Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens

Book excerpt: Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History traces the four-hundred-year history of this distinct American ethnic group. In its original English, the book proved a perfect package, comprehensible to junior-high and high-school students, while appealing to and informing adult readers seeking a one-volume exploration of these remarkable people and their predecessors. It is now available for the first time translated into French. The narrative follows the Cajuns' early ancestors, the Acadians, from seventeenth-century France to Nova Scotia, where they flourished until British soldiers expelled them in a tragic event called Le Grand Dérangement (The Great Upheaval)—an episode regarded by many historians as an instance of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Up to one-half of the Acadian population died from disease, starvation, exposure, or outright violence in the expulsion. Nearly three thousand survivors journeyed through the thirteen American colonies to Spanish-controlled Louisiana. There they resettled, intermarried with members of the local population, and evolved into the Cajun people, who today number over a half-million. Since their arrival in Louisiana, the Cajuns have developed an unmistakable identity and a strong sense of ethnic pride. In recent decades they have contributed their lively cuisine and accordion-and-fiddle dance music to American popular culture. Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes includes numerous images and over a dozen sidebars on topics ranging from Cajun music and horse racing heroes to Mardi Gras. Shane K. Bernard's welcomed and cherished history of the Cajun people is translated into French by Faustine Hillard. The book offers a long-sought immersion text, ideal for the young learner and adult alike. Intended to appeal to both native French-speakers as well as to English-speaking students who are learning French, this French translation of Shane K. Bernard's Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History is perfect for middle-school and high-school readers enrolled in conversational and French Immersion classes. Adult readers of French will also find it a useful primer of Acadian and Cajun history. Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens : l'histoire racontée aux jeunes retrace le périple de quatre siècles de ce groupe ethnique nord-américain distinct des autres. Accessible aux adolescents, ce volume s'avérera également utile et pratique pour le lecteur adulte qui cherche à connaître à la fois ce peuple remarquable et ses ancêtres. Le récit suit la trace des Acadiens, les premiers ancêtres des Cadiens, de la France du dix-septième siècle à la Nouvelle-Écosse, là où ils se sont épanouis jusqu'à ce que des soldats britanniques les expulsent lors de cet évènement tragique que fut Le grand dérangement—un triste épisode qui a débuté en 1755 et que nombre d'historiens modernes considèrent comme un parfait exemple de nettoyage ethnique, voire de génocide. Près de trois mille survivants ont (péniblement) traversé les treize colonies américaines pour se rendre jusqu'en Louisiane, alors sous le régime espagnol. Là, ils s'installent à nouveau, s'intègrent à la population locale par le biais du mariage et forment peu à peu ce qu'il est aujourd'hui convenu d'appeler le peuple cadien. Aujourd'hui, on compte plus d'un demi-million d'habitants d'origine cadienne en Louisiane.