Activist says Cajun culture may blossom

LAFAYETTE - Louisiana's Acadian culture has survived more than 200 years, and it can live another century, said musician, poet and activist Zachary Richard.

The culture has survived deportation, exile, hunger, disease and an even greater threat in the form of a government-driven plan to eradicate French in Louisiana.

Cajuns were made to feel ashamed of their heritage as a mark of low class, but that is changing, Richard said. "We have a chance now to right the boat," he said. "We can ensure not only the survival, but the blossoming of our French language culture."  Richard, who will perform Sunday at Cri du Bayou, the closing ceremony and concert of the Congres Mondial Acadien Louisiane 1999 in the Cajundome, spoke with reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Also at the press conference, Richard was presented with the Champlain Literary Prize. The prize, awarded for 41 years by the Conseil de la Vie Francaise en Amerique, recognizes excellence in literature by North American French speakers. Richard won the prize for his collection of poems, "Faire Recolte," and was the first Cajun to win the award.

Following the press conference, Richard talked of a chance meeting with an elderly woman at a 1975 Acadian music festival in Canada that changed his life. The woman, whose last name was Leblanc, came up to speak to him after he had played.

"She resembled my grandmother, like any old Cajun lady, small and petite, with her hair in a bun. And she began to quiz me on Louisiana. She had heard there were Acadians here, and she wanted to know things," Richard said.

"And it was very disarming, because she wanted to know things that my grandmother would have wanted to know: what crops did the people grow, what was the weather like, were the people Catholic."  He talked to the lady about Louisiana's Cajuns, and as they parted, she embraced him and said, "I will pray for you."  Even now, 24 years later, tears come to his eyes.

"It was exactly what my grandmother would have said. It was so powerful," Richard said. "That is when I really understood that a part of my experience, my personality, was Acadian somehow.

"We lived 2,000 miles apart; my family had left that part of the world in 1755. And emotionally, we were tied. I was reduced to tears. I felt the power of this heritage. Who was this woman who related to me like this and reminded me of my grandmother? It was a fundamental bond that I felt."  The woman's desire to know the details of the lives of her Louisiana cousins is part of the Acadian tradition, Richard said.

"There is a folk memory among the Cajuns and Acadians of Acadie," Richard said. "My grandmother could not have found Acadie on a map for you, but she knew, somehow, about it. She used to talk about le Grand Derangement."  Richard's ancestor came to Louisiana with Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil in 1765, and even five generations later his grandmother knew the story.

"The knowledge of the exile had been passed down. The details got lost, but they still had a knowledge, an awareness, a memory of Acadie, and of the deportation, and of the exile," Richard said.

During the deportation, the Acadians kept in touch with their families, and knew the details of their lives, no matter where they were, Richard said. "It was an incredible network. They were literally scattered across the Atlantic Basin, and yet they never lost their identities as Acadians," Richard said.

During the press conference, Richard said he is optimistic about the preservation of the culture that survives today.

"Do we do enough? No, we are not doing enough. Is it going to survive? Yes, it is. I believe we have hit the bottom, and we are on the rebound," Richard said. "You can't measure the vitality of the culture by the speaking of French. There are many people who - and it is the frustration of their lives - can't speak French with the fluency that they want to. But you cannot confuse fluency in the French language with a lack of dedication to the culture."  Many parents who have children in Louisiana's French immersion classes cannot speak French, Richard said.

"But they are extremely committed to preserving the culture, and they will drive their children across town to attend French immersion classes," Richard said.

Although the efforts of the Louisiana government during the first half of this century to obliterate the language in Louisiana did succeed to a certain extent, there are many Cajuns who still learned French, he said, and it was mostly because of love.

"Many of us had someone in our family with whom we could only converse in French, and it was our love of that person that resulted in our fluency," Richard said. "I am very optimistic. I know the culture is changing, and it makes me sad that the French language as it existed in my grandparents' day will never again exist."  But French immersion will allow Louisiana's Cajuns to hold on to their culture, Richard said.

"This is a wake-up call to Cajuns in Louisiana, that we have the great fortune to still have grandparents who speak French to these children in the home," Richard said. "It's going to jump my generation, but the bridge is still there. It can make it to the other side."  Richard told a story about an experience he had at the Cajun Music Festival in Girard Park. He had some trash in his hand, and asked a passing 8-year-old boy where the trash can was.

The boy answered in French, with an uncomplimentary word and derogatory tone for this man so committed to the preservation of French who had addressed him in English.

"I got chills. I had shivers, because here was an 8-year-old child reprimanding me, of all people, for not speaking French," Richard said. The experience shows that French Immersion will make a difference, he said.

"Now we have the tool, the weapon, with which to defend our culture."