A New Beginning- Part 2- Selected Passages From Writings By Gerard J. Brault

  Making the Rounds to Neighboring Homes on Ash Wednesday

                                 By Edmond  J. Massicotte~1911                                 

         "  In the nineteenth century, nationalistic ideologues in Quebec developed the concept that French~Canadians were duty bound to preserve their cultural identity. For many, this notion became indistinguishable from the view that French~Canadians were called upon to fulfill a sacred mission, namely to preserve Catholicism in America, and that this mission could best be accomplished by maintaining their mother tongue and customs, and by staying on the land. This view came to be called, La survivance.

        This messianic and agrarian ideology was associated with the myth of a 'Golden Age', at a time when inhabitants were devout, hard working farmers, toiling in peace and harmony, benevolently, watched over by wise old parish priests. A series of sketches by Edmond J. Massicotte transposed this long ago period of happiness and and prosperity to the recent past. For example, La be'ne'diction du Jour de l'An (1912) is a dramatic rendering of the traditional New Year's Day blessing. Massicotte's drawings depict real~life people in authentic settings, but like Norman Rockwell's illustrations of the American scene, they are suffused with sentimentality and nostalgia.

La be'ne'diction du Jour de l'An
   

 By Edmond J. Massicotte~ 1912

               At first, Anglo~Saxons in Canada (les Anglais) posed the main threat. But, beginning almost in the middle of the nineteenth century, emigration to New England loomed as an equally disturbing menace. Better than anyone else, Louis He'mon (1880~1913) summed up turn~of~the~century French~Canadian survivance ideology in his novel,  Maria Chapdelaine, first published in 1914. (A Frenchman, He'mon only lived two~and~a~half years in Quebec before being accidentally killed by a train at the age of thirty-three.) On the surface, the story of a young woman's gradual resignation to frontier life in Quebec's Lake St. John country, portrayed in realistic terms as filled with endless toil and danger, the novel is also a paean to deep-seated loyalties. There is a celebrated passage at the end of the novel, notably the proud affirmation "Nous sommes venus il y a trois cents ans, et nous sommes reste's"   (We came three hundred years ago, and we stayed), strikes a responsive chord in most French~Canadians to this day."


1. The french-Canadian Heritage In New England by Gerard J. Brault
 2.Images- Edmond J. Massicotte, Nos Canadiens d'auttrefois: 12 grandes compositions (Montreal: Granger Fre`eres, 1923.
3. Guide officiel des Franco-Americains 1931(Auburn Rhode Island: Albert Belanger, 1931)
4. Gerard J. Brault, "Etat pr`esent des e'tudes sur les centres franco-ame'ricains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre (Quebec City: Hardy, 1891) referring to Vicero.

The Roots of Franco-American Culture - Part 1- Selected Passeges From Writings By Gerard J. Brault

        Quebec City, founded in 1608, was the first permanent French settlement in North America.More than two-and-a-half centuries of history, high in color and drama, separate the establishment of the earliest French trading posts along the St. Lawrence River and, to the east, in Acadia, and the first great wave of the French~Canadian emigration to New England.

         In 1759 a battle lasting a mere twenty minutes on the Plains of Abraham, before the walls of Quebec City, sealed the fate of New France. Although the British would, eventually, predominate in Canada, the French inhabitants of Quebec and certain other areas of that country would succeed in maintaining their language, traditions, and separate nationality. This historic struggle is indelibly engraved on the French~Canadian mind and explains, in a large measure, the extraordinary persistence of certain cultural traits among Franco~Americans, even after several generations.
 
      "Another factor that contributed to this remarkable survival was the French~Canadian immigrants' sentimental conception of their ancestral way of life, for many it was a deep attachment, and their frequent return trips to their native villages to keep in close touch with relatives  and revive old memories. Their descendants, too, kept such feelings alive with repeated visits." ~ Gerard J. Brault

        In recent years, many French~Canadians and Franco~Americans have taken an interest in their French ancestors and, thanks to vastly enhanced travel opportunities, have been able to visit France and experience French life and culture. With the advancement of technology and the internet, they have also begun to learn more about their forebears who lived during the early years of the colony. Their ancestors are no longer remote and vague participants in a kind of costume drama: with the help of the internet genealogists and family historians, and of living museums in historic areas of French Canada, their forbears have become real people, their own flesh and blood, relatives with everyday concerns. One such voyage of discovery, Gerard J. Brault's own, will be discussed later.
        Until recently, most French~Canadians and Franco~Americans conceived of their roots in terms of their immediate past, the kind of people their parents and grandparents were, and how they lived not so long ago in rural Canada.



1. The french-Canadian Heritage In New England by Gerard J. Brault
 2.Images- Edmond J. Massicotte, Nos Canadiens d'auttrefois: 12 grandes compositions (Montreal: Granger Fre`eres, 1923.
3. Guide officiel des Franco-Americains 1931(Auburn Rhode Island: Albert Belanger, 1931)
4. Gerard J. Brault, "Etat pr`esent des e'tudes sur les centres franco-ame'ricains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre (Quebec City: Hardy, 1891) referring to Vicero.