Saint Malo Settled — Oldest Asian American Community
Around 1763, Filipino 'Manilamen' — sailors who deserted the Spanish Manila galleons — established Saint Malo on the shores of Lake Borgne in Louisiana, the first permanent Filipino settlement and oldest continuous Asian American community in what became the United States. The founding date is traditional and undocumented (variously given as 1763-1765); the settlement first entered the written record in Lafcadio Hearn's 1883 Harper's Weekly account. [Date is an approximate placeholder anchored to the ~1763 founding year — see fallback flag.]