ABSTRACT
In Quebec popular culture, Louisiana has symbolized the death of a French nation and the rebirth of its folklife. This rebirth is expressed in the metaphor of a bidirectional "return to roots." Contacts between the Louisiana French and French-Canadians were not always channeled through the Acadian elites of Southwestern Louisiana. The European orientation of the white Creoles was hardly effective in countering the Americanization of Louisiana and a decline in economic and political power of planter elites after the Civil War. Quebec elites continued to regard Louisiana Cajuns and Creoles as Acadians and the Louisianians tended to support such an image by visitors from Quebec until the 1970s. Cholette's brief visit led to a position paper that became an influential document in the framing of a Quebec policy toward Louisiana. In 1965, Minister Pierre Laporte traveled to Louisiana for the events connected with Leonard Foret's work for the National Film Office to commemorate the 210th anniversary of the Acadian deportation.
