In the lingering summer night, Pena Field off Muldoon felt like an exotic bazaar in an Asian port.
Tiny, wrinkled grandmothers sold herbs from grass mats, mothers dished steaming soup from enormous pots, spectators crowded around men lobbing a small straw-colored ball over a net. The light chatter of children lilted like background music.
Sai Vang, who is 21, turned dozens of skewered chicken wings on a grill.
"We come to the park whenever it's sunny or as long as it's not wet," he said. "When you're working and you're like driving around, you barely see anybody, but when you're here you see all the people you can talk to and everybody speaks pretty much the same language."
The immigrant gathering isn't unique to Pena Field in Centennial Park. It has been replicated by different immigrant groups in city parks all summer long. Whether it's Samoans playing cricket at Creekside Park, the near-nightly Lao barbecue at Valley of the Moon, or women practicing Polynesian dance on vacant tennis courts at Russian Jack, city parks are becoming centers for Anchorage immigrants. There are no official numbers to prove it, but people who've been involved with city parks for years say minority use of parks could be at an all-time high.
"The amount of minority groups using parks and facilities is just on the rise," said Holly Spoth-Torres, a municipal park planner. "There are 200 Samoan people using Jewel Lake every day. It's just up, and up, and up."
Hmong people gather at Pena Field because they want to be around people who speak their language and enjoy their same foods and games, Vang said.
Sia Vang, who gave her age as near 100, sat on a squat wooden stool at Pena Field near a mat where another older woman sold herbal medications for blood pressure and vision. A refugee from Laos, she lived in Minnesota before moving to Alaska. Her children brought her to the park, and being there made her feel connected to the life she left behind, she said.
"I come here to see my people. It's a really good feeling," she said, with Sai Vang translating.
Park use is also a matter of economics. On average, immigrant families have lower household incomes, more children, and are more likely to live in smaller, low-cost and multifamily housing, according to the U.S. census. The park is like the backyard they don't otherwise have access to, Spoth-Torres said.
That makes sense to Kou Her, who comes to Pena Field often. She sets up shop along with half a dozen other Hmong women, who serve grilled chicken, fried bread, spicy noodle soup, sweet drinks and papaya salad in exchange for donations. On a recent evening Her catered to a long line, ladling sugar, MSG, tamarind, and shrimp paste into a mortar, pounding it with garlic and green papaya to make salad.
"A lot of people live in trailer homes and apartments. There's not enough space for all of the kids," she said, through an interpreter.
Most people say park gatherings are a culture thing. Samoans, for example, have historically gathered in the center of their villages in a big open space called "a malae," said Niutunu Faiupu, an East Anchorage minister who headed up a Samoan cricket league all summer at Creekside Park. In Anchorage, city parks serve that same function, he said.
"It's really important to the Samoans. They consider that place a sacred place. It's a meeting place for the whole village," he said.
As the park planners consider park improvements, they're struggling to make connections with minority groups, Spoth-Torres said. Traditional methods don't work. A survey of park users a few years ago produced only a few minority responses, though minorities make up a hefty percentage of park users, she said. In part, the issue is language. She suspects many people didn't respond because they didn't understand.
Big immigrant gatherings at parks can also create conflicts. The Samoan cricket league is looking for another park to hold games because the crowds and loudspeakers bothered neighbors, Faiupu said. Hmong people moved their gathering to Pena Field because it's isolated, Her said. At other parks, neighbors call police if they stay there too late.
Spoth-Torres said immigrants' heavy use of parks may guide how they are developed, with special attention to pavilions and community gathering spaces.
As he stood at his Pena Field grill, Sai Vang didn't seem to notice the moisture in the evening air that hinted that the park season is drawing to a close.
"There's like the kids running around doing their things, there's older people having their usual gossip, then there's the teenagers playing around riding bikes and everything, there's the old guys playing sports," he said. "We come to the park to be free. This makes us feel like we are in paradise."
Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.
By the numbers
• One in every 11 people in Anchorage is born abroad.
• Alaska's rising immigrant population grew 50 percent in the '90s.
• About half the new immigrants are from Asia, a higher percentage than in every other state except Hawaii.
• Anchorage has the third-highest percentage of Pacific Island residents in the U.S., behind Honolulu and Sacramento.
