Rosalia Torres-Weiner, Gateways / Portales mural, 2016

Editorial Note
ONE YEAR OF PUBLICATIONS
Anchorage mayor promises safety for immigrants
6 ISSUES AND 19,000 COPIES DISTRIBUTED

BY SOL DE MEDIANOCHE

May 5th marks one year from the launching of Sol de Medianoche. Guided by our mission of informing, educating and uniting Alaska’s Latino community, we have published six issues and distributed 19,000 copies. When we started, the challenge seemed difficult: the Mexican Consulate in Anchorage had just closed and the community needed a publication to bring Hispanics news about their concerns in their language, but it also needed a friendly hand to help them understand and navigate the institutions of the United States. 

​After the general election of November, and having already published three issues, our hopes of bringing sunlight to the middle of the night became even more urgent as hate speech spread. President Trump’s campaign had opened the door to hatred against immigrants and widened divisions between “us” and “them.” Increasing discrimination was followed by confusion generated by the current administration’s attempts at immigration reform. 

​Racism and changes to immigration law are two issues particularly affecting the Latino community. Even before our first issue we believed that the best tool to tackle them was carefully chosen information. We began with the understanding that even if both problems affect us, they should be fought in different arenas. 

Immigration lawyers are the experts on visas, greencard and citizenship procedures, as well as detention and deportation cases. To provide our readers accurate information regarding these subjects we have requested their advice and published it in every issue. 

Regarding discrimination, we have tried to provide the people of our community with tools to help them fight fear, anxiety, and other effects of racism. To this end, we contacted the local authorities, but also specialists in education and health who have given our readers professional assistance through our pages. 

To help our readership face racism, we also sought to empower them by pointing out in our pages the greatness of our people, the richness of our cultures and the day-to-day contributions of Hispanics to the American society. We included in our fourth issue a calendar of Latino traditions in Alaska, and we have highlighted in every issue the achievements of teachers, artists, entrepreneurs and social leaders of Latino origin that have made a difference in Alaska. 

We have also striven to give our readers tools to understand the current situation for immigrants. Historical moments such as the one we live in often give rise to five-minute activists, or to groups unfamiliar with immigrants’ problems, which while trying to help might confuse our community. Of course, each reader makes their own judgments. Our responsibility as community media is to alert our audience to the rise of these groups, and to provide them with the means to distinguish organizations that can be useful for them from those that do not help at all. 

So we arrive at our first anniversary. We have received criticism and applause. And we hope we have learned from both. We are aware of the immense challenges that we are still facing, and we are ready to address them with responsibility and open hearts

​Informar, Educar, & Unir
Inform, Educate, & Unite

PROUDLY LATINO

• After English, more Alaskans speak Spanish than any other language
• The Anchorage School District teaches more than 5,500 Latino students
• More than 1,100 young Latinos are studying undergraduate courses at UAA
• More than 100 Latino are pursuing postgraduate degrees at UAA
• There are nearly 50 Latino restaurants in Anchorage
• The Latino community produces top athletes, such as the hockey player Scotty Gómez, and recently the champion bodybuilder Sara Nunes
• Alaska has been the home of internationally-known Latino visual artists, such as José Chávez Morado, Mariano González, Indra Arriaga, and Josef Pawlikowski, painters who have exhibited their work in many countries
• Among Latino community leaders is Daniel Esparza, a nominee for the 1993 President’s Volunteer Action Award under Bill Clinton’s Administration