Have U.S. border practices and security measures implemented since Sept. 11, 2001, contributed to the loss of spoken French in Maine?
This is the question Molly Rose Freeman Cyr asked as she began an analysis of spoken French for her master’s thesis at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Cyr contacted me last spring, seeking sources to use in her research, after her mother sent her my BDN column from last May about Lisa Lavoie of Fort Kent, who wrote a similar thesis about French family connections enduring despite changes in border crossing regulations after 9/11.
I heard from Cyr again recently with news that she had finished her program and received an award of distinction for her thesis: “Retour aux origines: An analysis of Post 9/11 security measures on the Franco-American community of Maine.”
Originally from Dover-Foxcroft, Cyr has pursued the study of French language since high school.
“I wanted to honor my family in some small way,” she said in a recent email from Dublin, describing the background for her award-winning thesis. She said her high school French wasn’t Maine French or even Quebecois French, “but it helped me connect to my family history in my own way.”
As in many Franco-American families in Maine, French disappeared from Cyr’s family during her grandparents’ generation through both official and unofficial means.
As Molly grew up, she learned that, officially, French had been restricted in Maine schools and that children were punished and ridiculed for speaking the language. Unofficially, through encounters with members of the Ku Klux Klan, neighbors and authority figures, speaking French became a liability.
“My grandfather stopped speaking French when he was young, and although he never forgot how to speak it was never transmitted on to the next generations.”
A 2013 graduate of Wellesley College with a bachelor’s degree in peace studies and French, Cyr looked to Maine’s border with Canada as she applied her interest in the French language to research for a master’s of philosophy degree in international peace studies at Trinity’s Irish School of Ecumenics.
“I have studied corporate and institutional violence through my undergraduate and master’s degrees and wanted to research the systematic violence that has contributed to the loss of French in Maine,” she said.
Cyr wondered how one population of French speakers in Canada has survived, maintaining their traditions and their language, while the population of French speakers on the U.S. side of the border is “quietly, but surely, disappearing.”
Her curiosity led her to examine the type and number of border crossings to determine the nature of the cross-border relationship between northern Maine and Canada and to identify changes in crossing trends following increased security measures since 9/11.
“Lack of government support is an obvious factor in the decline of French in Maine, but I thought to myself, what about the hardening of the border post 9/11?”
Cyr analyzed primary documents, scholarly articles and expert reports. She also contacted specialists who are working on the topic, such as Ben Levine, co-director of the film “Reveil: Waking up French,” and Jacques Poitras, CBC reporter and author of “Imaginary Line: Life on an unfinished border.”
She explored the “critical link between increased border security since 2001 and continued community efforts to connect across the border, despite the modern development of the border as a dividing line rather than its historic role as a gathering point.”
She found that, although many factors have led to a decrease in spoken French in Maine, the border has become an obstacle to cultural exchange since 2001. Numbers of same-day passenger car visits to and from the U.S. and Canada have decreased dramatically since 2001, and the loss of French language is significant.
“From this research, I can conclude that the increased security practices of the border are negatively affecting the French-speaking community,” Cyr writes in the abstract for her study. “This is crucial information for the State of Maine as it demonstrates the lack of support and protection that the Maine French-speaking community has, especially without the close ties of their Quebec and New Brunswick neighbors.”
Cyr calls upon the U.S. and Canada to “revise their border security practices to allow for more fluid cross-cultural exchange,” using formal and informal channels.
As an example, she praised the 2014 World Acadian Congress/Congres Mondial Acadien as a “brilliant” cross border festival that illuminated the importance of French in Maine while connecting the Maine community to the larger, shared history in Canada and Louisiana.
“Keeping Maine connected to this broader history is key,” she said in an email, adding that the extra effort involved in celebrating across the Maine/Canada border “was a significant statement and gesture that brought energy and light to the Maine French-speaking community.”
Cyr is working with her adviser at Trinity to turn her thesis into an article for publication.
Kathryn Olmstead is a former University of Maine associate dean and associate professor of journalism living in Aroostook County, where she publishes the quarterly magazine Echoes. Her column appears in this space every other Friday. She can be reached at olmstead@maine.edu or P.O. Box 626, Caribou, ME 04736.