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Six
Degrees of Separation,
or, How a Mexican Star
Became
a Cajun Legend by
Maggie Van Ostrand |
|
Even
if you have never wondered what ties Mexico
to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I’m going to tell you anyway. It begins with a
poem.
Longfellow’s epic 1847 poem, “Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie,” is
the story of an Acadian girl, Evangeline Bellefontaine (“Fair was she to behold,
that maiden of seventeen summers”), her betrothed, Gabriel Lajeunesse (“a valiant
youth, and his face, like the face of the morning”), and their agonizing separation
when, in 1755, the British deported Acadians (Cajuns) from Nova Scotia in The
Great Expulsion. (”… all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of all kinds forfeited
be to the crown; and that you yourselves from this province be transported to
other lands.”) Gabriel was torn from Evangeline’s side and crammed onto a ship
bound for America, leaving her ashore, silently weeping. But not for long. |
| Acadians
kicked out of Nova Scotia by the British |
In
her quest to reunite with Gabriel, Evangeline follows his ship to America, and
wanders on foot across mountains, rivers, and deserts, but she fails to find him.
One day, strangers gave her hope: "Gabriel Lajeunesse . … 0, yes! we have seen
him.
He is a Voyageur in the lowlands of Louisiana." Evangeline
travels through the bayous by boat, following a vision which “beckoned her on
through the moonlight ..” On this, as on other occasions to come, she narrowly
misses Gabriel by only one day. Was she pursuing but a phantom? |
| Persistent Evangeline
dedicates her life to the quest, even as she becomes a Sister of Mercy, nurses
the poor and tends the dying. At last, her long search ends and she finds her
lover, but she is too late. Gabriel has been taken mortally ill during an epidemic.
“Vainly he strove to rise; and Evangeline, kneeling beside him, kissed his dying
lips, and laid his head on her bosom.” Highly dramatic tale to be sure, (“Side
by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping”) and in 1929, Evangeline
was exactly the right screen role for Mexico’s magnificent Dolores
Del Rio. See? I got to the Mexican part. |
| The
film, Evangeline, was directed by Edwin Carewe, who had leapt aboard a train steaming
out of his Gainesville,
Texas, home town, bound for California. He was probably the first hobo to
become a Hollywood film director. Besides del Rio,
he discovered Gary Cooper, Wallace Beery, and other stars. But I digress and now
return you to your regular programming. |
|
| Del
Rio was known to be much more than the most beautiful woman in the world.
She was also a financial wizard, married to the man who designed the Oscar statuette
(posed for by another Mexican star, Emilio
“El Indio” Fernandez), and was regarded as very generous. Proof of this last
admired characteristic can be found two hours west of New Orleans, just off I-10
headed for Houston. Here’s where the
Cajun part comes in. |
Dolores
del Rio - Mural - Hollywood, California
Photo courtesy Maggie Van Ostrand |
| It
was in St. Martinville, Louisiana, that Evangeline had come to rejoin her long-lost
love, only to learn he had left the day before, and it is here, near the banks
of Bayou Teche, an area pulsing with Cajun and Zydeco music, spicy dishes, and
crawdads, that we see a gift from Dolores Del Rio:
a magnificent statue of Evangeline standing just outside St. Martin de Tours chapel,
the Acadians’ Mother Church. |
The
Statue of Evangeline in St. Martinsville, LA
TE photo, April 2009 |
Close-up
of the Statue of Evangeline
TE photo, April 2009 |
Evangeline
Statue plaque
TE photo, April 2009 |
Today
a major tourist attraction in St. Martinville, Evangeline’s statue was posed for
by Dolores Del Rio herself, and donated to the
town, giving new dimension to the very meaning of the name Evangeline: good news.
What are the Six Degrees of Separation? Longfellow poem to Evangeline
to Gabriel to del Rio film to statue to Cajun
legend.
Copyright
Maggie Van Ostrand
"A Balloon In Cactus"
May 6, 2009 column
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