Free Stater Andre Rosa Tries Again to Get Elected in Manchester’s “Little Canada”
California Transplant Who Moved to N.H. for Political Reasons Disrespected Ward 11 by Not Calling out Slurs on French Canadian Community
MANCHESTER, NH — Having failed to get elected to the State House of Representatives from the North End’s Ward 1 seven years ago, Free State Project member Andre Rosa subsequently moved to Ward 11, the heart of the Queen City’s La petit Canada (“Little Canada”) to try to help the Free Staters take over the ward, politically.
When Victoria Sullivan and her fellow Friend of the Free Staters Tammy Simmons denigrated and insulted French Canadians, Andre Rosa said nothing. But why should he? He is not a member of the community, has no roots in it, and only moved to Ward 11 to try to get elected to political office — ANY political office.
In 2017, Rosa ran for alderman from Ward 11 after being in the Ward for no more than two years at the very most. It was a place he knew little about and was defeated in the primary.
His 2017 pitch for elective office has to be seen to be believed!
The Heart of Little Canada
Represented by Alderman Norm Gamache, Ward 11 is one of three wards on Manchester’s West Side, which has the highest proportion of French Canadians in a city famous for its Franco-American community.
Alderman Norm Gamache’s roots in Ward 11 are so deep — he comes from four generations of Manchester firefighters and has served as president of the Alpine Club since 1974 — that in many ways, it can be said that Norm Gamache is Ward 11.
He has given a lifetime of service to Manchester.
As is attested by the writings of French Canadian writer Jack Kerouac, Manchester and Nashua were sister communities to Kerouac’s native Lowell, as was Lawrence. Kerouac’s parents were born in, and are buried in, Nashua.
The four major cities on the Merrimack River were mill towns — major mill towns (and none so major as Manchester), and French Canadians — Franco Americans with roots in Quebec — were a major community in all four “towns,” where French was the reigning “second language” (and the primary language in their Little Canadas until some time after World War II).
In his novel Vanity of Doulouz, Jack writes about the Lowell football team beating Manchester (Central High) in a big game in 1939.
In the early 1940s, before her husband went off to war, Manchester native Grace Metalious was a friend of my parents when she lived on 3rd Street in the “Squog” neighborhood centered around the West Side’s Granite Square. Grace was an East Sider from around Pearl Street, just like my mother —my father was the West Sider.
Her Greek last name came from her husband George. Born Marie Grace DeRepentign, the Franco-American Grace Metalious wrote about French Canadians in her novel No Man in Eden. She is more famous for her novel about Granite State Yankees, Peyton Place.
French Canadians are not only a part of Manchester’s history, they are a MAJOR part of its life right down to today.
What’s in a Name?
It’s been said that the French Canadians of Ward 11, the most Franco-American of the heavily Franco-American West Side, are reluctant to vote for someone who doesn’t have a French name.
Tommy Thomas Katsiantonis, who once represented the West Side in the State House of Representatives, once told me, “Jon. The French Canadians of Ward 11 might vote for an Irishman, but for a Greek? Never.”
There is some truth to that observation.
This likely is the main reason that mayoral candidate Victoria Sullivan and former Manchester Republican Party Chair Tammy Simmons trashed French Canadian Catholics on Simmons’ ManchTalk show.
Some years ago, when a prominent Republican told me that Free Staters aligned with the Republican Party had moved to Ward 11 for the purpose of getting elected to the School Board, or as alderman, or as a state rep, I laughed:
“The Free Staters aren’t going to elect anyone without a French name.”
Well, maybe that’s why Los Angeleno Andre Rosa moved to Ward 11. Andre is a French name. Rosa though is Italian, or Spanish, or Portuguese.
According to a baby-naming site,
The name Rosa is a girl’s name of Spanish, Italian, Latin origin meaning “rose, a flower”. As sweet-smelling as Rose but with an international flavour, Rosa is one of the most classic Portuguese, Spanish and Italian names….
The Bridge of Ward 11
A gay artist and photographer, Andre Rosa says he “fell in love” with Manchester after moving to New Hampshire, when he came across the Queen City’s drag queens when visiting The Breezeway, a Queen City gay bar.
His best known art project is Drag Queens & Covered Bridges.
There is one bridge leading to Ward 11, and it is not covered. What you know the bridge as, tells a lot about you.
On the East Side of the Merrimack, it is the Bridge St. bridge. Properly, it is the McGregor Bridge, after McGregor St. and the the old McGregor St. Mills on the West Side that were part of the Amoskeag Corporation.
But that was The Boss Man’s name for the bridge.
Those old time French Canadians much derided by Victoria Sullivan and Tammy Simmons know it as the Notre Dame Bridge. The beautiful “Notre Dame Cathedral” of Manchester (as West Siders of Franco-American heritage have been known to call it), Sainte Marie’s Roman Catholic Church.
Sainte Marie’s towering steeple dominates the West Side. The church and the steeple was built by French Canadian craftsman, who were renowned for building not just steeples but the smokestacks that graced the mills.
This the heart of La petit Canada, where spoken French was as common if not more so than English.
The Modern Theater and the tiny streets around the old Notre Dame hospital are gone, but La Caisse Populaire Sainte Marie (St. Mary’s Bank) — the first credit union in the United States, credit unions being a form of community banking created by Francophone community in Quebec, still stands, in a new bank building that evokes the contours of the old St. Mary’s Bank.
This is a heritage to be respected, not disrespected by Victoria Sullivan and Tammy Simmons. That Andre Rosa did not speak up for the Franco American community not only shows that he is out of touch with the community, but that he has no business trying to represent Ward 11 until he learns respect for the ward and it’s people.
