Manilamen

Saint Malo was a small fishing village that existed in southeast Louisiana on the shore of Lake Borgne, from the mid-18th century colonial period into the early 20th century, when it was destroyed by a hurricane. It was the first settlement of Filipinos in the United States.

Saint Malo was the first Filipino settlement in today's U.S. and quite possibly the first Asian settlement there, as well. It was established in 1763 by deserters from Spanish ships during the Manila Galleon trade, in what became St. Bernard Parish (then part of Spanish Louisiana), on the shore of Lake Borgne. Saint Malo persisted into the early 20th century, until it was destroyed by the New Orleans Hurricane of 1915. The people who settled in the bayous were called Manilamen and later Tagalas. They governed themselves and kept their community's existence separate from mainstream society. The diet in the village was mainly fish.

Some of Saint Malo's fishermen were witness to the British invasion of Louisiana late in 1814, during the War of 1812, and may have joined the Baratarians under Jean Lafitte in defending New Orleans.

The area of St. Malo is named after the leader of a group of maroons. In 1784 a group of enslaved Africans led by Jean Saint Malo escaped to a marshy area of Lake Borgne, with weapons obtained from free people of color and plantation slaves. Jean Saint Malo was captured by Spanish forces. On June 19, 1784, he was hanged in front of St. Louis Cathedral in what is now called Jackson Square, New Orleans.

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