Diaz Café

Diaz Café. Circa 1921. Laws restricting Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 1920s resulted in a wave of Filipinos coming to work in Ketchikan's booming canneries. These “Alaskeros,” as they called themselves, began to live here permanently and make long-lasting contributions to our community., Alaska’s first Filipino Social Club was established in the 1920s in the building next door., Manuel and Bernalda “Mama” Diaz came to Alaska in the 1930s, settling first in Juneau, where he worked in a gold mine and she started the original Diaz Café., When they relocated to Ketchikan in the early 1950s, they set up business here in what was the center of the Filipino community and established the Lucky Spot, which later became the Diaz Café., Mama Diaz's daughter-in-law, Clara, continues to operate the café, making it a favorite eating place for over half a century., Captions , (Top) The Diaz Café Building in 1953, about the time the Diaz family arrived from Juneau. , (Bottom) Filipina matriarch Clara Diaz in Diaz Café; September, 1987.