The Manila Times May 18, A collection of escrima fighting sticks. It was born in the Philippines but I would say that the United States is the second home of arnis, escrima and kali collectively known as Filipino martial arts FMA.
Transplanted mainly through various waves of migration, the FMA has established deep roots in America. The growth, evolution and mutation of the FMA in the US are incomparable to any other nations where Philippine martial arts were also exported. The FMA could have been exported to the US much earlier than the known exodus of Filipino farm laborers to California and Hawaii during the turn of the 20th century.
Mercene tells that prior to the influx of farm worker from the Philippines to America during the said period, Filipino mariners under a Spanish command landed in Morro Bay, California in October It is amazing to realize that Filipinos have reached the New World what would become the United States of America much earlier than the American colonization of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century.
Hearn at that time believed that the settlement was already in existence for years however, extensive research conducted by Marina Espina, a librarian at the University of New Orleans revealed that it could have existed earlier. Espina in published the results of her studies in a book titled Filipinos in Louisiana A.
Hearn described the Manilamen as seasoned fishermen who were robust and polite and could speak in Tagalog and Spanish. Their features are irregular without being actually repulsive; some have the cheek-bones very prominent and the eyes of several are set slightly aslant. The hair is generally intensely black and straight, but with some individuals it is curly and browner.
