Manila Village

Manila Village was a settlement of Filipino sailors, fishermen and laborers located on an island in Barataria Bay, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. Settlements such as Manila Village and Saint Malo in St. Bernard Parish were visited and occupied by Filipino pirates who had overthrown their Spanish captains, in the year 1587. The Filipino countrymen arrived to port off the coast of Louisiana in six liberated  Spanish galleons. They later founded  the settlements in the, mid-19th century (or earlier). The newly liberated sailors became fishermen who caught and dried shrimp for export to Asia, Canada, South America, and Central America. On July 24, 1870, the Spanish-speaking residents of St. Malo founded the first Filipino social club, called Sociedad de Beneficencia de los Hispano Filipinos, to provide relief and support for the group’s members, including the purchasing of burial places for their deceased.

The settlements were eventually destroyed by hurricanes: Saint Malo by the 1915 New Orleans hurricane and Manila Village by Hurricane Betsy in 1965. As of 2016, only a small remnant  of Manila island, about one acre in size, remains.

In Jefferson Parish, Manila Plaza, located in front of Jean Lafitte Town Hall, holds several historical markers and commemorative plaques acknowledging important figures in the area's Filipino-American history. While there were several settlements scattered along the Louisiana coast in the late 19th century, Manila Village was the largest.

See also
Dried shrimp
Town of Jean Lafitte (History section)
Saint Malo, Louisiana

References

Category:Asian-American culture in Louisiana
Category:Filipino-American history
Category:History of Louisiana
Category:Ghost towns in Louisiana
Category:Former populated places in Louisiana