• Acadians' genetic secrets studied 
• Congrès' impact on area lodging industry mixed 
• Acadians in France / Olivier Terrio

Highlights of the Congrès Mondial Acadien for Tuesday:
     Two excellent short docudrama films at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville by Glen Pitre of Galliano which won him the support of the Sundance Film Foundation to produce Belizaire the Cajun. They are called (in English) ''$8.50 per Barrel'' about shrimp pricing discontent in the 1930s and ''Yellow Fever'' about an outbreak of the deadly disease in the LaFourche area in the early part of the century. Also on tap at City Hall in St. Martinville are presentations by Jane G. Bulliard on the Acadian Memorial's Wall of Names andÊ singer Helen Boudreaux at the Maison Duchamp, also in St. Martinville.
     There will also be a standard Cajun festival in Scott.
 
 

St. MARTINVILLE -- GŽrard-Marc Braud had an easy act to follow Monday at the City Hall here as part of the week-long lecture series sponsored by the Acadian Memorial in conjunction with the ongoing CongrŽs Mondial Acadien Louisiane-1999.

First, however, notice the spelling of the Frenchman's surname. It does not end in ''eaux.''

His last name is spelled the same way his family spelled it before deportations began from what are now known as the Maritime Provinces of Canada in 1755, the place identified as Acadia among the descendants of the refugees known here in Louisiana as Cajuns.

It wasn't until the U.S. census of 1820 that nearly all the phonetically sounding ''O'' endings of Cajun names were standardized arbitrarily to end in ''eaux.''

There were other changes, too, apparently. ''Terrio'' is now spelled ''Theriot.''

The French historian's name remains the way it was in Acadie because he is descended from the Acadians struggling for survival in France who in 1785 decided not to board the ship St. Remy in Nantes, France, and begin the voyage to what Braud calls in his book ''From Nantes to Louisiana'' the ''promised land.''

Roughly 1,600 of them did, though, and were settled by the Spanish -- with the help ofÊ FrenchÊ commandants who stayed on toÊfacilitate the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to Spain -- in militarily strategic areas, principally along the Mississippi River on what became known as the ''Acadian Coast.''

The act that Braud followed was a "vignette" -- a short dramatization most Americans call a ''skit'' -- put on by three members of the performing troupe "Le Theatre Acadien."

It tells the story of how the arrival of the largest body of Acadians came about.

The vignette was centered around the historical character of Olivier Terrio.   Terrio was about three years old when the British finally rounded up his family and deported them to Nantes.

In the vignette, he is played by two actors: his persona as a young man is portrayed by Robert ''Hibou'' Landreneau, born in Ville Platte and now a resident of Lafayette.

Shirley Savoy of Lafayette represents him as an old man in Louisiana, telling the story ofÊ the bargain and the voyage and the joyous arrival in New Orleans in 1785.

Jim Viator of New Iberia plays the part of the entrepreneur/soldier of fortune (and typical salesman) Henri Peyroux de la Coudeni?re.

Peyroux knew that settlers who had no affection for the British were desperately needed for settlement in Louisiana.

When Terrio told him of the dissatisfaction of the Acadians' treatment by the French, he saw an opportunity.

Terrio recruited the 1,600 Acadians from several areas of France and Peyroux put the deal together with the involvement of the kings of both France and Spain.

However, Peyroux did a little over-selling on both sides.

After settlement in Louisiana, Peyroux and Terrio had a falling out.

Peyroux had promised aid he couldn't deliver and was disappointed with the compensation for his trouble.

But the ''promised land'' of what we now call Acadiana had been reached by the lucky 1,600, the Terrios land of their own to till, a new start in a New World and, eventually, a ''t'' at the end and an ''h'' near the beginning of their names.