Mayor LaFrance Meets with the Latino Community
Aware of the difficulties faced by Latinos in Anchorage, Mayor LaFrance met with some twenty representatives of this community. The meeting focused on language barriers, public safety, policing, immigration, municipal human resources, and health and social services.The first recorded Mexican immigrant in Alaska dates back to 1910, according to Sara Komarniski, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta, Canada. Half a century later, Latinos arrived in waves to help rebuild Alaskan cities devastated by the 1964 “mega-earthquake.” New waves of Latinos arrived in the 1970s with the discovery of oil.
Today, Anchorage is one of the most diverse cities in the world, surpassing cities like London, Toronto, New York, Melbourne, and Los Angeles. Anchorage has 107 registered languages, and numerous schools exceed national diversity rates. The Civil Rights Act, which protects linguistic access to public services, has been in force for more than six decades. The Latino community speaks Spanish, and many are not bilingual or have difficulty speaking English, which means they face problems accessing government, health, and social services. LaFrance stated that the municipality is reviewing the recommendations from the recent audit regarding this issue. Nevertheless, only 4% of municipal officials are of Latino origin. Latinos in Anchorage are requesting more language services, economic, social, and cultural support, affordable housing, and increased access to resources. Regarding the April 2026 elections, many Latinos who are eligible to vote expressed fear of participating, intimidated by the federal immigration landscape. The newly formed Task Force to Reimagine the Public Safety Advisory Commission has called for increased community participation in its meetings. However, participants have expressed that it is challenging to become involved due to the scheduling of meetings during working hours and the lack of sufficient advance notice. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has expressed to Sol de Medianoche her intention to answer this newspaper’s questions for the next issue. |