Are there Cajuns in Texas?

So many of the Cajuns have settled in the southeastern corner of Texas known as the “Golden Triangle” of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange that the area has been referred to as the “Lapland”, where Cajun culture overlaps into Texas. The whole state, however, has experienced the influence of this French-based culture.

When did many Cajuns come to Texas from Louisiana?

The migration of the Cajuns from southwest Louisiana to southeast Texas during the 1940s and throughout the early postwar decades illustrates the ways in which one particular ethnic group contributed not only to the expanding industrial workforce along the Gulf Coast, but also to the cultural milieu of the region’s …

Where did the word Cajun come from?

The word Cajun began in 19th century Acadie. The French of noble ancestry would say, “les Acadiens”, while some referred to the Acadians as, “le ‘Cadiens”, dropping the “A”. Later came the Americans who could not pronounce “Acadien” or “‘Cadien”, so the word, “Cajun” was born.

What makes someone a Cajun?

Cajun, descendant of Roman Catholic French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. The Cajuns today form small, compact, generally self-contained communities.

Is Beyonce a Cajun?

Descent from Acadian Forefather Through her mother, Beyoncé is the 6th great-granddaughter of Joseph Broussard, the legendary leader and hero of the Acadians—French colonists who settled in what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada. The descendants of these colonists would eventually migrate to Louisiana.

Are all Cajuns French?

Many Cajuns have ancestors who were not French. Some of the original settlers in Louisiana were Spanish Basques and Spanish Canary Islanders.