`Bad Saint’ Filipino Restaurant What’s in the Name?

By: Bob Boyer

 

“Put The Bad Saint Restaurant on your list of Best Restaurants.” That is how I began my review article (April, 2016) on this wonderful Filipino restaurant. I repeat my recommendation that anyone going to Washington, D.C. should include The Bad Saint in their plans. This time, however, I want to talk about the name, which has continued to fascinate me. My wife and I spoke with Genevieve Villamora, co-founder of the restaurant, for some time, as we were leaving back on March 11, but I forgot to ask her about the name. I did so in a follow-up email, and Genevieve graciously replied in rich detail with three answers.

Her first answer came from early Filipino history. I suspect that her International Relations degree from Georgetown University in D.C. was useful here. “Saint Malo, Louisiana, was the first permanent settlement of Filipinos in the United States.” She goes on to explain that “Since ‘malo’ means ‘bad’ in Spanish, we went from Saint Malo to Bad Saint.” In her email she added that “Saint Malo has its own Wikipedia entry!” Intrigued, off I went.

The Wikipedia entry proved to be very useful. When it suggested that Saint Malo, a tiny settlement in the bayous off of New Orleans, was established by Filipino deserters from the Galleon Trade between Spain and the Philippines, I thought, “of course!” That’s how the Filipinos first came to the U.S., as crew members, almost certainly enforced sailors on the galleons. I went immediately to “Sundays in Manila,” my book of reminiscences about my stays in the Philippines. I quickly found the pertinent passage that had sprung to mind.

“During the Spanish Colonial period, starting around 1600, Spanish galleons plied their trade route to Asia with remarkable success for over two centuries . . . . Within thirty years of Magellan’s arrival there [in 1521], the Spanish had colonized the Philippines and established Manila as their Asian base. The Spaniards sailed from their Mediterranean ports across the Atlantic to Vera Cruz on the east coast of Mexico. They then transported their goods the width of Mexico to Acapulco on its west coast. From Acapulco they crossed the Pacific to Manila; from Manila they sailed the relatively few final miles to legendary Cathay (China). Then they returned by the same route. If winds were favorable, the crew healthy, and the pirates napping, the Spaniards might see home after two years. Otherwise the round trip could require a grueling five years.” (“Sundays in Manila,” p. 9)

It makes complete sense that the Spanish would have had to supplement the ranks of Spanish sailors who succumbed to disease, storms, or pirates with Filipinos. It makes equal sense that the Filipinos would jump ship somewhere along the gulf coast in the 1600s, which is when Saint Malo was likely first established. The Filipino sailors stayed out of sight in the bayous but took Cajun and Indian women as wives (I’m guessing African slaves as well), keeping their families in New Orleans. Lafcadio Hearn, an Anglo-Irish adventurer, travel writer, and collector and author of myths steeped in the shadows of distant realms, first wrote about them “in the American press an article in Harper’s Weekly in 1883,” notes Genevieve.

“We like that it (“Bad Saint”) references an early moment in Filipino American history,” Genevieve concludes. She might have added, “and it prompts people to learn more about this history.” Part of that history is, of course, that the Filipino sailors lived on seafood and were probably good cooks. Not unlike current Filipino sailors, they were also, according to Wikipedia, known to send some money back home to support their original families.

Having steered me into the historical background for the name of the Bad Saint Restaurant, Genevieve concludes with two additonal answers that flow at least in part from the first. “It’s also an evocative name – conjuring a range of associations, depending on who the listener is.” I take that as a challenge and have been listing a number of associations. The clearest is that the name is a conscious contradiction in terms. A saint can’t be bad. Nor can a Filipino restaurant.

And, finally, says Genevieve with elegant understatement, “We also like to think it is memorable.” Amen!

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or his blog <anamericaninmanila.com>.