One of my most challenging moments as a teacher occurred ten years ago, when, as a fresh-faced teaching assistant at Brock University, I was leading a seminar on the Holocaust. Among my students was an Indigenous girl who eagerly raised her hand to make—quite tangentially—a comparison between Nazi-led ethnic cleansing and the historical experience of […]
Continue readingCategory: Franco-Americans
The Franco-American Pantheon
Last week’s blog post quoted Grégoire Chabot on a hypothetical Franco-American “hall of fame.” Chabot seemed to find few worthy models. Yet, surely, if Francos are to recognize the accomplishments of their community, they ought to find important and influential figures in their past. What famous individuals has the community produced? Who are its leading […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1998)
In the Mainstream By 1998, Le Forum was a well-established centerpiece of Franco life. (For background, see last week’s post.) The Franco-American Centre in Orono had recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The paper was in the capable hands of Yvon Labbé and Lisa D. Michaud. ActFANE provided regional stories and special features regularly graced Forum […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1988)
Making Connections By the end of the 1980s, the Forum had broadened its horizons considerably by bringing in more voices and carrying items from other publications. (For background, see last week’s post.) It still included genealogical content and poetry—and in 1988 its pages captured new perspectives with short texts by Fort Kent high school students. […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1980)
Stand Up and Be Counted In the 1970s, the Franco-American world was turned upside down. As old institutions declined, new ones that were better suited to the times took their place.[1] This was still the era of the National Materials Development Center, which contributed significantly to the dissemination of Franco-American research and writing. Assumption College’s […]
Continue readingFinding Francos in Le Forum (1975)
From Survivance to Fulfillment As promised last week, this post begins a month-long journey into the pages of Le Forum, a product of the FAROG and later the Franco-American Centre in Orono, Maine. Again, a word of caution is in order: this is only one of many sources for the period at hand. We cannot […]
Continue readingFranco-Americans Since 1945: An Overview
“With a little more education and a forty-hour week and some time on our hands—and we’ve become mobile—we looked around,” he said recently. The world of quiet beaches and summer cottages and golf courses no longer seemed so remote. “We see all these things and, we say, ‘Hey, we’d like to have an ice-cream cone, […]
Continue readingThose Other Franco-Americans: Barre, Vermont
Barre, Vermont, has several claims to fame, most recently as the home of the nation’s fastest governor. It is also where the late Franco-American folklorist Martha Pellerin grew up. In fact, Pellerin’s life and work help to shed light on Barre’s Franco-American past, which is inextricably tied to the area’s most important export—world-famous Barre granite. […]
Continue readingAcknowledging Franco-American Success
For generations, it was common to hear the most fatalistic in Quebec claim, “on est né pour un p’tit pain.” In other words, French Canadians were to settle for a simple life—without wealth or status—built around moral virtues. As in most things in Quebec, it is possible to read the influence of British conquest and […]
Continue readingFinding Francos on the Margins
While at the Quebec Studies colloquium at Bishop’s University, last spring, I introduced part of my research on French Canadians and Franco-Americans in geographical margins—areas usually overlooked by scholars. What do we really know about French-Canadian immigrants and their descendants outside of Lewiston, Manchester, Lowell, Fall River, and the likes? Local historians have done tremendous […]
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