By the 1960s, Cajun culture was in serious danger of disappearing. The language was being shamed out of schools. The music was considered embarrassing by the generation that had been told to assimilate. Young people were leaving for Houston and Baton Rouge. The dancehalls were closing. What happened next was not a government program or a tourism campaign. It was a series of acts of cultural defiance by people who decided their culture was worth saving. The Balfa Brothers played Newport in 1964 and returned home to Louisiana with the revelation that the outside world considered their music extraordinary. James Domengeaux founded CODOFIL in 1968 to fight for French in Louisiana schools. The 1974 Tribute to Cajun Music Concert filled Blackham Coliseum despite a flood — and became Festivals Acadiens. Barry Jean Ancelet at the University of Louisiana spent decades recording, documenting, and publishing the oral traditions and music that would otherwise have been lost. Festival International launched in 1987. By the time the world was paying attention to Cajun food and music in the 1990s, the revival had already been happening for twenty years, carried entirely by the people it belonged to.
