During dinner time at Salsa Oaxaqueña in Anchorage, patrons are often serenaded. In the back corner of the small Spenard restaurant is a stage with a large standing bluetooth speaker and a microphone. Cezar Flores often performs in the restaurant, belting out corridos, rancheras, mariachis and other traditional music from Mexico and Latin America.
“It’s beautiful, he said. “Other places have a radio, but here it's like real people, real singers, real everything. Live music, especially for Alaska, I love it.”
Siblings Rosi and Abraham Martinez Marthel, along with his wife Selena Vázquez-Lopez, are part-owners of the new restaurant, which opened July 1. It was Abraham’s idea to offer karaoke.
“A family member came and started singing and people liked it,” Vázquez-Lopez said. “They thought it was something different. But, anyone who likes to sing is welcome to sing.”
The family moved to Alaska from Mexico in the last decade. They’re part of a growing Latino and Hispanic community in Anchorage. Inspired by a desire to share cultures, create community spaces and bring something new to the Alaska restaurant scene, Salsa Oaxaqueña is just one of several new Hispanic and Latino-owned restaurants that have opened in Anchorage this year.
And these new businesses aren’t limited to the city. Lina Mariscal, owner of the French Bakery and the editor of Anchorage’s Spanish newspaper, Sol De Medianoche, said she’s noticed a handful of new Latino and Hispanic-owned eateries popping up across the state.
“It's exciting to see just how much new business we have, how many different ways of preparing something there is,” she said.
Alaska’s Hispanic and Latino population grows
In Kenai, where Mariscal first lived when she moved here with her family in 1983, a new Puerto Rican food truck called Ay Que Rico also opened up this month. Since she first arrived on that sunny August day in 1983, Alaska’s Hispanic and Latino population has grown rapidly.
“When we lived in Kenai, the only Spanish-speaking families were my grandma and us,” she said. “And every time you heard Spanish somewhere, you were excited to hear it, and it was just something that you know, you were not expecting.”
Between 2000 and 2010, the population of Hispanic people in Alaska grew by nearly 52% and includes many people who come to the state for job opportunities, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Today, about 8% of Alaska’s population, and about 9% of Anchorage’s population are Hispanic and Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau – with roots in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Colombia and more.
“Now fast forward to 2024 and there's Spanish everywhere,” Mariscal said. “And it's not just from, you know, one country – from any country in Latin America or even Spain – that are here in Alaska.”
‘A little piece of home’
Daniella Villa, along with her husband Jesús Villa, are also part of this growing Hispanic and Latino community in Alaska. They have lived in Anchorage for more than a decade, and are originally from Acuitzio del Canje, a small town in Michoacán, Mexico. At their brightly colored Mexican ice cream shop, La Michoacana, which opened earlier this summer, a bold mural depicts the faces and buildings of their small hometown and is a homage to their heritage. Daniella said they wanted to bring something new to Anchorage that reminded them of being in Mexico.
“We envisioned a colorful place, a place we could represent our hometown back in Mexico, and that's where we got the mural painted to represent our hometown,” she said. “And we started working on basically getting the recipes down, going down to Mexico and finding out how to make the artisanal Mexican ice cream and popsicles.”
The shop’s menu is long and varied, with an emphasis on freshness. They use Alaska-grown products whenever possible. Customers can choose from dozens of different paletas, or popsicles, ice creams, street food specialties like tortas and ceviche, and cooling beverages and snacks like agua frescas, horchatas and mangonadas.
“A lot of people come in and they're like, ‘Oh goodness, we feel so overwhelmed with everything that's on your menu,’” she said. “But it's nice to know that they even feel that it's something new that we're bringing into Anchorage. A lot of our items aren't anywhere else, so it's really nice to see that enthusiasm that they're having.”
While some Anchorage residents are new to the shop’s offerings, others are flocking to La Michoacana for a taste of home.
“We definitely have heard that as well, that when they come in, they feel a little piece of home," she said. "We feel, I want to say, very proud of ourselves that we have created a place for families to come in and for them to feel welcome, and not just our Hispanic community, but any community that comes in just to feel welcome that this is a place for their family.”
Flavors of Oaxaca
Back at Salsa Oaxaqueña, Anchorage residents are also excited about finding the foods of a home many of them miss. All the owners and chefs are from the Triqui Indigenous group of Oaxaca, and the restaurant’s menu is centered on the flavors from that area. Newspapers from Mexico have even interviewed the family about the novelty of their new business.
“Everyone's been supporting us from Oaxaca,” Vázquez-Lopez said. “Since it's the first Oaxacan restaurant here, everyone was surprised.”
Mole, tamales, chile verde enchiladas, tlayudas and salsas made in molcajetes are some of the specialties being served, with new dishes coming. The owners are awaiting a shipment from Oaxaca full of regional foods that will allow the restaurant to expand its menu. One item that the owners are excited to bring to Alaska is also something that many customers have been requesting. Pulque, a central Mexican beverage made from fermented maguey plant sap, has been enjoyed by people in the area for more than a thousand years.
“People come here and some are surprised. It reminds them of the food from their parents, their grandparents," Vázquez-Lopez said. "It feels like they’re at home.”
Everything about Salsa Oaxaqueña is inspired by Ines Silva, the Martinez-Marthel family matriarch, who had to stay in Mexico. Until they’re reunited, serving her favorite foods is helping the owners – and some residents of Anchorage’s Latino and Hispanic community – stay connected to the family, culture and traditions back home.
Editor’s note: This reporting is supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
