Filipino La.

Filipino La. makes the stories and artifacts of Filipino Louisiana publicly available.

Filipino La. introduces readers to 19th-century Filipino settlements in the Louisiana marsh, Filipino recipes with a Creole touch or a Cajun kick, a Filipino American shrimper turned professional boxer, and so much more.

Mission

Filipino La. researches, shares, and archives.

Brief History of Filipino La.

Randy Gonzales launched Filipino La. in 2016 to organize and share his research on Filipino Louisiana through an Omeka archive and wiki. The original mission morphed as a blog was added to promote and document PLHS activity. The blog led to documents that were once treated as historical artifacts being used as temporary communication tools and not archived. The emphasis on communication distracted from the mission to archive community documents. By 2022, Filipino La. was a sprawling website without a clear mission. A thorough review of web content and an evaluation of how the site could best serve the community led to a plan that focused on the site as a tool for communication, education, and archiving.

A 2024 vision for Filipino La. calls for a redesigned website that

• shares content through web pages, magazine-style articles, and an Omeka archive
• focuses on three primary areas of research: St. Malo, Manila Village, and Filipino Louisiana foodways
• provides summary web pages designed for visitors to PLHS historical markers
• publishes research-based, magazine-style articles about all things Filipino Louisiana
• utilizes social media to distribute content
• serves as a publishing platform and training ground for student interns