There are Filipinos in Alaska – they’re called Alaskeros, and they’ve been there for more than 200 years

The coldest state in the US is home to 30,000 Filipinos who make up the largest immigrant minority in Alaska

They have settled in the state since the late 1700s, many intermarrying with local Native Alaskans, creating dishes such as beaver adobo and salmon lumpia

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The skyline of Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 5 May 2019Updated: 8:18pm, 11 May 2019

Jerry Manolo always dreamed of seeing snow. He grew up in the Philippines, where the average year-round temperature is 26.6 degrees Celsius, but daydreamed of living in a rustic log cabin hidden among glacial, snow-capped mountains, hiking over frozen lakes and sledding down powdery white hills.

When he told friends and family of these visions, they thought he was crazy. But Manolo didn’t listen. In 2003, he visited the coldest state in the United States, where the average low in the chilliest months is minus 19 degrees.

“People told me it was too cold there,” Manolo recalls. “But when I asked them if they had ever been, they said no!

“The beauty of Alaska is unique. You fall in love with the local nature – that’s why I’m still here.”

Today, Manolo lives with his family in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. He belongs to the flourishing community of more than 30,000 Filipinos – the largest immigrant minority in Alaska, according to 2017 state statistics.

Jessie Gacal-Nelson has fallen in love with Alaska. Photo: Handout

Filipinos are also Alaska’s largest minority group after the indigenous population, which at 112,800 people represented more than 15 per cent of the state’s inhabitants last year.

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There are Filipinos in Alaska – they’re called Alaskeros, and they’ve been there for more than 200 years

The coldest state in the US is home to 30,000 Filipinos who make up the largest immigrant minority in Alaska They have settled in the state since the late 1700s, many intermarrying with local Native Alaskans, creating dishes such as beaver adobo and salmon lumpia

The coldest state in the US is home to 30,000 Filipinos who make up the largest immigrant minority in Alaska

They have settled in the state since the late 1700s, many intermarrying with local Native Alaskans, creating dishes such as beaver adobo and salmon lumpia