555. This week we
talk to Randy Gonzales about his poetry book
Settling
St. Malo. "I am excited about the launch of a book I spent
more than a decade writing. My research into Filipino Louisiana
started as a way to understand my family’s Filipino story. I
learned that without the fishermen at St. Malo, the shrimpers at
Manila Village, and the seamen who settled in New Orleans, my
Filipino ancestors may not have moved to Louisiana.
Poetry — attention to sound, rhythm, and the emotional register of
words — helped me organize and make sense of research and make it
meaningful to me" (
Gonzales). "I am a native New Orleanian of Filipino
descent; a poet, writer, and community historian who researches
and shares the stories of Filipino Louisiana; a scholar and
educator, an associate professor of English at the
University of
Louisiana at Lafayette who holds the Dr. James
Wilson/BORSF Eminent Scholar Endowed Professorship in Southern
Studies; a father who wants his children to be proud of their
heritage" (
Gonzales).