![]() ![]() ![]() This victory empowered farm workers throughout California’s Central Valley to protest against low wages and miserable working and living conditions. In May of 1965, Itliong led a successful strike of Filipino farm workers in vineyards of Coachella, California. UFW officer Julio Hernandez (left) and UFW director Larry Itliong (center) with Cesar Chavez during a march in San Francisco, 1966. Itliong moved to Stockton, California and founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in 1956, and the multi-ethnic Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) in 1959. After returning from the war, he wasted no time in resuming his fight for worker’s rights. citizenship in 1944 for his service in World War II. He was often heard saying “Let’s go, don’t be scared! I’ll be in the front- just follow me” to embolden his fellow Manongs. Itliong honed his oratory skills to galvanize workers. Larry soon earned his reputation as a young fiery activist and a leading figure in labor organizing throughout the West Coast.Īpart from Ilocano, Pangasinense, Tagalog (Filipino), and six other Philippine languages, he also became fluent in English, Japanese, Cantonese and Spanish. In 1930, he joined his first strike and within the same year he co-founded the Alaska Canneries Workers Union. Activism, Military Service in World War IIĭespite only finishing 6th grade back in the Philippines and not being able to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer in the United States, Itliong remained passionately committed to defending the rights of the poor. He later earned the nickname “seven fingers” after losing three of his fingers due to a work-related accident. He first arrived in Alaska in 1929 and later found work in the different states, from the canneries of Alaska to the railroads of Montana and the agricultural fields of California. Did that happen? Hell, no!”Īt the age of 14, Itliong migrated to the United States with hopes of earning his law degree. As Itliong remarked in his 1976 speech to students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, “You go to the United States where they pick money on trees. They were enticed with the promises of the American Dream only to confront hardships and racial discrimination. The Manongs were mostly young Filipino men who were recruited as a source of cheap labor when the Philippines was still a U.S. Itliong belonged to the “Manong” (Ilocano for “elder brother”) generation or the first major wave of Filipino immigrants in the United States between the 1900s to the 1930s. At an early age, Larry knew he wanted to become a lawyer to fight for the rights of the common people. He was among the six children of Francesca Dulay-Itliong and Aretemio Itliong. Modesto “Larry” Dulay Itliong was born on Octoin the bucolic town of San Nicolas, Pangasinan Province, Philippines. “Because in that Constitution, it said that everybody has equal rights and justice.” Early Life and Migration to the United States I feel we have the same rights as any of them,” Itliong said in a 1976 speech. "I feel we are just as good as any of them. The five-year strike won better pay and benefits for agricultural workers and led to the eventual formation of the United Farm Workers. He became well-known in the 1960s for spearheading the Delano grape strike and teaming with labor leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to demand farm workers' rights. Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor leader who organized West Coast farm workers, starting in the 1930s. ![]()
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