Something About Church Point

What is it about this rural Louisiana town that inspires such profound talent and achievement?

by

Three Louisiana Legends, All From Church Point

Before the pandemic, lively conversations en Français were often heard among the locals and visitors of La Table Français at Dwyer’s Café in Lafayette. On one such morning, I—a frequent attendee—mentioned that Church Point, my hometown, was likewise the acclaimed Cajun musician Reggie Matte’s. Rippling comments ensued. “Church Point is also the hometown of former Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque and Acadian historian Barry Ancelet,” another exclaimed.

What are the fertile grounds that influenced these “doers and producers” of francophone scholars, renowned poets, Cajun musicians, and authors? Is it in the land, the grand boi, or the bayou water?

So, what is it about Church Point? I wondered—that these three icons of Cajun culture come from the same town. What is it about the Church Point region that keeps its people so passionately plugged into their French Louisiana culture? What are the fertile grounds that influenced these “doers and producers” of francophone scholars, renowned poets, Cajun musicians, and authors? Is it in the land, the grand boi, or the bayou water? Is it rooted in the mystic souls of the Cajuns and Créoles, with our strong family values and traditions, mixed with tenacity and stubborn endurance? During Lent you pray “The Way of the Cross,” recite a rosary, then have a Cajun jam of lost-love drinking songs. You attend Mass on Sunday mornings; in the afternoon you dance to a “fais do-do.”

As for myself, I know to my core that my identity as a writer was deeply shaped by my eighteen years spent living and working in rural Church Point as a cotton and sweet potato sharecropper’s daughter in the 1930s and ‘40s. We spoke only French, moved often, always to four-room cabins near a bayou and the big woods. No electricity, no running water. Our only transportation was a mule-driven wagon. My daddy was an accordion player, so Cajun music was always a part of my life. After high school graduation I got married, took a job as file clerk at a bank, and soon worked my way up to Assistant Vice President, a seventeen-year career. In retirement, I enrolled in the 2009-2010 University of Louisiana at Lafayette writing class for seniors, and sat down to tell my story, which culminated in A Cajun Girl’s Sharecropping Years (2018).

But what about the others? Church Point has its share of well-known personalities, but I decided to talk to these three about the phenomenon that is our shared hometown.   

Barry Jean Ancelet

I started on Hwy 93 in Scott, making my way to the home of perhaps the most acclaimed authority on the Acadian culture of the twentieth century. Currently serving as Professor Emeritus of Francophone Studies and the Center for Louisiana Folklore Research Fellow at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ancelet has published dozens of books and hundreds of articles and reports on folklore, music, and the preservation of this unique culture.

What were some early life influences that helped you produce such successful scholarly achievements?

“I was born in the old Church Point Sanitarium, which is where my mother’s physician was sending his expectant mothers at the time. My early schooling included French classes. My mother went to beauty school.  After school, I hung around Dad’s barber shop where I listened to tall tales and jokes. When my father chose the music for the record player, it was always Iry LeJeune. My summers were spent at my father’s sister’s house where almost everyone’s first language was French, so I spoke it too.

[Read Barry Jean Ancelet's article on places central to Acadian culture here.]

It was so easy to study French in college! I worked on the edge with improvised approaches trying to understand the oral French of Cajuns and Créoles. Very little of it could be found on library shelves as few persons had the opportunity to learn to read or write in French. Someone had to start writing in Louisiana French! So, I wrote the first book of its kind, Cajun and Creole Folktales (1994).”

“This old warrior is still around writing books and telling stories; my last lecture has not yet been written. Never be afraid to reach out and be surprised!”

—Barry Jean Ancelet

What words of encouragement can you offer Louisiana’s newer generations in terms of honoring and exploring their cultures?

“This old warrior is still around writing books and telling stories; my last lecture has not yet been written. Never be afraid to reach out and be surprised!”

Darrell Bourque

I met Bourque in Lafayette, where he currently serves as Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The former Poet Laureate of Louisiana (2007-2011), Bourque received Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Humanist of the Year award just last year. He’s published several books of poetry, and much of his work has been centered on Acadian and Créole themes.

[Read our article on Darrell Bourque's fascination with Amédé Ardoin here.]

“What influences did life in Church Point have in shaping you to become an award-winning poet and teacher?

“I think it starts with the land. I was born in Church Point and still live in the family home on a wooded remnant of the Bourques’ original three-hundred-acre farm. My family spoke English and French. Family times centered around food, Sunday dinners, a boucherie, making ice cream with storytelling as the entertainment. I credit my French language in big part to my great-grandmother whom I lived with during high school. She refused to speak English to me, but made herself understood. On the corner of the Bourque property was a dance club where I heard Cajun music and the early sounds of zydeco! Music tells its own poetic story!”

"Family times centered around food, Sunday dinners, a boucherie, making ice cream with storytelling as the entertainment."

—Darrell Bourque

What reflections can you share with the younger generation?

“‘Poverty creates its own richness.’ After high school, I got a job delivering milk, then selling shoes. It was not a life I wanted, so I found a way to go to USL and studied English. I had no clue that writing and poetry would become a career.”

Reggie Matte

Catching Matte before a gig with his band, the Jambalaya Cajun Band, at Randol’s Dancehall in Lafayette, we discussed his two long-standing careers: office clerk/salesman and as a multi-talented Cajun singer-song writer and musician. Matte plays the accordion, guitar, harmonica, and drums, and among his many awards, he has been named the French Music Association’s “Le Cadjin” for Song of the Year, Best Accordionist, and Album of the Year.

What life experiences and influences helped you in your work?

“I was born in the old Presbyterian hospital in Church Point and raised in the country. Following graduation from Church Point High, I attended a technical school in Arkansas. My first job was in the office at Church Point Wholesale, and then I managed a Radio Shack for four years. I switched to salesman, first with NAPA Tools, then Istre Cajun Foods, and next Savoie’s Cajun Food Products. But I was eight years old when I received my first accordion as a Christmas present. I was influenced by my grandfather, Thomas Matte, who gave me accordion lessons at our family visits on Sunday. I played my first dance job when I was thirteen, and was with the Church Point Playboys for twenty years.  I continue to play with Jambalaya Cajun Band, which I joined in 1987.”

Any advice for our next generation?

“Practice, practice. Work and learn.”

Four dominant connections appear in these careers:  French language, strong family life, storytelling, and Cajun music.

Connected by Language, Family Life, Storytelling, and Cajun Music

Interestingly, Ancelet and Bourque come into the picture via the academic with multiple university degrees. In contrast, Matte’s pathway, like my own, was “Earn while you Learn.” Four dominant connections appear in these careers:  French language, strong family life, storytelling, and Cajun music.

Each of us attend and participate at Louisiana festivals such as Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, preside and tell stories at cultural events at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, play at Randol’s Dancehall and other national and international events, and speak Français at Dwyer’s Café. 

Viola Fontenot, who was born in rural Church Point, spoke only French until first grade. A retired assistant Vice President of a bank, she enrolled in a 2009 “Life Writing” class and wrote her stories. In 2018, Fontenot’s first book, A Cajun Girls Sharecropping Years, was published by University Press of Mississippi. It was awarded the 2019 Book of the Year by Louisiana Endowment for Humanities. “Never give up,” says Viola.