Settling St. Malo

by Randy Gonzales

Settling St. Malo brings readers back to a time when Louisiana had the largest Filipino population in the United States―when Filipinos fished out of St. Malo, dried shrimp on Barataria Bay, and designed Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans. Poet Randy Gonzales explores the history of Louisiana’s nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Filipino communities and his family’s story of migration and assimilation through a blend of documentary and lyrical poetry. Settling St. Malo is a history of Filipino Louisiana in verse and an ode to the struggles of our immigrant ancestors, a collection of poems whose substance, language, and rhythms are informed by oral histories, diaries, letters, and government documents―poems infused with cultural and visual landscapes and driven by a poet’s desire to account for a lost heritage.

111 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2023

About the author

A native New Orleanian of Filipino descent, Randy Gonzales is a poet, writer, and community historian who researches and shares the stories of Filipino Louisiana. He is an associate professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he holds the Dr. James Wilson/BORSF Eminent Scholar Endowed Professorship in Southern Studies. His book Settling St. Malo is a history of Filipino Louisiana in verse.

Reviews

[Shon Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection was recommended to me and I really enjoyed it. The poems cover personal and historical themes about St Malo and Filipino culture. The poems that focused on the personal experiences with family and culture really pack a punch and reminded me of the ways we are all so similar. It’s very informative poetry and I would recommend.