The Cajuns : Americanization of a people since 1941

The past sixty years have shaped and reshaped the group of French-speaking Louisiana people known as the Cajuns. During this period they have become much like other Americans and yet have remained strikingly distinct. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People explores these six decades and analyzes the forces that had an impact on Louisiana's Acadiana. In the 1940s, when America entered World War II, so too did the isolated Cajuns. Cajun soldiers fought alongside troops from Brooklyn and Berkeley and absorbed aspects of new cultures. In the 1950s as rock 'n' roll and television crackled across Louisiana airwaves, Cajun music makers responded with their own distinct versions. In the 1960s, empowerment and liberation movements turned the South upside down. During the 1980s, as things Cajun became an absorbing national fad, "Cajun" became a kind of brand identity used for selling everything from swamp tours to boxed rice dinners. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the advent of a new information age launched "Cyber-Cajuns" onto a worldwide web. All these forces have pushed and pulled at the fabric of Cajun life but have not destroyed it. A Cajun himself, the author of this book has an intense personal fascination in his people. By linking seemingly local events in the Cajuns' once isolated south Louisiana homeland to national and even global events, Bernard demonstrates that by the middle of the twentieth century the Cajuns for the first time in their ethnic story were engulfed in the currents of mainstream American life and yet continued to make outstandingly distinct contributions. Shane K. Bernard serves as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products since 1868, and Avery Island, Inc. He is the author of Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues (University Press of Mississippi). His work has been published in such periodicals as Louisiana History , Louisiana Folklife , Louisiana Cultural Vistas , and the New Orleans Times-Picayune . The past sixty years have shaped and reshaped that group of French-speaking Louisiana people known as the Cajuns. During this period they have become much like other Americans and yet have remained strikingly distinct. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People explores six decades of Cajun history and analyzes the forces that impacted on Louisiana's Acadiana. During these years of Americanization the Cajuns were swept into the strong currents of mass culture. All these forces have pushed and pulled at the fabric of Cajun life but did not destroy it. This fascinating book reveals why. Contents......Page 10 Preface......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Introduction......Page 18 ONE: Cajuns during Wartime......Page 28 TWO: Atomic-Age Cajuns......Page 48 THREE: Cajuns and the 1960s......Page 83 FOUR: From Coonass to Cajun Power......Page 110 FIVE: Exploitation and Revitalization......Page 137 Conclusion......Page 171 Notes......Page 176 A......Page 208 B......Page 209 C......Page 210 D......Page 212 E......Page 213 G......Page 214 K......Page 215 L......Page 216 O......Page 217 R......Page 218 S......Page 219 V......Page 220 Y......Page 221 Four thousand miles from his hometown of Breaux Bridge, Ralph LeBlanc, or "Frenchie," as Navy pals called the twenty-year-old sailor, sat reading comics in Kingfish Hangar's ready room.