Saint Malo: The first Asian settlement in the US

Saint Malo, a quiet suburb in Louisiana’s St Bernard Parish near New Orleans, is identified as the first permanent Filipino settlement in the United States and the oldest-known permanent Asian community in the country. Local geography around Lake Borgne—marshes, islands and bayous—helped shape a fishing-based livelihood, with settlers living in raised bahay kubo-style stilt homes. Historians say the Filipino community’s dried shrimp—boiled, brined and sun-dried—was key to Louisiana’s seafood trade before refrigeration and remains a local snack and cooking ingredient. By the 1870s, swamps hosted more than 100 shrimp-drying platforms, according to Laine Kaplan Levenson.