This program is made possible in part by the Saint Landry Parish Tourist Commission, helping to keep the Louisiana French culture and language alive.

Saint Landry Parish.

Gumbo for your soul.

With additional support from CODOFIL whose mission is to support and grow Louisiana's Francophone communities and the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area dedicated to preserving Louisiana's unique cultural and natural landscape.

In 1682, French explorer LaSalle erected a cross at the mouth of the Mississippi, and in his native tongue, he claimed the entire river and basin for King Louis the 14th.

Naming it Louisiana French soon swept the land, becoming the language.

The Louisiana colony was founded upon nearly 240 years later, the state of Louisiana legislature tried to all but obliterate it.

But culture is stronger than contempt.

and Will knows no limit.

(Singing) Hi, I'm Mavis Fruge I'm here to see the Louisiana State Constitution of 1921.

Please.

(Singing).

Good morning.

Good morning.

This is the Constitution of 1921.

So there's a section, Article 12 in the Constitution on public education and section 12 deals with language which is right down here.

Right.

This that has so impacted the lives of so many people.

The general exercises in the public schools shall be conducted in the English language.

Done that.

That simple sentence stops all Cajuns, all Creoles, Indians from learning their native language.

This French is not a foreign language.

We grew up with it.

I just.

I'm appalled that one sentence could have impacted so many lives, so many varied ways,.

We're going to straighten out this area, if you would, if you would work right here.

I'm rather proud of my French heritage, actually.

Jacques Arnaud came from Jausiers, France, and in the early 1800s, he and two brothers, the tomb of his son, is in the center aisle of our Catholic Church.

Mavis Arnaud Fruge was born and raised in Arnaudville,, Louisiana, and French.

was her first language.

My parents spoke only French.

My grandparents both sets spoke only French.

We would go to Catholic Mass here in town, and the homily was in French.

The mass was in French.

So all around us, French was spoken Every Wednesday we have a fresh clientele that comes in to check us out.

Yes, well, language is is a fundamental part of culture.

It's one of the the main ways that people experience their culture, express their culture, and they also express their identity in part in large part through the way they speak.

My first three years of school were at the public school and there we did not speak French at all.

We all can relate to first day of school jitters.

I spoke only French and it was Creole French.

But for Rheeta Marks it was the stuff of nightmares.

I couldn't understand English.

I couldn't ask to go to the bathroom because I did not ask.

We were punished every day if we spoke.

The French.

But yet we could not speak English.

We didn't know how.

And we were spanked with a ruler on the fingers, put on our knees and put in a coatroom.

There was no windows by ourself in the dark.

And I was scared of the dark until I got married.

I was scared to be in the dark..

I hated first grade.

As a matter of fact, I was held back because at that and they were told in school and outside of school what you speak isn't a real language.

It's not valuable.

You need to assimilate.

You need to you need to speak English.

So there's nothing that would have prevented Louisianians from remaining bilingual, right?

They could have continued to pass it on to the children at home and at the same time, given their children opportunities to learn English and maintain this bilingual ism, but that too often wasn't seen as an option.

I felt like it was bringing my parents down.

They wanted me to learn.

They didn't.

They did not want me to be like they were because they didn't know any English at all.

When Mavis Arnaud married her high school sweetheart, Richard Fruge who had just joined the Air Force, the two embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.

We were stationed in Japan, in Alaska.

It just opened up a whole new world for me, and it made me realize something I didn't know about myself, that we sounded different.

So what is that accent?

Are you German?

No, I'm from Louisiana.

you're one of those coon asses.

No, no, please.

I'm proud to tell you I'm a Cajun, but I do take offense to being called that.

Please don't use that.

And so the guys knew.

The GIs knew.

Don't ever call Fruge█s wife.

I had to move away to learn that we were different.

That not everybody spoke French.

And when the Fruges moved back to Arnaudville they found things were different.

The language, the focal point of their rich Cajun culture was disappearing.

The visits were still in French for the most part, especially for, like my classmates.

The masses were no longer a Catholic mass in French.

The homily was no longer in French, like what I remembered as a youth.

The priest that we had here was not a French speaker.

Things like that had changed.

The younger people certainly did not use the French like like we had growing up.

Fruge took it for granted that her parents, in-laws, the whole community would always be there.

Speaking French.

And life doesn't work that way, does it?

We lose them, and with it we lose the language.

My three children speak a little French.

Did I make a conscious effort for them to learn French?

We did not.

I think at the time, living away from here, we weren't with it every day.

The language, the culture.

And we never saw.

And I so regret.

And I so regret.

It.

You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

And in this in this case, I think a lot of Louisianians, Louisiana francophones weren't necessarily all that attached to their language until it stopped being transmitted.

I had a career in banking and I knew which of my customers were French speakers and those who were not fluent.

And I could.

I always made a point to engage them in conversation.

And for the most part, everybody enjoyed that.

One day I counted a customer's money in French and he said, ‘arrette█ stop.

I'm not so stupid that you have to count to me in French.

And I said, I'm sorry.

I was not counting to you in French because I thought you stupid.

I was calling in French for my pleasure.

That was the mindset that some people had, that we were the stupid ones if we spoke French.

They didn't see it as the gift that I know and felt that we had.

One of Fruge█s bank customers, a young artist named George Marks, Rheeta█s son had returned home.

He dreamed of turning Arnaudville into a creative mecca and was in the midst of establishing the focal point, an artists collective called Nunu If we were going to do any type of cultural development within this area, we knew that French needed to be a part of that.

Mavis was very impressed and inspired.

And so the question was, how do we do it?

She saw an opportunity.

He said George would to let me do a French table here.

I don't know what that is.

The image that went through my mind was Mavis.

A bunch of other women wearing really bad costumes.

And I thought to myself, Gosh, I mean, that's not really authentic to who we are now.

I kind of step back a little, and I thought and actually I said it out loud.

I'm like, Do you think that's going to work?

And I said, I think so.

Why?

I said, Because I will bait the people first to our French table.

Mavis stood on the banks of Bayou Teche frying Begneits during the summer, wearing a chef's hat in July, the hottest month of the year.

I was happily surprised there were no costumes involved.

He was amazed that at one point he came and said, Do you know?

I just counted 125 people here, 125 people here to speak French.

Imagine that.

And it was at that French table that she laid the the foundation, or if you want to call it that, or the guidelines or whatever associated with her French tables, that all French is good French.

It's not just a Cajun table.

It's not just a Creole table, you know?

All French is good French.

That's how our relationship really grew.

Because he allowed me that that once a month I could do a French table at Nunu█s And one of the great things about Arnaudville is that it is at the intersection of French speaking and Creole speaking Louisiana.

You know, the development of art can happen anywhere in the world.

But the French piece, you know that Creole and Cajun, the combination of those two in this area, you're not going to find that.

It's a very unique thing.

It wouldn't have happened had Mavis Fruge not started her French table here.

And it and the French table wouldn't have happened if Nunu█s wouldn't have been here.

It's a it's a symbiotic relationship.

Suddenly, Nunu‘s and Mavis Fruge█s dream had a foothold.

I am Mavis Arnaud Fruge and I host a French table the last Saturday about every month at Nunu█s in Arnaudville.

All French tables are different.

The one thing we have in common, it's in French.

It doesn't matter which French yet Creole, Cajun, International, whatever.

And part of the deal is, is Mavis is bigger than life engaging personality.

Her warmth and her friendliness.

Well, great.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

When you walk in, you immediately feel like you're someplace where you belong.

That is so much to her credit.

She likes to say that.

just the little old lady that started a French table.

But it's more than it's much, much, much, much, much, much more than that.

it was almost like she gave permission to.

All French speakers in Arnaudville and surrounding communities.

all French speakers coming to the French table that their French was this okay?

It was good.

My parents were embarrassed because the French was forbidden.

But I was not.

I was not ashamed of it.

And I'm still not.

Mavis█s French table.

It taught me not to be ashamed of my Cajun, French and Creole.

French.

All French is good French.

For those of you here for the first time who don't speak French.

French tables are throughout Acadian.

It's our effort to preserve the French that we have here.

It's easy because she gives a sheet of paper with the English and the French so people can catch on to what we are talking about.

She also not only creates a space where it's good and safe and wonderful to speak French and to practice your French.

She will bring up topics like what kind of wedding gifts did you used to get in the old days?

And of course, the group is multigenerational.

You have people in their eighties nineties.

You have people.

You have children who are seven or eight years old sometimes.

So these experiences are beyond linguistic.

There's an oral history practice that's going on.

These are people that are practicing a tradition that not too many years ago was a regular occurrence on peoples, on people's front porches, on on any Thursday evening when people sat outside after dinner to Veillee and talk about the old times and sing songs.

Mavis has this rule.

She said, if somebody offers some something French always say, yes, is helping to create all these partnerships that are relevant to French life.

It's inspired a lot of other people to step up.

Yeah, I really feel that she started this movement around Acadiana.

And if I may add, I was at an international summit at Nunu Mavis inspired a Finnish table in Minnesota.

Visitors from Minnesota came to Arnaudville to experience the French table and said, Hey, we need to do that in our hometown.

So she's inspiring these heritage language tables everywhere, not just Acadiana.

And that's a pretty powerful thing.

Mavis█s French table has been going strong now for close to 20 years.

The Louisiana legislators of 1921 sure didn't see Mavis Fruge coming, but the French consulate in New Orleans is well aware of her.

I don't know if we should call it Knight Mavis, but but she's essentially been knighted by the French government twice.

Most recently, it was a level of award reserved for French national heroes for Herculean efforts in carrying on a North American French language legacy dating to the 17th century.

And it's an incredible honor not only for Arnaudville, but for the entire state of Louisiana.

That passion she has, you know, for the French language, you know, it's something that she lives and breathes.

You never know who you meet here.

One morning we had an opera singer who is the backup singer for Placido Domingo and a French prince in Arnaudville really all speaking French.

She's like a French ambassador, you know, Louisiana French ambassador.

That's Mavis Fruge She's not alone in the effort to close the book on a chapter of history.

That should never have happened.

Francophones and other French tables from around Louisiana are having a big impact.

This resurgence of Louisiana French is not only helping to heal old wounds.

I wish those teachers would still be here today and see what's going on.

No, it wasn't their fault because that was a rule at that time not to speak French in school.

It wasn't their fault, but a child doesn't see it that way.

I mean, those kids were miserable.

What I was punished for today, we're being given credit of doing something right.

And that means everything to me.

And I speak to different kind of French.

So that's makes it like three of them had a Creole, Cajun, and the English.

So I am proud of it (singing) people have made friends there.

We play games there.

We sing songs.

There's a camaraderie and there's a pride that's engendered there by Mavis and supported by other people.

And it's creating a real excitement and hope that Louisiana French will be heard for years to come.

But I'm still optimistic that it's going to survive for yet another generation, four more generations, hopefully, and still be with us and still be in our state.

That's the key part of Mavis, is Dream the next generation.

they've been coming in droves.

University students from around the country and world come to Nunu█s to take part in Mavis█s French Table and a French immersion program in development.

And plans are underway to open the Saint Luc, Louisiana French Immersion School.

We need to provide opportunities for young people to have meaningful experiences in French to use that language in business situations.

Globalization is not going away.

We will continue to have contacts with people from other countries.

This cannot be strictly a nostalgia gig for us.

We have to move French into the modern world.

The regret Mavis felt in not teaching her children French years ago has turned to delight with her grandkids.

I have two who who are fluent in French, one who has done nine years of French immersion and has a little daughter who's in kindergarten.

She loves it.

And so I am just thrilled to hear a little child speak French.

It just I tell you, it just warms my heart when I hear a little one who's learning who's in French immersion.

And he's learning that what Louisiana lawmakers saw as an economic handicap in 1921 is today proving to be quite the opposite.

This afternoon, we have a couple visiting from France.

He flew from Toronto to New Orleans, rented a car and came to Arnaudville Really?

Because people speak French here.

We're in the guidebooks in France.

Nunu█s of Arnaudville, French speaking people.

You can find, French people speaking people.

There you see the music, the dancing, all of that.

Be a Creole, be it Cajun Two-Step, whatever it is.

How many people come here for this experience?

Is that not incredible?

It's wonderful.

Those very lawmakers ignited a cultural revolution with a 100 year fuse that led straight to Mavis Arnaud Fruge Yet after all these years, in some ways, yesterday remains.

Fruge says there is still a struggle to convince some folks of the significance of preserving Louisiana French, by and large.

I think people here embrace welcome it.

They understand and they see the worth of what this could do to have a French immersion campus here, what that could do for the economy of Arnaudville not St Landry Parish, not just the state.

Come on, we don't have anything like it in the United States.

It would be awesome.

That's my dream.

It's up to the speakers to decide how important it is to their culture.

And it's it's reassuring and gratifying to see that there are people out there like Mavis, like George, who have decided this is really important to us and it's worth investing in and it's worth preserving.

This program is made possible in part by the Saint Landry Parish Tourist Commission, helping to keep the Louisiana French culture and language alive.

Saint Landry Parish.

Gumbo for your soul.

With additional support from CODOFIL whose mission is to support and grow Louisiana.

As Francophone communities and the Atchafalaya, a national heritage area dedicated to preserving Louisiana's unique cultural and natural landscape.