JAY – Constance St. Pierre and her husband brought 11 children up and instilled in them their French heritage.
She maintained the culture, she said, until they went to high school. Then they changed, she said..
Though St. Pierre and her husband, Al, continue to speak to each other in French, only a few of the children continue to use the language. Daughter Adele St. Pierre of Portland stills speaks French with her mother and father, as do some of the older children. Not all of them can speak it, Constance said, but they all understand it.
She is looking forward to a Franco-American Festival coordinated by Adele from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the family’s homestead on Route 133. She and others are cooking French cuisine for the Terre pis Ciel festival, which means “earth and sky.”
There will be creton, a pork cheese on homemade bread, crepes, pettites de soeurs, slices of cream with brown sugar rolled in pie crust, whoopie pies, homemade pies and doughnuts.
Prior to the festival, Ben Levine will show his documentary film about the “repression and renaissance” of the French in New England: “Revéil-Waking up French,” at 7 p.m. Thursday at Murray Hall on Main Street in Livermore Falls. Admission is $7.
The documentary explores the struggle for cultural survival among French-Canadian, Franco-American communities of New England.
The film traces the French heritage beginning with immigration from the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Acadia through persecution by Ku Klux Klan and language loss, to cultural renaissance and heritage preservation, Levine said.
Through their determined loyalty to the French Catholic faith, language and cultural values, the French of New England continue to discover new ways of renewal and cultural diversity through heritage language reacquisition, he said.
During Saturday’s events, there will be French music provided by La Grande Debacle and Tuq, Boreal Tordu, the Pineland Fiddlers and Fred Legere of Jay. Dance will be provided by Les Pieds Rigolants, and theater by Waterville-born playwright Gregoire Chabot.
Rhea Cote-Robbins, author of “Wednesday’s Child,” a 1997 Chapman Book Award, will host a writers circle for all people interested in writing about and sharing their experiences as Francos.
Hightower and Sparks, formerly of Louisiana, now of Farmington, will be displaying their Mardi Gras masks, and Gloria Varney of Nezinscot Farms in Turner will be selling farm products. Genealogist Robert Chenard will help people with their family trees.
People in Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay share a common history that makes them unique, Adele St. Pierre said. These people are the Franco-Americans, descendants of the French-Canadians who came to work in the New England factories at the turn of the last century, she said.
“They speak French, they can cook like the best of them, and they know how to have fun,” she said.
Festival-goers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, weather shields and to leave pets at home.
The festival will be held rain or shine.
The residence is located about 5 miles south of Bean’s Corner or about 3 miles north of Main Street in Livermore Falls. There is no set admission, but a donation of $5 per car or family is suggested to help offset festival costs and help establish a scholarship to assist one student to study in Quebec City.
dperry@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
