The forced separation of two lovers on their wedding day

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Her very name is as mysterious and romantic as a Louisiana bayou. She is quintessential to Cajun mythos; a misty nearly-sainted presence emblematic of the Acadia diaspora. It matters not that few know her story. It matters less that the story is more poetry than fact.

She has become the spirit of the bayou. "Evangeline, Evangeline of the Maritime". People who've never read the poem have heard the song. Those who know neither poem nor song have heard of Evangeline and her Arcadian homeland.

Longfellow intended his poem of 1847 as artistic rendering of Evangeline's tragic story of 1755. He wasn't interested in writing history. His focus was on the forced separation of two lovers on their wedding day that resulted in Evangeline's lifelong quest to be reunited with her husband-to-be, Gabriel.

On that wedding day in 1755, Evangeline, Gabriel, and nearly every French settler in Arcadia (Nova Scotia) were exiled from Canada and shipped to Spanish Louisiana. Any French settler willing to swear allegiance to the British Crown and reject their Catholic faith were allowed to stay.

Most refused.

Families were torn apart. Farms and property were confiscated. People accustomed to open skies were sent penniless to the dark bayous of the Gulf of Mexico.

Arcadia became treasured memory, Arcadians became Cajuns, and Longfellow's story of Evangeline became Cajun history. The truth of art transcends dry history.

Laissez le bon temps rouler: Let the good times roll. The famous slogan of Mardi Gras and the Big Easy in general owes much to Cajun sensibility. A happy people have remained happy despite the 1755 British attempt to erase them through deportation.

I'm grateful.

The world would be much diminished without jambalaya, crawfish pie, fillet gumbo, and havin' a good time out on the bayou. Zydeco accordion, Cajun fiddles, steaming pots of shrimp, alligator stew and good times rollin' with joyous enthusiasm; it's an unplanned and very much appreciated outcome of the Arcadian Diaspora.

See that girl stirring the shrimp. I wonder if her name is Evangeline.

Isn't every Cajun girl, Evangeline?

By K. L. Shipley

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