Encuentro de Latinos, an Event for Latino Seniors
On Tuesday, February 11, for the first time, the Anchorage Senior Activity Center became a space for social activities in Spanish, where Latino seniors could get together, hang out, have fun, socialize, combat loneliness and break their language isolation.It was an aspiration of many years for Ninetta Regalado, a resident of Anchorage from the Dominican Republic for more than twenty years, who has finally seen her dream come true. On Tuesday, February 11, a score of Hispanics over 55 years of age living in Anchorage had their “Encuentro de Hispanos” at the Senior Activity Center, to the sound of merengue music, as reporter Jenna Kunze masterfully reported in the Anchorage Daily News.
Ninetta had announced just a few years ago in Sol de Medianoche that she had proposed to Rebecca Parker a Spanish-language Center for elderly Hispanics. Parker was then, and remains today, the executive director of the Anchorage Senior Center, the Municipality’s Center for the Elderly. “The Center is owned by the city of Anchorage, and receives municipal grant funding and donations,” Ninetta Regalado assures our newspaper. “Before opening a Spanish-language recreation space,” Ninetta continues, “I used to organize meetings in my own home, but with fewer people, ten or twelve at most, because there wasn’t enough room in my home for everyone.” “In Alaska there is a huge gap in care for immigrant elders, especially Hispanics. Because they don’t speak English, they can’t access the activities and services that seniors who do speak English have,” Ninetta said then, and repeats it now. As then, Ninetta assures that “Hispanic seniors are very lonely. They arrive with their immigrant family who leaves home every day to work. They stay isolated, watching TV channels that broadcast in Spanish, because they don’t understand English. That’s how they spend their hours…just sitting. Their legs swell up. They don’t even go out to church, because they are not used to the cold of Alaska and to walking on ice and snow,” she said. Chronic loneliness and social isolation can lead to heart disease, depression and senile dementia, according to the Centers for Disease Control. “That’s why we’re going to organize games to help them exercise their minds and bodies,” adds Ninetta Regalado. Ninetta believes that it will be possible to organize activities in Spanish on non-holiday Tuesdays in alternate months. She would like to expressly thank Ashlyn Dye, Programs and Volunteer Coordinator; Julie McFarland, Membership and Events Coordinator; Celine Kaplan, Director of Public Relations; and Gabriel McQueen, volunteer and collaborator with this group, as well as Francis Espinal, for their help. “They are young people in their 30s and 40s who are passionate about accompanying and supporting the “Age Accumulated Youngsters,” she says, referring to the older Hispanics. In addition, Ninetta appreciates Enlaces’ support for making the event possible. Enlaces is a non-profit organization advocating for Latino/Hispanic equity in the North. |