FILIPINO HISTORY STORY

 

By Dave Kiffer

For the Daily News

It is not clear when the first Filipinos arrived in Ketchikan, but it was more than a century ago.

There is a brief mention in a Ketchikan Mining Journal edition printed in the summer of 1905, that refers to a "Philipino cafe" on Stedman Street in 'Indiantown" owned by Manuel Diaz. There is no connection between that Manuel Diaz and the Diaz family that has operated the Diaz Cafe - also on Stedman Street - for nearly 60 years. But it is clear that Filipinos were in Ketchikan in the earliest days of the community.

The 2020 US Census found that that more than 12 percent of the city of Ketchikan population was Filipino, only about four percentage points behind population of Native Americans in the city census. The only city in Alaska with a higher percentage of Filipino-American residents is Kodiak, with more than 20 percent.

In 1992, Sue Romero gave a presentation to the Tongass Historical Society on the history of Filipinos in the community. Romero's husband Joe had arrived in Ketchikan the mid 1930s.

Sue Romero's research determined that one of the earliest Filipinos to come to Ketchikan was Garciano Garo who came to Ketchikan in 1916 as a 16-year-old cannery worker. Garo continued to come to Ketchikan every summer to work in the canneries for the next 49 years. In 1965, he moved to Ketchikan permanently.

Romero noted that other Filipinos began coming to Ketchikan in the late 1920s, which was a crucial time for the Alaskan canning industry. It was growing rapidly but was having trouble finding enough workers because the United States had begun restricting Japanese workers from coming into the country, in much the same way the U.S. had restricted Chinese workers around the turn of the century.

There were fewer restrictions against Filipinos prior to World War II because the Philippines was still a U.S. colony and would not gain independence until 1946. Filipinos were quasi-American citizens at the time and were allowed to come to the U.S. in work in relatively large numbers for industries such as fishing and agriculture.

Around 1927, Felix Zamora, Eduardo Lucas and Leo Capristrano all came to Ketchikan. Julian Cabinum and Mateo Ylanan arrived around 1930.

"Eddie and Leo and Joe Arce worked at the Knecklebucker farm at the Homestead (on South Tongass) during the Depression," Romero told the Ketchikan Daily News in 1992.

In coming to Alaska, the Filipinos dubbed themselves "Alaskeros." Most worked at canneries, some even rose up in the ranks, Salvador del Fierro was one the first non-white foremen at the Sunny Point Cannery by the late 1930s.

Romero noted that other Filipinos, including Pete Figueroa and Benny Noveno, arrived in the 1930s, and rather than return back south, or go to the Philippines when the salmon canning season was over, chose to stay year-round in Ketchikan.

“ Some of the men left girlfriends and wives behind them when they came to America,” Romero told the Daily News.. “After settling here, they would go back home. Many would get married and bring their wives over.’ Some married non-Filipino women already living in Ketchikan and started families.”

Several of the men who had lived in Ketchikan for a while went back to Philippines’ and returned with younger wives, Romero said. This gave rise to the idea that men wait until they are older in the Philippines and then marry younger women. Romero said that wasn't standard practice although Joe Romero, Presco Ancheta and Julian Cabinum all married younger Filipino women and brought them to Ketchikan, according to Romero.

Starting in the early 1960s, one Ketchikan's most prominent Filipino businesses took hold on Stedman Street, the Diaz Cafe, which continues to operate today. Clara Diaz came to Ketchikan in the late 1950s to work as a nurse at the hospital and eventually married the son of the founder, Bernalda "Mama" Diaz. She has been the operator of the cafe since 1978.

Food has been as the center of Filipino life in Ketchikan for decades. For many years, there was a Ketchikan "West End" counterpart to Diaz Cafe. Jess Mendoza's "Galley." At different times, other Filipino restaurants have also opened up in the community including most recently The Waterfront, Meng and Gings, Port of Call and the Pizza Mill. "Bong" Nacionales has been a cook at the Landing for decades.

In the 1950s, a Filipino Community Club opened on Stedman Street. It has continued in one form or another ever since. Filipinos have continued to arrive in Ketchikan in significant numbers. The percentage of Filipinos living in Ketchikan has increased from 6 percent to 12 percent since 1980, according to the Census.

Filipinos also played a role in one of the longest running court cases in Alaskan history, Ward Cove Packing versus Atonio.

In 1974, the Alaska Cannery Workers Association sued Ward Cove and its parent company claiming that "segregated'" bunk houses and cafeterias for its Filipino work force were discriminatory and that hiring decisions over several decades showed that the Filipino - and Native American - workers were kept from the higher paying cannery jobs.

After 15 years of back-and-forth legal battling, the company eventually prevailed and Congress moved to make changes in the Civil Rights law to make it easier for plaintiffs to prove discrimination. But the new Civil Rights law specifically prevented the Filipino and Native American plaintiffs at Ward Cove from revisiting the court cases and receiving any damages.