Some of my readers may be curious about my name and its origins. On my website, I use the name Hébert complete with the French accent ague to let people know that it is indeed foreign. Cajun French, to be exact. During my years in Virginia, including the accent usually tipped alert folks off that it is not a typical Anglo-Saxon last name. In Louisiana, I usually leave it off, unless I am using a formal signature.
Most people outside Louisiana want to pronounce my name phonetically, as in HEE-burt. Though some Héberts who have left Louisiana generations ago do pronounce it that way, on the Bayou this is considered gauche.
It is properly pronounced AY-BEAR.
Some people who hear me say it try to spell it Abair. Of note: in French there are no stressed syllables, so AY-bear or ay-BEAR is not technically accurate. Both syllables receive equal stress. Since Anglophones, even in Louisiana, are used to stressing one or the other syllable, it usually comes out AY-bear. This is generally kosher in Louisiana, since we are not all sticklers for formality.
Hébert is a French name, and there are a few Héberts in France, but generally if you meet one in America you are talking to a Cajun. A Cajun is an American of French-Canadian descent whose ancestors originally settled in Louisiana.
Though originally settled by France, Canada became part of the British Empire at the conclusion of Queen Anne’s War in 1713. Most of the French-speaking colonists remained in Canada, however, and refused to swear allegiance to the British Crown. This tense situation continued until France and Britain again faced off in the Seven Years’ War from 1756-63, at which time the British government ordered all colonists who refused to take an oath of allegiance be expelled from the colony.
Most of the residents still loyal to France lived in Acadia, and this is thought to be the origin of the word Cajun. The expelled Canadians resettled in many areas throughout the Atlantic, some returning to France, others going to the West Indies. Finally, a few made it to the southern coast of Louisiana, and sent word to friends and family that life was good there. Many Acadians answered the call and moved to Louisiana. It is believed that about 10,000 French Canadians finally settled in Louisiana in the late 18th century.
Most of the Héberts in Louisiana are descended from two brothers, Etienne and Antoine Hebert, who arrived around 1765.
One misconception people outside of Louisiana have is that all Louisianans are Cajun, or that Cajun just means someone from southern Louisiana. This is not true. Cajuns are a specific ethnic group. Until the 1950s, most Cajuns spoke French as a first language. It is worth noting that Cajun French is a distinct dialect of modern French, and that most European Francophones have trouble understanding Cajun French. Thus French, it is Cajun variety, is a true native American language.
Today, most Cajuns speak English as a first language, and many speak little French at all. The Cajun culture, originally concentrated in the bayous of the Louisiana coast, has now spread across southern Louisiana, penetrating Mississippi and South Alabama, and parts of East Texas. I have noted in my own travels that people in southern Mississippi and Alabama seem well-acquainted with my Cajun name, as well as the Cajun music and cuisine.
Since Louisiana was also settled by people of other origins besides Acadia, especially German, African, British, Spanish, and Italian, the Cajuns do not constitute all Southern Louisianans, or even the majority of them.
Almost every city of appreciable size in the United States has a Cajun restaurant. What constitutes Cajun food?
This turns out to be surprisingly difficult question. Strictly speaking, Cajun food is mainly the seafood-based dishes originally created by the Cajun people. This includes, most famously, gumbo, but also jambalaya, etouffee, crawfish bisque, and a wide variety of boiled and seasoned seafood eaten and perfected by the Cajuns. One of the most famous Cajun dishes, blackened redfish, was invented by Paul Prud’homme in the last 30 years and only qualifies as Cajun in the sense that Prud’homme is a Cajun himself.
The problem is that Cajun food did not arise out of a vacuum, but is instead from a blend of regional cooking innovations inspired by the products of the land and the many cultures that lived in it. New Orleans was also settled by French people. The French in New Orleans did not come from Acadia, and ended up calling themselves Creoles, or people born in the New World. Cajuns and Creoles were about as different as Southerners and Yankees.
The Creoles were city folk and the Cajuns were country people. Since New Orleans was such an important trade center, there was a lot of cross-pollination of ideas, and the two cuisines mingled extensively. For example, Creoles introduced coffee, and the unique New Orleans concoction coffee and chicory to the Cajuns. The Cajuns introduced etouffee, and the Creoles transformed that into shrimp Creole. Most people feel the Creoles introduced the tomato into regional dishes, so any dish with tomatoes in it is usually considered Creole, rather than Cajun.
Even the gumbo, the quintessential Cajun food, is tainted. Gumbo is thickened with one of two ingredients – okra or filé. Okra is a vegetable that was brought to the New World by slaves from West Africa. Filé, the powder of the sassafras root, was introduced to Cajuns by Native Americans. So even the blessed gumbo is not solely a Cajun invention.
The word gumbo is, believe it or not, a Creole word that means okra. The Cajuns have an old phrase (or maybe it is the Creoles, nobody can remember), gumbo ya ya, which translates loosely as “everybody talking at once.” Gumbo ya ya just about sums up the origins of Cajun food.
Coming soon: Dr. Hébert’s fabulous gumbo recipe