Paul Belanger, interviewed by Mark Silber and Raymond Pelletier

This project involved a series of bilingual interviews utilizing family albums to stimulate discussion about Franco-American culture, particularly as it pertained to work. That is, it concerned the following: how work reflected cultural values; work ethic; work/occupation patterns; how work was integrated with family life (or interfered with it); the history of work patterns in the Lewiston area, and about Franco-American culture and family life in general. We interviewed elderly persons identified by the Western Maine Older Citizens Council. The interviewers included Raymond Pelletier (professor of French at UM), Marcella Sorg, Mark Silber, and Steffan Duplessis. The products of these interviews included: (1) a filmstrip with bilingual audio tape using reproduced family photos which illustrated themes from the ethnography and excerpts from the tape-recorded interviews; and (2) a bilingual traveling photo exhibit using selected family photos and captioned with quotes (with translations).