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 (UL Press, 2023) is a history of Filipino Louisiana in verse. You can find out more about Filipinos in Louisiana at www.filipinola.com and more about Randy at www.randygonzales.com.