Day 235: Manila Village, Barataria Bay, Louisiana
📌APIA Every Day (235) - Manila Village was one of the largest Filipino settlement communities in Louisiana, established in the late 19th century in Barataria Bay by Filipino fishermen led by Quintin de la Cruz. Inspired by the coastal villages of their homeland, they built shelters on stilts over oyster reefs at the bay's mouth and named it Manila Village. This settlement became part of a network of Filipino shrimp-drying platform villages that dotted Louisiana's marshlands, where residents used traditional Filipino techniques to catch, process, and dry the abundant local shrimp. Manila Village’s drying platform was exceptionally large, covering an area roughly the size of two football fields, making it the most expansive of these unique platform villages.
The residents of Manila Village were predominantly Filipino immigrants drawn to Louisiana by its rich seafood resources. They used traditional methods, including the labor-intensive "shrimp dance" technique, to process dried shrimp for the market. At the peak of the shrimp season in the early 20th century, Manila Village hosted over 200 people, with nearby Filipino communities underscoring the Filipino presence in the region. Over the following decades, the community adapted to technological advancements such as the shift from sailboats to motorized shrimp boats, but it faced severe destruction from hurricanes, including Hurricane Betsy, which devastated much of the settlement in 1965.
Today, only a few pilings remain of the once-thriving Manila Village. Although this history has been largely overlooked, organizations like the Philippine-Louisiana Historical Society are working to preserve the memory of Manila Village’s role in the region’s fishing, shrimping, and seafood processing traditions. In 2012, a historical marker was installed outside the Town of Jean Lafitte Courthouse in Jefferson Parish, commemorating the legacy of Filipino settlers in Louisiana.
LEARN MORE:
Filipino Louisiana: Manila Village
Atlas Obscura: The Challenges of Reclaiming Filipino Louisiana’s Centuries-Old History
The Historical Marker Database: Manila Village
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