Manifesto
Rendezvous of Franco-America,
Québec (Québec) & Lewiston (Maine)

[version française]

The constituent states of North America will inevitably move to some form of continental union in the 21st Century. In such a configuration, the three core languages will be English, Spanish, and French. While the first two are vested in powerful States (USA and Mexico) and their authority is unquestioned, the legitimacy of French is more equivocal, and hence it is periodically subject to contestation. This is readily explained by the fact that, 1). French is spoken by only 2% of the continent's population, 2). Although a co-official language of Canada - with English - the role of French is often reduced to a largely symbolic one, and, 3). The political, cultural, and economic power base of French is limited essentially to a single province, Québec. In other words, the population that lies behind the language is, for many, an obscure and vulnerable one. And yet the French language is the bearer of a culture and the voice of a diversity of communities that are central to the very making of North America. It is a language spoken by a population that is present through the continent. And it is a language that serves as a crucial instrument of inter-cultural dialogue within the continent and a window on the modern world.

Musée du Québec, 1999

Since continental integration is motivated primarily by the logic of economic rationalism, those with the vision to see such a move will play a crucial role in ensuring the fair association of the composite peoples, languages, and cultures of the emerging North American Regional Community. In this context, the Rendezvous of Franco-America's mission is to serve as an advocate for the French presence. In using the term "French", we refer to all the North American cultures and communities who express themselves through the French language, consider it to be a primordial historical reference, or share it with other languages. Most Franco-American communities are concentrated in and derived principally from Québec, Acadian, and Louisianan hearths. Some are the product of interaction with other civilizations, notably the Creole and Métis communities. Others are recent immigrants to this continent, from Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, or Asia. And yet others have joined the Francophone community, by virtue of residence, education, and the power of attraction of its culture.

In the past, traditionalist French North American organizations have tended to look backwards in celebration of a particular history and an oftentimes-painful struggle for the maintenance of a faith, a language, and a specific continental experience. In other words, marginality and exclusivity were, in a very real sense, celebrated by them. While this recognition of the past and of a heritage is something we too advocate, the primary focus of our Consortium is to look resolutely forward, not backward, to look outwards, not inwards, to give a presence, a substance and expectations to a language that is increasingly inscribed on the products of the New Economy and has, in recent decades, acquired considerable visibility throughout North America.

Dean Louder & Eric Waddell, Quebec, at the Maine State Legislature, Augusta, 2002

The Rendezvous is rooted in the Province of Québec and the New England, but our network is of continental dimensions. We draw together people of diverse backgrounds: education, cinema, literature, and the arts. Our mission is to bring the Franco-American experience from the margins to the center of North America: to provide it with substance and legitimacy, to demonstrate the extent to which it is a culture of convergence, inspired by the multiplicity of peoples and trajectories which characterize the North American adventure, and to highlight the continuity between the past, present and future. In sum, we are concerned to reveal the significant contribution Franco-Americans make in defining the personality of this continent, guiding its development, and building bridges between its many cultures and civilizations.

It is the specific intention of the Rendezvous to generate and diffuse information on Franco-America: Its history and geography, and its linguistic, cultural, political, and economic expressions. The means we intend to adopt will include the promotion and publication of research, the production of educational materials, the diffusion of cultural products, the organization of conferences, and the creation of websites, with all of them aimed at a continental audience, hence at all three language communities. We believe that in adopting this mission we can help ensure that Franco-America establishes its place as an equal partner, with an Anglo-America and a Hispano-America, in the construction of the continent of the 21st Century.

André Gladu, Montréal, at Sillery, Québec, 1999

Jean Morisset, Montéal, Carrying Place, Maine, 1996

Eric Waddell, sur le chemin de Mont Aigoual (Cevennes, France)

Eric Waddell, Laval University, Québec ericwaddell@sympatico.ca

Barry Rodrigue, Lewiston-Auburn College, University of Southern Maine
rodrigue@usm.maine.edu

Dean Louder, Laval University, Québec - dean.louder@ggr.ulaval.ca

Hello Barry

You will certainly NOT give me $20. On the other hand what you WILL DO is, one, take a stiff drink from that rum bottle and, two, read and then distribute to your Franco-American class the two poems I am faxing you shortly.

The thing is I am increasingly angry about what is happening to the world. About the cynicism and ruthlessness of the American industrial and military establishment whose puppet leader is that incredibly dangerous fool Bush and the "American way of life" that he so resolutely promotes... in the name of civilisation.

The idiocy of a small capitalist university bookstore ripping off an academic or two is an infinitesimal drop in the ocean compared with Bush's "war on terrorism". So Hiroshima wasn't terrorism, or Chile, or Vietnam, or Iraq? And what are a few suicide bombers compared with all those bloody arms and aid the US supplies to Israel... or the 400,000 settlers in the Occupied Territories? What do you do when you have nothing left to lose, when all you can struggle for is a bit of dignity? But the bastard in a refugee camp on the Gaza Strip for two generations... and he might see the world differently. Or hole him up in a building and accuse him of failing to intervene to "stop the terrorism". No, on second thoughts, he's too stupid for that. Wedded with his tunnel vision.

Which brings me to your Franco class. Tell them, when the chips are down, it's not about "heritage" or about "therapy". Those are the fantasies of the spoiled of this world. No, it's about the future of the world, about other ways of seeing, about other voices. It's about unfastening themselves from mainstream anglo-america, with its crass political parties, its despotic media, and its cultivated ignorance. It's about hearing something of what the rest of the world has to say... and meditating on it. It's about humility. It's about the evil of this continuing discourse on "civilization and savagery" and about the position that it is always the others who are responsible for the problems of the world.

Tell them that under communism the Soviet people KNEW the State lied to them, and they did something about it. But under CAPITALISM we continue to blindly believe everything State and Capital tell us.

And get them to read and meditate on these two poems, both in French. Get them to translate them. Get them to find out about the authors. And get them to reflect on the issues they raise.

And tell them, that in sending them to you, I'm not some kind of Franco fanatic. I'm for all languages and all peoples. It just so happens that French is one of the little alternative windows we have, in this corner of the continent, on a richer, more honest and more humble world.

For the record, Richard Desjardins is one of Québec's most critical chansonniers. He recently co-directed a film entitled "L'erreur boréale" on the continued clean-cutting of Québec's forests. And Mahmoud Darwich is "the poet of Palestine". His words need no comment.

Human and environmental tragedies intersect in both their writings... AS WE, THE FOOT SOLDIERS OF CAPITAL, ADVANCE VORACIOUSLY INTO OBLIVION.

That's right, French isn't just a thread to talk to grandparents. Its one of the colours in the rainbow which sits on the horizon, but which is increasingly obscured by tanks, bombs, a parched landscape, and the ranting of Ariel Sharon and George Bush on the t.v. screen.

Do we (still) learn nothing from the past, in spite of all those bloody university courses?

Cheers

Your mate, Eric

Les Yankees
par
Richard Desjardins

La nuit dormait dans son verseau, les chèvres buvaient au rio
Nous allions au hasard, Et nous vivions encore plus fort
Malgré le frette et les barbares
Nous savions qu'un jour ils viendraient, à grands coups d'axes,
À coups de taxes
Nous traverser le corps de bord en bord,

Nous les derniers humains de la terre

Le vieux Achille a dit: "À soir c'est un peu trop tranquille
Amis, laissez-moi faire le guet. Allez! Dormez en paix!..."

Ce n'est pas le bruit du tonnerre ni la rumeur de la rivière
Mais le galop de milliers de chevaux en course
Dans l'oeil du guetteur.
Et tout ce monde sous la toile Qui dort dans la profondeur:
"Réveillez-vous! V'là les Yankees, v'là les yankees
Easy come, Wisigoths, V'là les Gringos!

Ils débarquèrent dans la clairière et disposèrent leurs jouets de fer
L'un d'entre eux loadé de guns s'avance et pogne le mégaphone
"Nous venons de la part du Big Control, Son laser vibre dans le pôle,
Nous avons tout tout tout conquis jusqu'à la glace des galaxies
Le président m'a commandé de pacifier le monde entier
Nous venons en amis
Maint'nant assez de discussion et signez-moi la réddition
Car bien avant la nuit, nous regagnons la Virginie!"

V'là les Yankees, v'là les yankees
Easy come, Wisigoths, V'là les Gringos!

"Alors je compte jusqu'à trois et toutes vos filles pour nos soldats
Le grain, le chien et l'uranium, l'opium et le chant de l'ancien,
Tout désormais nous appartient
Et pour que tous aient bien compris, je compterai deux fois
Et pour les news d'la NBC:
"Tell me my friend, qui est le chef ici? Et qu'il se lève!
Et le soleil se leva.

Hey Gringo! Escucha me, Gringo!
Nous avons traversé les continents, des océans sans fin
Sur des radeaux tressés de rêves
Et nous voici devant vivants, fils de soleil éblouissant
La vie dans le reflet d'un glaive

America, America, ton dragon fou s'ennuie
Amène-le que je l'achève,
Caligula, ses légionnaires,
Ton président, ses millionaires
Sont pendus au bout de nos lèvres

Gringo! T'auras rien de nous
De ma mémoire de titan, mémoire de 'tit enfant:
Ça fait longtemps que je t'attends.
Gringo! Va-t-en! Va-t-en
Allez Gringo! Que Dieu te blesse!
La nuit dormait dans son verseau, les chèvres buvaient au rio,
Nous allions au hasard et nous vivions encore plus fort
Malgré le frette et les barbares.

Voir http://www.chansonduquebec.com/bio/desjardi.html

" Sur Cette Terre "
Par
Mahmoud Darwich

Sur cette terre, il y a ce qui mérite vie : l'hesitation d'avril, l'odeur du pain à l'aube, les opinions d'une femme sur les hommes, les écrits d'Eschyle, le commencement de l'amour, l'herbe sur une pierre, des mères debout sur un filet de flûte et la peur qu'inspire le souvenir aux conquérants.

Sur cette terre, il y a ce qui mérite vie : la fin de septembre, une femme qui sort de la quarantaine, mûre de tous ses abricots, l'heure de soleil en prison, des nuages qui imitent une volée de créatures, les acclamations d'un peuple pour ceux qui montent, souriants, vers leur mort et la peur qu'inspirent les chansons aux tyrans.

Sur cette terre, il y a ce qui mérite vie : Sur cette terre setient la maîtresse de la terre, mère des préludes et des épilogues. On l'appelait Palestine. On l'appelle désormais Palestine. Ma Dame, je mérite la vie, car tu es ma Dame.
1986

" La Terre Nous Est Étroite "
Par
Mahmoud Darwich

La terre nous est étroite. Elle nous accule dans le dernier défilé et nous nous dévêtons de
nos membres pour passer.
Et la terre nous pressure. Que ne sommes-nous son blé, pour mourir et ressusciter. Que
n'est-elle notre mère
Pour compatir avec nous. Que ne sommes-nous les images des rochers que notre rêve
pottera,
Miroirs. Nous avons vu les visages de ceux que le dernier parmi nous tuera dans la
dernière défense de l'âme.
Nous avons pleuré la fête de leurs enfants et nous avons vu les visages de ceux qui
précipiteront nos enfants
Par les fenêtres de cet espace dernier, miroirs polis par notre étoile.
Où irons-nous, après l'ultime frontière ? Où partent les oiseaux, après le dernier
Ciel ? Où s'endorment les plantes, après le dernier vent ?
Nous écrions nos noms avec la vapeur
Carmine, nous trancherons la main au chant afin que
notre chair le complète.

Ici, nous mourrons. Ici, dans le dernier défilé. Ici ou ici, et un olivier montera de
Notre sang.
1986

Voir http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/darwshx.htm

[version française]