Saint Malo, Louisiana is considered to be the oldest Asian American settlement in the US. Oral histo
Saint Malo, Louisiana is considered to be the oldest Asian American settlement in the US. Oral histories claim this fishing village was founded in as early as the 1760s by Filipino sailors who escaped the Spanish colonial Galleon trade.By the 1800s, these early Filipino American men - known as “Manila Men” and “Tagalas” (from Tagalog) - started a dried shrimp industry, built houses in the bayou, and married local women. Saint Malo was only one of several documented early Filipino settlements in Louisiana. It existed off the grid, in relative isolation, for many years until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915.Photo credit: Rhonda Richoux Fox, a descendent of early Filipino Americans in Louisiana. -- source link
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