Page 47 - Waves March 2019

captured some 300 Acadian conscripts brought an increased movement of Ca-
who had been fighting by the side of the juns into Texas: the need for workers to
French soldiers. cultivate rice in Southeast Texas and the
labor force needed on the Southern Pacific
This evidence of a lack of neutrality led Railroad line that ran from the Sabine River
to the expulsion of the Acadian settlers to Houston. Many of these Cajun railroad
from their lands by the British governors workers settled in Houston where South-
of Canada beginning in 1755 and scattered ern Pacific had its district headquarters.
them around the world in what is called
Le Grand Derangement. By the time these immigrations into Texas
began, the Cajuns had blended through
Scattered about the American colonies, intermarriage with their German, Span-
Quebec and their ancestral homeland, ish, and Anglo neighbors in Louisiana. So,
many would find their way to south Lou- some Cajun families had names such as
isiana, another isolated island of French Martinez, Schexnaider and McGee.
culture in North America. As American
expansion evolved, the Acadian’s new As more and more Cajuns began living in
English-speaking neighbors’ casual pro- Jefferson, Orange and neighboring coun-
nunciation of “Acadian” was corrupted to ties of Texas, a Cajun middle class began to The 22 parishes of Acadiana in green.
“Cadian” and then into “Cajun.” emerge. In 1892, Joseph Broussard estab-
lished the Beaumont Rice Mills, and later,
The first Cajuns in Texas arrived by in 1898, he helped to find the Beaumont
mistake in 1770. The group of 30 refugees, Irrigation Co.
who were trying to get to Louisiana from
Maryland, was on the schooner Britain, Twentieth Century
which was blown off course, missing
the Mississippi River and ending up at Spindletop in 1901- the discovery of the
Matagorda Bay. After being imprisoned massive oilfield in Southeast Texas forever The Golden Triangle
by the Spanish authorities as suspected changed the ethnic makeup of the area as began a different kind of migration. For the first time,
smugglers, they were released and made Louisiana Cajuns streamed into Texas to it was white-collar experts and not laborers who were
a trek across East Texas to Natchitoches, work in the burgeoning oil industry. The
La., and then down to Opelousas. oil industry would be a solid link between leaving Louisiana. In fact, during the 1990s, Louisiana
had a net loss of population.
Louisiana and Texas: the primary catalyst
Spain, which had been given authority over in bringing the culture of Cajun Louisiana
Louisiana in 1763’s Treaty of Paris, provid- into the homes and offices of Texans, and Language
ed ships in 1785 to carry some 1,600 Aca- Texans into Cajun Louisiana as the petro-
dians who had taken refuge in Europe to leum industry expanded there. Cajun French is a mix of Acadian French, standard
Louisiana, partly to be a buffer of Catholic 19th-century French, Creole and English. It also
subjects against Anglo-American expan- Into 1915, the Cajun presence further borrowed words from Spanish, African languages and
sion. By 1800, there were 3,000 to 4,000 increased in Southeast Texas when a severe American Indian languages (“Bayou” from Choctaw, for
Acadians or Cajuns in south Louisiana. hurricane hit the upper Texas coastal area. example). It is a fading dialect, even in Louisiana where
The destruction in Texas provided imme- the state legislature banned all French from schools in
Leaving the port of New Orleans, they diate work for rebuilding the infrastructure the 1920s to enforce assimilation and the use of English.
moved to the remote prairies and bayous and thus, more Cajuns came to Texas for That policy was abandoned in the 1970s when there was
west of the city, into what would become those jobs. This influx of Cajuns was sus- a reversal in sentiment to retain local cultures.
the 22 civil parishes that now make up tained for another five years as the United
Acadiana, the area known as home to States entry into World War I spurred Coming up in April
Cajun culture. growth in the oil refineries and shipyards in
the Golden Triangle. Music and food have been an important part of the
Across the Sabine Cajun culture since their time in Acadia, but it developed
The next sizeable influx was to come in into a different style in the Gulf Coast. Stay with us in
By the 1840s, the first Cajuns began mov- the 1940s when a larger labor force was the April issue as I bring the similarities between Texas
ing across the Sabine River into Texas, an required for the industrial expansion during and Louisiana culture together as well as show how each
emigration that would ebb and flow into World War II. In the postwar period, the group has influenced the sounds and taste to include
the 20th century. Among these first Cajun shrimping industry brought more Cajuns some of the strongest shocks to the senses.
settlers was the Hébert family, who began to the better fishing grounds off the Texas
farming along Taylor Bayou in Jefferson Gulf Coast. In the meantime, support your local businesses, eat the
County in 1842. Around 1850 the Chais- best foods and support local music!
son family followed. By the latter part of the 20th century, Ca-
jun professionals and engineers in telecom- See ya next month!
In the late 19th century, two factors munications, petroleum, and construction
Waves Magazine | March 2019 Issue | 47