My name has been an issue all my life. The alert person, I say sarcastically, immediately notices the resemblance of my name, JMBalaya, to the food jambalaya. Yes, I have heard that before.
My name is James Michael Balaya. I am Franco-American, which means my heritage is French. My parents liked the name James, and it is big in my family. As a matter of fact, the combo of James Michael is common on my mother’s side of the family.
However, James Balaya is only slighty less troublesome the Jim Balaya so I go by JM in most circles. My last name is allegedly French though it has no true meaning in French. I don’t know the family history very well but the talk is that it is vaguely Creole. The word in French that it resembles is Balayer, which means to sweep. Considering the way names evolve over time, that’s a been a good ‘nuff explanation for me.
There is a lack of knowledge of French people in the U S of A. It is a lost history mostly because the English ultimately won the territory. That’s why Spanish history, French history, Portuguese, all of the colonists are essentially unimportant in the US history despite being on the continent for even longer periods of time. I guess that’s how history and war works.
In comic books, you always read the origin stories. Batman was an orphan when his parents were murdered in front of him. Superman is from Krypton and that’s why he has super powers here. He’s an alien sent away, like Moses, to earth to save his life. His adoptive parents took him in and treated him well making him seem sympathetic and explaining his allergy to Krypton.
The concept of an origin story if vital to establish an identity. For the most part Franco Americans don’t have a good origin story. There is no “ancestors came over on the Mayflower” pride. Or ancestors escaped the Nazis. The ancestors (Irish, Vietnamese, Italian or whatever) were starving and came over to escape religious persecution, starvation, oppression. In some cases, it is just ends with good ole ancestor risk taker pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
Franco-Americans have none of that. French people came to the continent 400 years ago. No one remembers the origin story. Our neighbors to the North have a plenty of French speaking folks and a prouder tradition. Even the Anglos have some knowledge of the French history. On top of which there is bilingualism. Franco-Canadiens at least have a place in the story even if the story isn’t always clear or wholesome. There was some ugliness around the Huguenots and the separatist movement for sure.
But they have an origin story and some lore that is the same as Franco Americans but no one in America knows it. I will have to stick with my weird name and spell it out again the next time I’m at the coffee shop.
