Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/4/2023
CHICOPEE — A new book explores the history and the accomplishments of the French-Canadian immigrants in Massachusetts.
Author Marie Proulx-Meder of Chicopee has released “Growing Up French: A Collection of Franco-American Interviews.”
“My main goal was to preserve the past Franco experience of growing up for future generations,” she told Reminder Publishing.
She started the project in 2013 when she was the director of the French Heritage Center. She was inspired by the many people who attended events staged by the center from 2010 to 2015. Over the next five years she conducted 23 interviews in Massachusetts and New England. Among those interviewed included well-known international songstress Josée Vachon.
In 2020 she started writing the book by transcribing the interview recordings and adding much historical context.
She noted that the wave of French-Canadian immigration was from 1840 to 1930, which coincided with the growth of industry in New England mill towns. She added that about 1 million people came to the region.
The mill towns provided employment and Proulx-Meder said, “Holyoke was a big [destination].”
Her grandmother, for instance, worked at the Farr-Alpaca Company woolen mills, whose buildings still stand in Holyoke.
“Franco-Americans became a major force in all walks of life in their adopted country, including military service, political and business leaders, sports, and culture,” she said. “Franco-Americans built New England from the textile mills in the cities of Lowell, Chicopee, Holyoke and Woonsocket Rhode Island to the logging industries in Acadia, Maine, to the stone quarries of Vermont.”
She noted the historic role churches played in helping to establish the immigrant communities and the closing of three historically Franco-American churches helped motivated her work with the French Heritage Center.
The churches played an important role in maintaining French traditions,” she said. “For the French, everything centered around the church, their faith and their families.”
Proulx-Meder noted there are French heritage museums and centers in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Assumption College in Worcester and Lewiston, Maine, and would like to get a center established here.
In the meantime, her book is designed to preserve history of the Franco-American experience.
“Our ancestors stepped into the unknown future, arriving in New France more than 400 years ago – the journey continued from Canada to the United States. Now it is our turn to carry the torch of French survivance – the survival of culture, music, and language. It is our turn to pass the baton, so that new generations can come to understand who they are, so they may one day say with pride and understanding, “Je me souviens!’” she said.
The book is available for purchase at a special introductory price of $20 by contacting Proulx-Meder at frenchconnection104@gmail.com or 413-592-4946.