The Cajuns: Americanization of a People

Conclusion

146 CONCLUSION Along with the expulsion from Nova Scotia and the Civil War, the last sixty years of the twentieth century represented one of the most crucial periods in Cajun history. During this time, the ethnic group, like other American minorities, experienced a fundamental change in character—one that actually redefined the meaning of Cajun. The term ceased to describe a mainly French-speaking, nonmaterialistic, impoverished people on the fringe of American society and instead referred to a largely English-speaking, consumer -oriented, middle-class community whose members closely resembled mainstream Americans. Although Americanization was compulsory during wartime and on school grounds, most Cajuns voluntarily embraced AngloAmerican values and customs. Similar trends have been examined among blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and other ethnic groups, all of which have moved toward the mainstream in recent decades. Like these minorities, the Cajuns have entered the twenty-first century transformed yet retaining their core identity. They have not been swallowed up, for example, by the coming of the Information Age: on the contrary, in typical fashion they have adapted themselves to the digital revolution, creating CD-ROMs as well as Internet Web sites and discussion groups dedicated to preserving their history and culture. Entering the term Cajun on one popular Internet search engine resulted in about 588,000 “hits” (positive responses), reflecting a growing Cajun presence on the Internet. The creation of this virtual Cajun community prompted one historian to coin the term Cybercajun to describe the inhabitants of this “Cyberacadiana.”“They threw us out of Nova Scotia,”one Cybercajun proclaimed on his Web site,“and I’ll be damned if they throw us off the Internet.”1 Cajuns have further demonstrated their ability to adapt to the modern world by pursuing high-tech careers. A few Cajuns, for example, became veritable rocket scientists, among them J. G. Thibodaux. Born in a lumber camp in the Atchafalaya swamp, he helped to develop the Nike-Cajun rocket in the 1950s, whose second stage, a sounding missile used for testing the upper atmosphere, was named in honor of his ancestry. He went on to serve as chief of the Propulsion and Power Division at Johnson Space Center, assisting NASA with the Apollo moon missions and later with the space shuttle. While Cajuns such as Thibodaux helped to explore outer space, others explored inner space, including John P. Doucet, a molecular geneticist at Nicholls State University. Using new technologies, Doucet and other scientists studied genetic diseases that affected Cajuns more prevalently than the general population. These ailments included Friedreich’s ataxia, Tay-Sachs disease, and Usher syndrome. Interest in this new scientific field led to the founding of the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans as well as to DNA research at Tulane University that uncovered a common Cajun genotype, further evidence that Cajuns are indeed a bona fide ethnic group, as proclaimed by the 1980 lawsuit Roach v. Dresser.2 Cajuns now occupy positions in practically every field of human endeavor . Some have even achieved fame outside Louisiana, including chef Paul Prudhomme, painter George Rodrigue, musicians Zachary Richard and Sammy Kershaw, U.S. Senator John Breaux, human rights activist Sister Helen Prejean, baseball pitcher Ron Guidry, football quarterback Bobby Hebert, and model/actress Ali Landry. While these Cajuns have become known around the world, ordinary Cajuns have joined the international movement toward globalism. This trend is shown not only in the appeal of CONCLUSION 147 Cajun food and music outside the United States but also in the efforts of Cajun entrepreneurs to seek out global markets and economic partnerships. Ideas originally put forward in the early 1970s by The International Relations Association of Acadiana have finally been realized by Le Centre International de Lafayette, a global trade development agency founded by Lafayette’s cityparish government in 1990. The agency grew out of the annual Festival International de Louisiane, established in 1987 to celebrate francophone cultures worldwide. Meanwhile, the World Wide Web has further integrated the region into the new global economic and cultural community.3 Clearly, Cajuns have found a way to flourish in the modern world—but at what cost? Many of their folk traditions have been lost, are on the verge of disappearing, or have been transformed almost beyond recognition. The most salient example is the French language, which is moribund among younger Cajuns. Yet, as shown, Cajun...