Tasha Elizarde grew up listening to her mom greet friends in Tagalog, practicing Tinikling at community gatherings and walking the streets downtown, where she’d find food stands serving lumpia and adobo.
Although it might sound like it, she didn’t grow up in the Philippines. Her hometown is almost 6,000 miles away, in a place called Juneau, Alaska.
So, how did she and so many other Filipinos end up building a home in this small corner of the U.S.?
A century before Elizarde was born, Juneau started growing into a thriving metropolis for migrants coming from all over the Philippine islands. Today, she’s just one of thousands of Filipinos living here.
On the first episode of Mga Kuwento, we explore two central questions of the series: how did Filipinos get to Juneau, and just as importantly, why do they stay?
Mga Kuwento Host and Executive Producer Tasha Elizarde guides us through the journey her family and so many other have taken to find financial security and a place to call home.
