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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. |
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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. |
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| 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.
© Maggie
Van Ostrand
"A Balloon In Cactus" May
6, 2009 column |
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