CODOFIl wants to tap deep-seated Eunice-area language, culture heritage

Did you know that alligator farmers must return 12 percent of their hatchlings back to the wild?
Council for the Development of French in Louisiana executive director Charles Larroque is hoping that such resource replenishing will also help reinforce and restore the Cajun French language and culture in Louisiana.
“Twelve percent of alligator hatchlings are returned to the wild to help replenish the population,” Larroque said as he addressed Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Cajun Prairie Chapter members and area civic, cultural and economic development leaders last Friday at LSU Eunice following a meeting of Le Cajun Cafe. “We should be doing the same thing with our culture and language. We need to make the habitat more viable. We have to save the habitat. There is a way to renew this resource.”
“We need to do as much for our children as we do for our reptiles. The habitat is eroding, but we have ways to combat that. We want to be able to give people a place to live, work and play En Francais.”
Larroque spoke about CODOFIL’s Les Espaces Francophone, the council’s collaborative initiative to create French-speaking areas or spaces, like the Le Cafe Cajun, which meets at the LSU Eunice Community Education Building every Friday morning and how the group is working to preserve Louisiana French and Prairie Cajun folklore. The executive director shared CODOFIL’s current state of affairs and Les Espaces Francophone’s tie-ins with the upcoming Experience Louisiana Festival.
Larroque touched upon the historical disciplining of children who spoke French in school and were summarily punished for not speaking English as he began his presentation.
“We’ve (Cajun speaking people) been through a lot,” he said. “Parents of these children knew that their children would have to learn English to get a job. They wanted a better life for their kids.”
According to Larroque, Eunice is a stronghold for the Cajun culture and language, and the equally strong regional pride makes the town an excellent place to foster reinforcement and restoration.
“There is a sleeping giant in this area,” he said. “The Experience Louisiana Festival is an incredible opportunity.”
Reinforcement and restoration efforts are also being made in Avoyelles and Evangeline parishes, including French signage in the city of Ville Platte and the cataloguing of Avoyelles Parish public officials who speak French and any parish services offered in French.
“Avoyelles is also twinning the whole parish with a county in Quebec because many ancestors of those in the parish are from that area,” Larroque said. “I met with those folks, and they are very excited to have a partnership with their cousins in Louisiana. There will be economic development opportunities from twinnings like these.”
Larroque would like to see such efforts in other parishes that are historically French-speaking but do not have the mechanisms to “plow back into the environment.”
“We have to go where the resource is and find new, imaginative ways to the vein,” he said. “We have to fine tune the efforts to maintain what we have. We need a prototype that can be duplicated throughout the state.”
“We need to honor many of our ancestors, those who came before us and those who had to stop speaking the language.”
The executive director recommended making an inventory of existing French services in an area, such as a pharmacist who speaks French or a mayor who speaks French, and using the information to help attract French speaking international tourists as well as retain the state’s younger, French-speaking population.
“Canadians, Belgians, French -- this is what they are screaming for,” Larroque said. “They may need to fill prescriptions or have a flat tire fixed while visiting here.”
“This will also create career pathways for future generations to stay here. People will stay here if there are jobs here.”
Some in the audience asked about possible incentives to attract the state’s younger, French-speaking population to careers where they could use their bilingual abilities.
“There is an oilfield company in Lafayette that offers $15,000 more a year in pay to workers who can speak a second language because these workers travel abroad,” Larroque responded. “There are also incentives like the Atchafalaya Heritage tax credits. It might take legislation at some point to get more incentives.”
“One day, we will be gone” he continued. “This wonderful cultural product needs to be maintained. CODIFIL will help you establish a space any way it can. We need to keep Acadiana Acadiana. We need to keep the area unique.”