Keywords Ethnic Groups

These French Catholic Franco-Americans created "little Canadas" in some districts in the major American cities, reproducing their cultural life and French-Canadian religious institutions. Until WWII, and despite their Americanization, the descendants of the Québecois emigrants probably managed to preserve their identity better than other ethnic groups. Several major figures in Québec history had Franco-American roots, including journalist Olivar Asselin, writer Honoré Beaugrand, essayist Edmond de Nevers and ultramontane thinker Jules-Paul TARDIVEL. Some Franco-Americans were repatriated to Canada around the beginning of the 20th century and formed the core of several francophone settlements in the West (see FRENCH IN THE WEST).

With time, however, most Franco-Americans succumbed to the attractions of the American way of life and the English language, especially since they lived primarily in urbanized surroundings. Nevertheless, today some Franco-Americans continue - though primarily in English - to take an interest in their historical roots, and preserve their network of intraethnic relations and certain folkloric or gastronomic traditions. Some Franco-Americans - eg, writer Jack Kerouac and athlete Napoleon Lajoie - have had a major impact in the US. The secularization of Québec society and its profound changes since the QUIET REVOLUTION have caused Franco-Americans and Québecois to have less in common than they once had.

Author PIERRE ANCTIL Revised: YVES FRENETTE