When I was a small boy, my grandmother showed me these funeral cards (in French) for her maternal relatives. They seemed to come from another world, a time and a place which had long-since faded away. They are a remnant of a Maine Franco-American culture of the earlier decades of the 20th century. For me these cartes mortuaires are precious relics. In 2005, I travelled to the home parish in Québec of these, our forbears, who are commemorated on the cards. On this page, I show you my "relics" as well as a couple of photos from my journey to an ancestral parish.
Just as the Cession of 1763, followed by the French Revolution of 1789, ensured that the Québécois would preserve for generations an ideal of an older France -- traditional, Catholic and rural, Québec's Quiet Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s ensured that the Franco-Americans of New England would become the remnant of an older Québec. This article exlpores how a series of revolutions changed the meaning of the traditional French North American ideology of la survivance, as the preservation of the past was re-interpretated for a series of historical presents.
NEW - 22 April 2006
This brief item discusses some of the limitations faced by the researcher whose subject is obscure working people who, in terms of documentary evidence, have left only a small, wind-blown footprint. In this article, I begin to create a context for my research; the basic attitude is one of inquiry -- it's about learning more than it's about knowing. This is not a frivolous approach which glosses over the details or refuses to take a stand. Intellectual conscience urges me, as far as possible, to get the facts and details straight. However, it is an approach that is fluid, personal, alive, ongoing, and subject to subjectivity.
NEW - 14 April 2006
[This item appears in both the History and the Viewpoints sections of this site, since it contains historical research as well as a more personal view.] This article was originally published in Le Forum (University of Maine), and then re-published at the Franco-American Women's Institute site.
It was written a couple of years ago and there are parts of it I might write differently now, and a few of the facts have changed, but I've chosen to let it stand as originally written. The article explores whether or not "repression" is an appropriate way to think about the treatment of Franco-Americans in Maine and it includes a detailed account of the (appalling) housing
conditions in the worker's tenements where our ancestors lived.
This article was first published in Le Forum (University of Maine) Hiver/Winter 2005. It contains ruminations on, and reactions to, reading the plays of the Franco-American writer Gregoire Chabot. I confess I haven't read this through in a while, so I can't be sure that I continue to stand in the place I stood when I wrote this piece. A writer writes, and then the writing goes out into the world and he or she no longer owns it. I will affirm this: I had the honor of hearing Monsieur Chabot speak as a member of a panel discussion at a Franco-American conference in Waterville, Maine in 2004. I came to have great respect for his writing and for his views on the Franco-American situation.
6) There is No Name for Us
There is no single name that embraces all of the French peoples of North America. We go by many names: Québécois(e), Acadien(ne), Cajun, Franco-American, etc. Although each of these groups represents a different sub-culture, with it's own history and distinctiveness, still, all of us are the product of the same French explorations and migrations of the 17th and 18th centuries. We share a common root, and yet that commonality is very little expressed or appreciated. Instead we tend to emphasize differences. In the U.S.A., the descendants of the many different and distinct Latin American and Hispano-Caribbean groups have adopted a common name: Latino/a (and one sometimes also hears the term "Hispanics"). Although the South Florida Cuban-Americans, the Mexican-Americans of California, and those of Puerto Rican origin in New York City (to name just a few of the peoples called "Latino") come from quite different countries, and each maintains its distinctiveness, Latinos have recognized that their interests were best served by recognizing their commonality in terms of language or heritage. By gathering all of these distinct groups under a single name, they have increased their cultural presence enormously. I suggest that French North Americans at least consider following the example of our Latino friends, and christen ourselves with a name that applies to all of us. I doubt my suggestion will be embraced.
Many More "Viewpoints" Coming Soon. Please visit again!
