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Keyhole Issue
Refers to the descendants of French settlers who fled Acadia (now northern Maine and Maritime Canada) and moved to Louisiana in the late 1700s. Many Cajuns still speak French and most live in the South and Southwest regions of the state, especially in rural areas.
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Cajun Term Timeline in Strangers in Their Own Land
The timeline below shows where the term Cajun appears in Strangers in Their Own Land. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3 – The Rememberers
Hochschild sits in the living room of 77-year-old Harold Areno, “a gentle Cajun pipefitter” who takes her through his old photo albums. He finds a photo of himself...
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...the bayou’s wildlife, and even drank its water from time to time. The Arenos were Cajuns—descendants of French settlers that the British expelled from Canada in 1765—and few of them finished...
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Chapter 4 – The Candidates
...campaign trail. Hochschild describes Honoré (who is black Creole but popularly known as the “Ragin’ Cajun”) as an “empathy wall leaper.” When Hochschild asks him why Louisianans do not “ask politicians...
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Chapter 7 – The State: Governing the Market 4,000 Feet Below
...of Bayou Corne. Like him, Schaff’s neighbors enjoy fishing in the bayou and are mostly “Cajun, Catholic, and conservative, predisposed to the Tea Party.” Schaff, the most politically active among them,...
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