UL Press Announces New Book “Frenchie”
LAFAYETTE, La (press release) – UL Press announced the upcoming release of “Frenchie: The Story of the French-Speaking Cajuns of World War II” by historian Jason Theriot, hitting bookstores Sept. 10.
As soon as American forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944, military commanders called for “Frenchies” to serve as interpreters with the local population. These young Cajun soldiers from Louisiana, like their Acadian ancestors, had grown up speaking French as their first language. In fact, Cajuns represented the largest group of French-speaking Americans in the military, and their linguistic abilities proved invaluable to operations around the world.
Ironically, this generation experienced discrimination in an English-only school system that sought to “Americanize” them. Often punished for speaking French at school, many young Cajuns grew up ashamed of their language and culture. Yet, during WWII, when these same Cajuns arrived in the francophone territories of North Africa and Europe, Frenchies bridged the language gap. What emerged from this wartime experience was a long-lost pride in Cajun heritage, creating a profound impact on their sense of identity.
“Frenchie: The Story of the French-Speaking Cajuns of World War II” can be purchased online at ulpress.org, or through other major retailers.
Historian Shane Bernard wrote of the book, “As Theriot shows, Cajun GIs who used their oft-derided French-speaking skills to help win World War II experienced a cultural awakening—one that presaged the rise of the Cajun pride and empowerment movement that began on a larger scale some two decades later.”
“Jason Theriot’s well-written book, Frenchie, is told with dignity and a deep cultural understanding largely due to his own upbringing,” says filmmaker Pat Mire. “His expansive narrative on the firsthand experiences of the last surviving members of this group, as well as the spirit of hundreds of other French-speaking Cajun soldiers who died before them, is the most important account to date.”
