Page 46 - Waves March 2019

CAJUN CORNER:

TEXAS|CAJUN INFLUENCES

BY: CHRISTOPHER BERGERON

Gumbo, crawfish boils, boudin, steaming pots of étouffée, the rhythmic blend of

fiddle and accordion of Cajun music: all these have become part of Texas cuisine

and culture through the influence of Cajuns who came to the state from Louisiana.

“Born and raised in
Thibodaux, Louisiana in ‘78,
I relocated to Texas in 2007,
first to League City then to
Galveston Island.

It is astounding the number
of Louisiana folks that call
Texas home. One doesn’t
have to venture far to find
similarities between Cajun
and Texas culture. Food,
music, celebrations and a
deep sense of family are all
evidence that Texas culture
has influenced Cajun culture
just as much as Cajun culture
has influenced Texas Culture;
to the point where it’s practi-
cally indistinguishable.
ajuns are descendants of French col- Catholics tried to remain neutral in conflicts
This column highlights many onists of the Maritime Provinces of between Britain and France, agreeing to a
Canada — Nova Scotia, New Bruns- “conditional” oath of allegiance to Britain that
of the similarities in cuisine, Cwick, and Prince Edward Island. In stipulated they not be required to take up arms
music, lifestyle and good the 1600s and 1700s, the area was called Acadia against France. This attempt did not survive
folks that keep the roots of and its people were known in French as Aca- the various changes of British administrations,
Cajun culture alive right here dian or Acadians. Most of these colonists had and after the Catholic Acadians refused to take
on the Island. So, let’s roll. “ emigrated from west-central France beginning an “unconditional” oath of loyalty to the new
British Protestant king, a policy of expulsion —
in large numbers in 1632.
a kind of ethnic cleansing — was implemented.
-Christopher Bergeron When the British gained final control of this It did not help that when British forces took
part of Canada in 1713, the Acadian French the French-Canadian Fort Beausejour, they
46 | Waves Magazine | March 2019 Issue