decades of the 20^th century, several educational initiatives were introduced to more
closely acculturate the monolingual and largely illiterate residents of rural Louisiana into the
United States (Ancelet, 1988a: 35-40). One of the first of these projects was the institution of
mandatory school attendance in 1916 for children until the age of fifteen for females and sixteen
for males (Harris, 1916: 96).[13] This was difficult to accept for subsistence farming and trapping
communities in which the seasonal labor of sons and daughters was vital to providing basic food
needs. As Ancelet describes, children and adolescents “regularly were kept home to help with
plowing, planting, hoeing, and harvesting.” In terms of preconceptions about school education
itself, “traditional societies such as that of the Cajuns often considered formal education outside
the home to be threatening to the natural transmission of information from one generation to the
next” (Ancelet, 2007: 1240).

Further feeding the qualms of the local residents, in 1921 the Louisiana State Constitution was
amended to impose English as the only language of school education. The pupils, many of whom had
never used English before or even heard it spoken, were now not allowed to use any other language.


Several generations of young Cajun and black Creole first-graders, forced to wet their pants at
school because they could not ask permission to go to the rest room, soon associated their native
language and culture with social stigmatization. Those who could joined the headlong rush toward
the language of the future. Soon speaking French was considered not unlike picking your nose: it
was something well-raised people did not do in public. (Ancelet, 2007: 1240)


At school children were chastised and even beaten for speaking French. These tales of whippings,
kneeling on rice and rapping on knuckles became legendary. Still, most of these stories seem a bit
exaggerated, with the heavier corporal punishment coming mostly from enseignants américains who
themselves could not understand this “foreign” language. Pupils who were caught speaking French
were generally punished in less violent ways, for instance they were made to write the line
one-thousand times “I must not speak French on the school grounds.” (Breaux, 2011b)[DEL: :DEL]

Children who used their native language at school were also stigmatized in other ways such as
labeling with epithets such as “coonass.” This pejorative signified the working-class population —
low education, lazy, intractable — equating Cajuns[14] with American stereotypes of French- and
Spanish-based cultures. The term was applied to members of the local population to indicate their
lower economic and social status as compared to those who whole-heartedly personified and accepted
the values and the superiority of the culture of the United States (Ancelet, 2007: 1241). The
coonass was assigned a similar or even a lower status than that of Blacks in Jim Crow-era Louisiana
(Bernard. 1997).[15] This stigmatization was similar to the derogation imposed on Irish and other
immigrant groups, for example in metropolitan areas across the United States in the mid-19th to
early 20th-century. The difference is that in Louisiana the target was a population who had thrived
in the area for centuries before the existence of the legal authority instigating the
acculturation, the United States Federal Government. Parallels with other colonizing efforts around
the world can easily be drawn.

Today such a legal prohibition of language might sound draconian, but the truth is that for all but
a few couillons,[16] this and other policies only encoded the attitude of inferiority that many
Louisianans already felt. The anti-French mentality was internalized and reified by native
Louisiana teachers, many of whom also spoke only French at home with their own families (Ancelet,
2008: 139-140; Blyth, in: Valdman (ed.), 1997: 31-32). Until the 1960s, speaking and especially
reading and writing French was seen as useless in a school system based on the classic pragmatism
of John Dewey. In other words, as was the case all over the United States, children were to be
educated simply to get the best job at the highest possible wages and to otherwise serve the
economic system. French was simply not a part of that equation. Brasseaux points out how
“Louisiana’s French-speaking communities were almost entirely forgotten in state histories and
historical textbooks” (Brasseaux, 2005: 132). Many Louisiana natives resented this attitude and
instinctively rebelled against it, for example through Cajun and Zydeco music, as outlined in note
12 above. Jean Arceneaux voiced his Schizophrénie linguistique in a poem, this version from 1978:


On a pas réellement besoin de parler français quand même.

C’est les États-Unis ici,

Land of the Free.

On restera toujours rien que des poor
coonasses.
                      I will not speak French on the school grounds.

I will not speak French on the school
grounds.


Coonass, non, non, ça gêne pas.

C’est juste un petit nom.

Ça veut rien dire.

C’est pour s’amuser, ça gêne pas.

On aime ça, c’est cute.

Ça nous fait pas fâchés.

Ça nous fait rire,

Mais quand on doit rire, c’est en quelle langue qu’on rit?

Et pour pleurer, c’est en quelle langue qu’on pleure?

Et pour crier?

Et chanter?

Et aimer?

Et vivre? (Arceneaux, in : Hamilton et al., 1987: 251-252)[17]


Regarding the discovery of oil in Jennings in 1901, while this event happened earlier than the
mandate against French in schools, the full influence on Louisiana was felt only decades later.
David Barry (in: Breaux, 2011a) outlines two effects of the burgeoning oil business on French in
Louisiana. First, there were gradually more and more Américains in the area who were speaking
English in the local communities. Many of those working in management and engineering remained in
the area to start families by finding a local wife, thus themselves were acculturated to Louisiana
culture since their children used French at home with their mother. The second effect — or, rather,
incentive — was economic. Suddenly the mostly rural population had an opportunity to earn large
salaries by working in the oil fields. Many were ready to leave their traditional lifestyle of
seafood, trapping, farming if they could afford the materials to build a comfortable house (with
the help of their neighbors), purchase a car, or by the post-WWII period even take holidays outside
of Louisiana (Ancelet, 2007: 1241; Brasseaux, 2008: 76).

It is vital to keep in mind that the first decades of the 20^th century was also the period of
Nativism, for example Theodore Roosevelt’s “Hyphenated American” speech delivered at the 1915
national meeting of the Knights of Columbus — a national Catholic organization. Nevertheless, while
the possibility of becoming a “non-hyphenated” American does not seem to have persuaded the Cajuns
and Creoles in Louisiana to acculturate, with all the oil money now available, economic interests
finally came to dominate (Ancelet, 2007: 1237-1239). The oil and gas industry finished the job of
Americanization-modernization on rural Louisiana that the Civil War had started.

According to Professor Barry, however, the seminal impetus for the eventual revival of French
language and culture was the travels of Louisiana soldiers during World War Two. A total of 25,000
French-speaking Louisianans served in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific theater. When the young
men at one recruiting center were asked if they could speak a foreign language, the lowly private
Bernie LeJeune responded that he could speak French. The recruiter assured him that bastardized
Louisiana French “would be of no benefit to the US Army” (Kube, 1994: 345). Once abroad, however,
it was soon clear that the Louisianans could communicate with French soldiers and French-speaking
populations, which became extremely useful in several environments (Hamilton et al., 1987: 383). In
Casablanca, for example, when the United States and French commanders were having a dispute,
LeJeune overheard French being spoken. LeJeune inquired about the situation, and was immediately
called in to aid in communication. One French soldier later approached LeJeune to ask “Where did
you learn to speak English?” (Kube, 1994: 346). The language that the soldiers had been punished
for speaking at home became an important asset abroad in the war.

When the Louisiana troops came home, they returned with a new respect for their native French
language. They also sought “comfort in ‘old-time’ music,” as the joyous accordion began to dominate
over the (at times) plaintive fiddle (Bernard, 1996: 44-45). The veterans explained — in French —
to their family and friends how their language skills were valuable in a world where not everybody
speaks English (Kube, 1994: passim). The people were surprised that “notre mauvais français” would
have any value outside their own family and community. Still, throughout the 1950s and much of the
1960s a nonchalant attitude regarding their own language and culture remained the norm for most of
the population, thus “serious efforts would be necessary” if the language was to be preserved
(Ancelet, 1988b: 345).


Renaissance

By the mid-1960s, as dissatisfaction with consumerist and militaristic values came to prevail in
much of the Western world, Louisianans – especially the younger generations – began to recognize
that something they already had at home could represent an apposite response to the dominant
culture. The enthusiastic reception of a performance by a group of Cajuns at the 1964 Newport Folk
Festival in Rhode Island led the musicians as well as those back in Louisiana to realize that there
was commercial potential in sharing their cultural artefacts outside of the region (Bernard, 1996:
75-77). Brasseaux marks the year of 1968 as “the beginning of the Cajun cultural renaissance”
(Brasseaux, 2005: 132). Anything in French, but especially folklore and music, could satiate the
need for authenticity in reaction to modern industrial society, and a multi-generational movement
developed to revive various forms. This was also a direct “reaction to the Anglo-conformism of
previous times” (Bernard, 2003: 87). All of the money to be made in the oil fields could not
satisfy the yearning to nurture and celebrate the connection to nature that folk cultures
represent.[18]

The evolution of the term “coonass” can be taken as a sign of the changes in self-perception of the
Louisiana French-speaking population during this period. Once a derogative label othering Cajuns as
outsiders to mainstream US society, by the 1960s the term was reclaimed as one of pride, including
the use of the French language. The sociolinguistics concept of William Labov “covert prestige” can
be applied here, i.e. “the positive social significance lies in the local culture of social
relations.” (Green, in: Finegan and Rickford (ed.), 2004: 71) The rehabilitation of the term echoes
the reclamation of formerly pejorative indicators by other marginalized identity groups based on
sexual and gender orientation, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and race, etc. for example, “Wop,”
“Mick,” more recently “nigga” and “queer” (Brontsema, 2004). By the 1970s, the self-label “coonass”
began to be taken by certain Louisiana residents as a marker of defiance against a perceived center
of American English, consumerist values, and the post-WWII homogenization of culture by mass media,
all of which seek to eliminate difference. This was also the height of the era of white flight to
the suburbs and the destruction of urban ethnic neighborhoods – with traditional Catholic and other
religious communities especially decimated, including neighborhoods in New Orleans and Baton Rouge
(Jones, 2004: 555-557, passim). As we will see below, later this period also saw the revival of the
term “Creole.”

This is when the colorful figure of James “Jimmy” Domengeaux emerges. A lawyer and politician from
the city of Lafayette, Domengeaux’s Wikipedia page also calls him a “cultural activist,” and indeed
for decades he battled to promulgate the French language culture of southwest Louisiana (Wikipedia,
“James R. Domengeaux”). In 1968, the Governor of Louisiana formed CODOFIL, the Council for the
Development of French in Louisiana (Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane),
appointing Domengeaux as its president. Until his death in 1988, Domengeaux dominated the
organization, initially with an approach based on so-called “French French” from the metropolis.
The obvious implication was that the French spoken in Louisiana was peripheral at best,
embarrassing at worst. Teachers from France, Belgium and Quebec were recruited and brought to
Louisiana to teach the French language. Louisiana teachers were sent abroad to “learn” French and
pedagogy. A backlash soon came from parents and others that Louisiana French was not being
preserved, but replaced. Calls for the localization of language instruction began (Ancelet, 2008:
138-144). This brought a standard response from CODOFIL spokespersons: “Why should we perpetuate
illiteracy in the classroom by teaching Cajun French? It’s an oral language. It doesn’t have a
grammar. It doesn’t have a written form.” (Ancelet, 1988b: 347)

While the president of CODOFIL Jimmy Domengeaux’s first language was French and he had fought for
decades to preserve Louisiana French language and culture, he was also interested in bringing
business and financial capital to the state. The old fields hit their peak of production in 1969,
and by the 1980s tax revenue (and thousands of jobs) were being lost when production was curtailed
(Austin et al., 2013: 37-65). The funding for CODOFIL was threatened. Budgetary sources for the
programs were shifted from the Louisiana Department of Education to the Department of Culture,
Recreation and Tourism. Today it is telling that CODOFIL is officially administered under Culture,
Recreation and Tourism, although “it acts as a partner to the Department of Education” (Wikipedia,
“CODOFIL”).

The underlying intent of CODOFIL and Domengeaux was positive, but the initial solution of basing
language education on variants of French from outside of Louisiana was potentially dangerous,
threatening to substitute the periphery of the local languages with some center – be it Paris or
Montreal. On the other hand, the public felt a sense of unity with other French-speaking
peripheries, conveyed especially in a gestures of solidarity with some features of Révolution
tranquille in French Canada. The most famous of these expressions was the song of defiance
“Réveille” by Zachary Richard. As Richard performed this “Acadian national anthem” at the 1975
Louisiana Festival de Musique Acadienne “he and the members of his band waved a flag and held their
fists in the air.” As Bernard (2003) describes, in the hymnal “Réveille,” Richard “transferred his
militancy from protesting the Vietnam War to saving Cajun French culture.” In the text, allusions
to the Grand Dérangement of 200 years earlier can be mapped onto the contemporary situation of the
domination of the United States / English center over the Louisiana / French periphery.


C’est les goddams

qui viennent

Voler les enfants.

Réveille! Réveille!

Hommes acadiens

Pour sauver l’héritage.

(in: Bernard, 2003: 72) [19]


The 1975 performance of “Réveille” and the response to it attracted the attention “of the rest of
the French-speaking world, especially in Quebec and the Acadian Maritimes where politics and
culture were deeply intertwined” (Ancelet, 2007: 1252-53).[20]

The local responses to CODOFIL’s philosophy of discounting the French language already spoken in
Louisiana soon reached the tipping point, with protests by natives eventually bringing about a
change of educational policy. A shift was made by CODOFIL towards teaching — or attempting to teach
— authentic Louisiana French. But whose Louisiana French? Decisions had to be made regarding
codification and standardization to turn an essentially oral language into a written one (Ancelet,
2007: 1241-1246). Towards the end of the 1970s, various efforts were undertaken to create study
materials for students written in Cajun French, for example an ultimately unsuccessful textbook by
James Donald Faulk in 1977 which featured a “pronunciation guide based on English phonetics to more
immediately reach his students who could already read English.” Surveys and documentation of
language variations were carried out across the state. Creating teaching materials remained a
challenge, but it was still a possibility with a few “lexical, syntactic, and stylistic
negotiations” (Ancelet, 2007: 1246). Finally effective textbooks and other educational materials in
Cajun French were created and put into classroom use by the mid-1980s. Nevertheless, “the
connection that could have been made to the living laboratories in the experience of virtually
every student was lost” in the first 15 years or so of school education in French in Louisiana
through CODOFIL (Ancelet, 2008: 141-144 ).

Artists and creative writers also contributed to the revival of French in Louisiana. What David
Barry (1989) calls a “French literary renaissance” began to appear, especially with the poetry
collection Cris sur le Bayou (1980) curated by Barry Jean Ancelet (who also contributes under the
nom de plume Jean Arceneaux). The themes that emerge include age-old motifs such as exile and
rebellion along with more recent tropes such as liminal linguistic and cultural identities. Here we
may provide two representative examples.


Mo connais premier fois-à yé pelé mo

créole

Yé dit pas parler ça

C’est di vilain moyèr


Yé rete tout quichoce, tout ça m’olé fait

Fait pas ça comme créole c’est di vilain

Yé pas donné mo choix

Yé gain force, yé gain loi

Yé ça massacrer tout

pis déclarer toi fou

Mo suivi yé chemin

Mo té tracassée plein

Mo pas trouvé moyen

Vini bon ’méricain

(Debbie Clifton, Voyageur, in: Cris sur le Bayou, 1980: 76) [21]


Zachary Richard here takes a more plaintive approach.


Devenu étranger à ma propre langue,

Parler français, parler anglais,

caméléon de culture,

c’est quoi, quoi c’est ça

la culture.

…


Dans toutes les langues

Du monde, tout l’monde

Criant d’une seule voix

“J’su que j’su.”

Fin de la tyrannie.

Délivrance à la paix.[22]

(Poème Pour La Défense De La Culture, in: Cris sur le Bayou, 1980: 45)


Gradually the local language varieties — codified as Cajun French — became taught in schools. In
the mid-1980s Domengeaux oversaw the institution of immersion education, through which all subjects
are taught in French. In addition, from 1985-1993 CODOFIL and Louisiana Public Broadcasting
produced the weekly television program En Français, a series “entirely in French [which]
highlighted the culture of Francophone Louisiana” (LMDA, 2018). Though this multivalent approach
remained successful for decades in terms of attracting national and international attention
(including tourism), students gradually began to show less interest in learning the language in
schools (Lindner, 2013: 461; Trépanier, 1991: 169-170).

Efforts continue to be made locally and with global partners to support French education in
Louisiana. Formed by a plan established through the cooperation of the French government Ministry
for Europe and Foreign Affairs, CODOFIL as well as other partners, in 2022 a program was announced
by which teachers from France can live in Louisiana for as long as two years “to teach the French
language or their subject in French.” Thus far, 41 French teachers have been recruited under this
program for positions in immersion schools (France Éducation international, 2022).


The commoditization of “Cajun” and a challenge to it

Scholars have reacted in various ways to what Pascale Casanova (2004) has termed a globalized
“World Republic of Letters.” Taking a longer view, however, there has always been a tug-of-war of
influence between putative centers and peripheries even before the ages of colonialism and
globalization. And as Pierre Bourdieu (2002) has outlined, it is not only financial capital that is
exchanged in sets of power relations, but also social, symbolic and cultural capital, for instance
through the commoditization of artefacts. These types of negotiations represent a recurrent theme
in several chapters of this book.

During the late 1980s it was Cajun culture’s turn to be commodified, including “[n]iche marketing,
the structuring of recreation around the modern work week, and the establishment of personal
identity through the purchase of symbolically rich commodities” (Bankston, 2000; Henry, 2000: 377).
Suddenly rural south Louisiana “Cajun Country” became a popular tourist destination as an addendum
to a holiday in urban New Orleans (Ware, 2003: 160). Even today thousands of products and services
(books, toys, restaurants, food items, sports teams, mass media products) that bear the name
“Cajun” are ubiquitous throughout Louisiana. It can be safely said that a significant percentage of
these artefacts have little to do with French Louisiana culture (Bankston, 2000; Henry, 2000:
385-387, 393-400). Corporate fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Pizza Hut created “Cajun” or
“Cajun Spice” versions of their products, along with national and international marketing campaigns
promoting them. Hollywood movies with large budgets (The Big Easy, McBride 1986) as well as
smaller, independent films (Southern Comfort, Hill 1981) featured Louisiana settings and
characters, with locals often ridiculing the actors’ attempts at regional accents. Cajuns were
marketed as either Rousseau’s pure noble savage, or as wild, violent killers of anyone who intruded
into their territory. The reification of these stereotypes and the homogenization of the complex
layers of Louisiana culture into a simplified image of “Cajun” frustrated some local activists and
made a number of local entrepreneurs rich (Ancelet, 2007: 1242-1244).

But the Cajuns were not the only Louisianans to be dismayed by this commoditization (or what we
might call “centering”) of Cajun French culture. By the 1980s a challenge to Cajun French had
emerged from a population identifying itself as “Creole” who began to more widely project their own
French-based culture as distinctive and worth celebrating and preserving (Istre, 2018: 209). By the
mid-20th century the term Creole had moved towards a cultural marker of racial differentiation in
opposition to the category of “Cajun,” with the latter “white” group marked as variously inferior
(to the often “mixed” traditional landed class who had spoken a more refined “Créole” French based
more closely on European models), or superior (to “Black” speakers of the hybrid of French, Native
American, Spanish, and West African languages which became known as “Louisiana Creole”) (Brasseaux,
2005: 90; Valdman et al., 2010: xii). [23]

CODOFIL now came under harsh criticism because of the lack of linguistic diversity in their
language programs, in which the codified Cajun French was valorized to the exclusion of what was
positioned as Creole French. In the same way as the first generation of Louisiana French educators
had to deal with the issue of “whose French?” by standardizing the language to create new learning
materials, those identifying as Creole began to create their own language education and outreach
programs (Dawdy, 2000: 109; Valdman et al., 2010: xii). In fact, today it might be said that in
terms of free open source online language materials and courses, more Louisiana Creole resources
can be found than Cajun ones, for example the downloadable textbook Ti Liv Kréyòl (Guillory-Chatman
et al., 2020), which is complete with lessons featuring sound recordings, grammar, and glossaries.
On the other hand, in terms of mass consumer products, popular books, etc. the marker “Cajun” still
dominates, especially in tourist areas.

Designed in 1987, the official Louisiana Creole flag represents some of the diverse influences
claimed by the movement (Bondurand, 2001). The upper left section features a white fleur de lis on
a blue field, representing Louisiana’s French heritage. West Africa is symbolized by the Mali
Republic national flag in the lower left corner, the Senegal Republic national flag in the upper
right. The Spanish colonial period is signified by the Tower of Castille on the lower right. In
1987 the non-profit C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc. (Cultural, Resourceful, Educational Opportunities, and
Linguistic Enrichment Incorporated) was established with: “the mission […] to develop and
perpetuate the Creole language and culture as it exists in the State of Louisiana.” Their various
activities include participation in “international festivals, exchange programs, and cultural and
educational programs,” including language, music, art, dance, food, architecture, and literature.
The focus is international: “to provide opportunities for a global sharing of multicultural
experiences within the Creole community” (C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc., 2022).

In response to what is perceived as the socially constructed Cajun / Creole binary that has held
fast for more than 100 years in Louisiana, in the 2010s a new program began to emerge offering the
narrative of Louisiana Créolité, “a movement against the idea of race as the deciding feature of a
population” (Landry, 2005). Christophe Landry, “a 10th generation Louisiana Creole, linguistic
activist, and historian” contextualizes the movement:


Placing Louisiana Créolité in this context, obsessing over the etymology of the word Creole itself
has three effects. First, it impedes looking at Creole Louisiana for what it has been and currently
is. Second, it is a way to continually disclaim a shared genealogical and cultural relationship
with people of opposite “races.” Third, constantly discussing the etymology of Louisiana Créolité,
permits the speaker to couch Cajunité (Cajunness) and Créolité in some “pure racial” idea. In the
pure race world, inhabitants do not mix, borrow from one another, live among one another, or share
common ancestors. Because Americans (and now Americanized Creoles) associate race-mixing with
Creole, it becomes essential to stress the “original use” of Creole. (Landry, 2022)


In the 2005 documentary Spirit of a Culture: Cane River Creoles (2005) novelist John Sarpy
personalizes the point and puts it even more plainly:


I’m not black, I’m not white. I’m in between, I’m a Creole. When you start trying to say that or
explain it, ninety-nine percent of America just does not buy it. This multiracial thing to me is at
the heart of my concept of being Creole, all right? It was at the heart of the concept of my
grandparents and great grandparents and great parents before them of being Creole. [Today] all you
will see is white history and black history. There is nothing in between. […] But where there is
any element of a mixture of white and black, then that the mixture has to disappear into black. […]
It’s a man-made divider. (in: Rodman, 2005)


In response to this de facto segregation, Louisiana Créolité represents a celebration of difference
through the recognition that dissimilarities are often only superficial — especially in a place
with such a unique history and so many diverse cultural influences. The explicit intention of the
Louisiana Créolité movement is to overcome racial, ethnic, language and other divisions toward
their resolutions, not excluding spiritual elements. The mutual intelligibility of the assorted
varieties of French-based language serves as a connection among the various populations across
Louisiana as well as in other parts of the United States — notably communities in Texas and
California. The knowledge of French has also created numerous opportunities for cultural and
educational exchanges not only with the centers of France and Quebec, but also in French-speaking
areas around the world in Africa and Southeast Asia (C.R.E.O.L.E. Inc., 2022; Landry, 2022).


By way of conclusion: Is Louisiana a part of the South?

The main points of this text can be summarized by tracing several periphery / center binaries[24]
which can help describe cultural associations in Louisiana – then and now:


                                        periphery / center

                                     French / American English

                                   “Louisiana French” / “French”

                   kréyòl la Lwizyàn (Creole) / français de la Louisiane (Cajun)


Besides these, other dichotomies may be explored, such as Louisiana / “the South.” As the binaries
listed above flow into each other as determined in and by various situations, so does this one. In
the 19^th century, many Louisiana citizens — especially in regions where French still dominated —
wanted no part of the US Civil War. When they were conscripted into Confederate (or to a lesser
extent, Union) armies, large numbers of recruits deserted and fled to the swamps and the deep woods
where they could not be found by Federal or Confederate officials, neither groups of whom knew the
geography of the territory (Sacher, 2007: 152-163). The Louisiana state legal system is also
totally unique in the United States, administrated as it is through Catholic-based parishes instead
of counties. Further, since 1804 the state government has been based on the Napoleonic Code in
which all laws are strictly codified as opposed to the other state governments and the US Federal
government, which are based more or less on the English common law system of judicial precedents
(Engber, 2005).

On the other hand, since the end of the 19^th century Louisiana can certainly be called a part of
“the South.” Many of its citizens possess many positive stereotypical features such as warm
hospitality, distinctive cuisine, entertaining folklore as well as respect for traditional cultures
and values. Still, it cannot be denied that various governments, groups and individuals in
Louisiana have perpetrated some of the worst discrimination and violence in the history of the
United States, for example the 1939 brutal beating and maiming of the Black Creole Amédé Ardoin, a
“forerunner of both zydeco and Cajun music” (Sandmel, 2022).

As shown above, many scholars from Louisiana and elsewhere have documented the slowly accumulating
influence of the United States beginning in the 19^th century, gaining force after the US Civil
War, and finally becoming dominant at the beginning of the 20^th century. Since this time the
French-language cultural-complex of Louisiana has become the periphery in the region in which it
was the hegemonic center, a periphery which can be defined in contrast to both “the South” as well
as the United States as a whole. From about 1970 to the year 2000 or so a Renaissance of Louisiana
French language and culture took place which had great effects within the state as well as
nationally and internationally. In 1990 about 250,000 Louisianans indicated that “French was the
main language spoken at home.”[25] Still, today it seems like the younger population has less
interest in preserving it (Mamone, 2021; Lindner: 2013, 461: Trépanier, 1991: 169-170). As of 2010,
the number of native speakers of Louisiana French was reported at 115,183, with a per capita rate
lower than that of native French speakers in California and New York (American Community Survey
2006-2010)

Despite decreasing overall numbers of French speakers in Louisiana, those who call themselves
Cajun, Creole or simply “French” continue to feel strongly about their heritage, and are working to
keep alive the traditions of food, music, literature, folklore and art in the various regions.
Tourism to Acadiana, including sightseeing tours and excursions, remains a strong economic boon,
and online communities of interest maintain close contacts around the world with other French
speakers. Bachelor’s and master’s study programs in French and Francophone Studies are offered at
several colleges, with doctoral programs available at three universities, including a unique
interdisciplinary PhD program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2020). As exemplified in
the narrative of Louisiana Créolité, the emphasis is on commonalities, not differences.
International cooperation with Francophone centers like Quebec and France as well as the Antilles
and Haiti, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Maghreb, and the Mediterranean has helped
French speakers in Louisiana to continue and fortify their efforts Lâche pas la patate.


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Robenstine, Clark (1992). French Colonial Policy and the Education of Women and Minorities:
Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth Century. History of Education Quarterly, 32, 2, 193-211.

Rodman, Bill (2005). Spirit of a Culture: Cane River Creoles. Louisiana Public Broadcasting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFuxsJQVJs.

Sacher, John. (2007). “A Very Disagreeable Business”: Confederate Conscription in Louisiana. Civil
War History, 53, 141-169. doi: 10.1353/cwh.2007.0042.

Sandmel, Ben (2022). Amede Ardoin. 1898-1941. Music Rising at Tulane. New Orleans: Tulane
University. https://musicrising.tulane.edu/discover/people/amede-ardoin/.

Spitzer, Nicholas R. (1985). The Creole State: An Introduction to Louisiana Traditional Culture.
Folklife in Louisiana. Louisiana’s Living Traditions.

https://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_creole_state.html.

Trépanier, Cécyle (1991). The Cajunization of French Louisiana: Forging a Regional Identity.

The Geographical Journal, 157, 2, 161-171.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2020). Communities of Interest. Louisiana Studies.
https://communities.louisiana.edu/communities/louisiana-studies.

Valdman, Albert et alii (2010). Dictionary of Louisiana French. As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and
American Indian Communities. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Ware, Carolyn E. (2003). Marketing Mardi Gras: Heritage Tourism in Rural Louisiana. Western
Folklore, 62, 3, léto 2003, 160.

Wikipedia contributors, “CODOFIL,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Council_for_the_Development_of_French_in_Louisiana&oldid
=1106281748.

Wikipedia contributors, “James R. Domengeaux,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_R._Domengeaux&oldid=1096546304.

https://www.lsu.edu/hss/french/undergraduate_program/cajun_french/cajun_french_english_glossary.php
.

________________________________

[1] This “appel à la persévérance” was also the title of a well-known song from 1976 on the La
Louisiane record label by Jimmy C. Newman (Jimmy Yves Newman, the “C” stands for “Cajun”). The
upbeat recording also became popular across French Canada, earning “gold” status by selling 40,000
units.

[2] The United Houma Nation was consolidated during the 19^th century from several different
tribes, with the French language as one unifying factor: “Between 1830 and 1860 women in the new
Houma community intermarried extensively with French speaking men of the region, and it appears
that the group’s principal language became Cajun French as a result of exogamy during this period.”
Brasseaux has documented how the Houma played a unique role in preserving the French language in
Louisiana due to “the group’s increasing marginalization in local society” beginning in the
mid-19th century as well as the legal denial of the right to attend “white educational facilities”
in the early 20^th century. (Brasseaux, 2008: 125-128) The irony should not be lost on us that, in
this respect, discrimination and racism (certainly not only against the Houma) served as a factor
in preserving French in Louisiana at a time when pressures were increasingly being placed on all
residents to “Americanize” to English in the first decades on the 20^th century.

[3] Established in 1973, the discipline of “Louisiana Studies involves issues relating to
researching and preserving those aspects of Louisiana that speak to our cultural, economic,
geographical, biological, sociological, artistic and historical contexts [including] the local,
regional and global realms with many potential social, educational, economic and policy
implications.” (University of Louisiana at Lafayette 2022)

[4] The Spanish colonial period (1762-1801) of the entire Louisiana territory should not be
underestimated in terms of influence on the cuisine and architecture (for instance in the “French
Quarter” of New Orleans, largely rebuilt after the great fires of 1788 and 1794). French culture
continued to dominate, although the Spanish seemed to tolerate this, perhaps due to their similar
Romance language-based Weltanschauung. (Gregory, 2002) This is in huge contrast to the cultural
misunderstandings and clashes that occurred as economic speculators and, eventually, permanent
settlers from the United States began to trickle into the area following the Louisiana Purchase of
1803, by which the size of the new country was increased by a full one-third. (Ancelet, 2007:
1237-1241, passim; Bernard, 2003: xvii-xxi, passim; Blyth in Valdman (ed.), 1997: 26-28, 31-33)

[5] Cécyle Trépanier (Trépanier, 1991: 161) designates “at least four major French subcultures”:
white Creoles, black Creoles, “French-speaking Indians,” and “descendants of the Acadians.”

[6] Numerous fiction and nonfiction writers have detailed the conflicts in Louisiana between the
basic features of a pragmatist Protestant worldview (e.g. Weber) versus the strong Catholicism —
including syncretic elements of mysticism — that was predominant in Louisiana until the mid-20^th
century. (King, 1921: 164-176; Brasseaux, 1992: 84-85; Bernard, 2003: 38-41).

[7] Notably, the title of the source cited here is Dictionary of Louisiana French As Spoken in
Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities (Valdman et al. (ed.), 2010), i.e. in the entries
section no distinction is made among the many varieties of French used in the area. In the Preface,
however, the editorial team of the dictionary does make this clarification: “The presence of
Louisiana Creole adds to the complexity of the linguistic situation of South Louisiana. Although
much of its vocabulary overlaps with that of Louisiana French, major differences in grammatical
structure make it an autonomous language.” (xii) Among other experts, Sylvie DuBois acknowledges
the existence of the “extreme position […] that there is no real distinction between CF [Cajun
French] and LC [Louisiana Creole], just an artificial classification based on race.” (Valdman
(ed.), 1997: 54)

[8] As a bit of anecdotal perspective, the author of the present text is himself from Louisiana,
with 100% Louisiana French ancestry on both his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. I do not
remember any of my family ever identifying themselves as “Cajun.” I recently (2022) discussed this
issue with my 80-year old father, both of whose parents spoke French as their first language and
who has himself been fluent in French his entire life. My father identifies simply as “French.” He
has no animus towards the “Cajun” trope, but does not use that term to describe himself. The
commodification of the marker “Cajun” will be touched upon below.

[9] Award-winning musician and poet Zachary Richard calls these events “largest ethnic cleansing in
the history of North America” (in: Cross, 2017).

[10] From Afro-Creole Poetry in French from Louisiana’s Radical Civil War-Era Newspapers. A
Bilingual Edition

(Bruce trans. 2020).

“Poetry! Vox Dei!”/ Do you not hear, distantly ringing, the chime/ Of the hour of hopes, the sure
and sacred time

Of purest Fraternity?/ Do you not hear these enigmatic voices/ That speak to heads weighed down
with serious choices,/The forceful voices of Liberty?/

[11] Pretty blonde, you thought you were the only one/ That you were the only one I could ever
love/ I can find another pretty blonde/ The good Lord knows, I’ve got plenty. (Peknik, 2019: 48.
Trans. Peknik)

[12] Dozens of books have been written exploring the traditions and development of music in
Louisiana over the centuries. Shane Bernard deals with influences on and from Rhythm and Blues in
Swamp Pop (1996), and a fine recent work overviewing the 20^th and early 21^st century is Patricia
Peknik’s French Louisiana Music and Its Patrons (2019). Two prominent categorizations can be
identified. Zydeco (after the song “Les haricots sont pas salés”) features the accordion and rhythm
instruments (vest frottoir, etc.), incorporating Afro-Caribbean and blues influences. Cajun music
is marked by ballads and songs of exile, and in the classic version uses no percussion instruments.
Music for fast and slow dancing is also fundamental in both streams. As with everything else in
Louisiana, all the musical styles have always flowed into and out of each other. Since the
incorporation of non-acoustic instruments in the 20^th century, the music has been influenced by
other Francophone cultures as well as by genres such as rock, jazz, reggae and hip-hop (Peknik,
2019: 1-3; Bernard, 1996: 75-95).

[13] In the context of “Americanizing the American Indian,” Katherine Jensen (1984: 155, passim)
has defined certain dialectical processes involved in the imposition of school education and
literacy on a colonized population. The initial stages of education (are planned to) acculturate
the target population (periphery) to the norms and values of the colonizer (center), leading to the
formation of new elites linked to the system and its advantages. Eventually the tools of literacy
provide individuals and groups among the population the means to absorb and communicate more
advanced knowledge, which they share among themselves as well as with other subjugated populations,
i.e. within their own periphery and among other peripheries. This accumulation of perspectives
facilitates the recognition by the target population of problems and issues (for example,
exploitation of local resources) associated with the colonizer, leading to unrest, rebellion and,
sometimes, revolution. In several chapters of the present book this paradigm has been explored, for
example Négritude and the movements that it inspired around the world.

[14] For the next few pages the term “Cajun” will be used as shorthand for the entire population.
The educational measures and especially the employment opportunities later provided by the oil
industry as described below were possible only to those who were white or could pass as white, in
the vernacular “passé blanc” (Cazabat, 2012; Hobbs, 2014: 151, passim). As a side note, primary and
secondary education for all in the state, notably including Blacks, was strongly supported (and in
some areas created) by the administrations of Governor (1928-1932) and later US Senator (1932-1935)
Huey P. Long, a controversial figure in Louisiana and US history. The educational vision of Long,
however, did not include French in the curriculum (Jeansonne, 1992: 266-267).

[15] “[Barry Jean Ancelet] has suggested that the word […] derived from the belief that Cajuns
frequently ate raccoons. He has also proposed that the term contains a negative racial connotation:
namely, that Cajuns were ‘beneath’ or ‘under’ blacks (or coons, as blacks were often called by
racists).” (Bernard, 1997)

[16] “1. imbecile; fool. 2. crazy person. 3. funny person. (adj.) 1. foolish. 2. crazy. 3. funny.”
(Le Fleur 2005)

[17] “We don’t really need to speak French anyway./ It’s the United States here,/ Land of the
Free./ We will always be nothing but poor coonasses. I will not speak French on the school
grounds./ I will not speak French on the school grounds./ I will not speak French on the school
grounds.// Coonass, no, no, it’s okay./ It’s just a nickname./ It does not mean anything./ It’s for
fun, don’t bother./ We like it, it’s cute./ It doesn’t make us angry./ It makes us laugh/ But when
you have to laugh, what language do you laugh in?/ And to cry, what language do we cry in?/ And to
shout?/ And sing?/ And love?/ And live?”

[18] By the late 1960s similar “roots” reactions were occurring all over the United States, for
example the revival of traditional acoustic blues instead of commercial RnB, folk music over rock
and roll, the reemergence of bluegrass in reaction to mainstream pop country music (Cohen, 2002:
16-20; Escott, 2003: 56-57).

[19] “The goddamns (nickname for British soldiers who carried out the Great Expulsion in the
1750s)/ Are coming

To steal your children./ Wake up! Wake up!/ Acadian men/ To save our heritage.”

[20] Domengeaux, on the other hand, was angered at this display of political and cultural
rebellion, which might frighten commercial interests from investing in Louisiana and CODOFIL.
Richard was banned from performing at all CODOFIL-related events for 20 years. Since CODOFIL was
financially affiliated with nearly all of the French cultural and music festivals in Louisiana,
this ban effectively prevented Richard from reaching a broader Louisiana audience, although the
global resurgence of French-speaking cultures created a fair market for his music and writing
around the world (Bernard, 2003: 72). In 1995 Richard made a triumphant return to the Festival de
Musique Acadienne to perform “Réveille” again, this time in a commemorative atmosphere (Ancelet,
2007: 1252).

[21] “I know the first time I was called creole/ They told me not to talk like that/ It’s ugly
talk/ They took everything, everything I did/ Don’t act like a creole, it’s the ugly way/ They
didn’t give me a choice/ They had the force, they had the law/ They massacred everything/ Then
called you crazy/ I followed their road/ I worried a lot/ But I didn’t find a way/ To become a good
American.” (Trans. by the poet)

[22] “Having become a stranger to my own language,/ To speak English, to speak French,/ A cultural
chameleon,/ It’s what, what is / Culture?/ In all the languages/ of the world, of all the world,/
Crying out as a single voice,/ “I am, I am.”/ The end of tyranny./ Deliverance and peace.” (Trans.
by the poet)

[23] Similar migrations of the meaning of the term “creole” occurred in other Romance-language
contexts in the 20^th century, for example in the Portuguese-language context of Angola and
Mozambique – see in this book III.10.

[24] Perhaps it would be useful here to remind readers that, while we may generalize regarding one
side or another of the periphery / center binary throughout certain time periods and geographical
regions, finally influences are more meaningfully traced within particular cultural artefacts or
oeuvres.

[25] “D’après le recensement de 1990, à peu près 250,000 louisianais ont répondu que le français
était la langue

principale parlée chez eux.” (Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, 2022)