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197 Chapter eight Later Gulf Coast Arrivals So far, in tracing the growth of the Cajun and zydeco scene in northern California we have seen a number of foundational elements: the history of ethnicities and musics in Louisiana, black migration in the 1940s to California , the growth of international folk dancing in that same decade, and folk and blues revivals that whetted outsiders’ musical appetites for Cajun and zydeco in the 1960s. Of the historical changes, none was more profound than the civil rights movement, which not only changed the legal basis for race relations in the United States but also provided a positive identity model for other minority groups. The shift in dominant paradigm for the Americanization of immigrants from the “melting pot” model to multiculturalism opened up a space in the national discourse that Cajuns and Creoles could legitimately occupy without disappearing into larger wholes, and it marked a shift in the musical tastes and leisure interests with respect to revivalism. Generic interest in folk music and folk dancing began to splinter into what Neil Rosenberg calls named-system revivals, smaller affinity groups organized around specific cultures and practices, like Balkan dancing and Cajun music. The same conceptual shift would increase economic opportunities for cultural tourism to develop.1 Along with the sizable Creole migration to California, there have also been some Cajuns who have resettled there. In her master’s thesis research on Cajun and Creole migration to California, Lisa Billeaudeau found that Creoles had compelling socioeconomic reasons to migrate that motivated entire families, while a Cajun’s arrival in California was much more likely to be out of “personal choice.” This ignores the fact that Creoles also acted out of choice, but it does point to an observation that Cajuns did not form significant social networks upon their arrival. As Louisiana Sue put it to me, in California, “if you meet a Cajun, he doesn’t know where the other Cajuns are. But the Creoles know where [the other Creoles] are.”2 Sacramento-based Freida Fusilier and Louisiana Sue (Susan Appe Ramon) collaborated prolifically in the mid-1990s on numerous presentations of Louisiana 198 Later Gulf Coast Arrivals French culture at festivals, fairs, and indoor dances. New Orleans native Ramon produced these events while Fusilier served as a spokeswoman and interpreter for Cajun culture, telling stories and singing songs on stage. Louisiana Sue was also joined by Russell Ardoin, son of musician Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin, who served as a spokesman for Creole culture and emceed the zydeco acts. During this period of intensive public presentation, they exposed tens of thousands of Californians to Louisiana French culture firsthand. Ralph “Bobby” Gradney found a second career as a Cajun food caterer and restaurateur in part through operating a food booth at some of these festival events and fairs. Musician Richard Domingue and his band Gator Beat played at many of the same events. All four people profiled in this chapter have in common that they became active in the Louisiana French music scene in northern California in the late 1980s and 1990s, after the Creole community in and around San Francisco was already well established and outsiders like those described in chapters 6 and 7 had gotten involved. Once the Creole community network had grown and established a more public presence with the addition of some folk revivalists, these other Louisiana emigrants were able to learn of it and join it as well. They did so at the time of a dramatic increase of interest in Cajun music and zydeco in northern California. While most of this book deals with the earlier period of network formation, this final chapter gives more detail on the scene as it has, in a sense, expanded beyond its original Creole basis and taken on a life of its own. The Rise of All Things Cajun in Popular Culture Music and food were the elements of Louisiana French culture most readily commoditized in the Cajun craze of the 1980s and 1990s. Through the channels of the popular music and food industries, Cajun and Creole music and food traveled far and wide to reach and be appreciated in some fashion by many. Driven in turn by the popular interest in music and food, cultural tourism in francophone Louisiana was growing and increasing the demand for Cajun products still further as consumers became more familiar with other aspects of the culture and economic development of tourism became more sophisticated. Virtual tourism (in the form...

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