By: K. Zabala
Edited by: Jordan Shaevitz
Larry Itliong was born in San Nicolas, Philippines, on October 25, 1913. Before moving to the United States, Itliong finished sixth grade. He intended to be a lawyer in his new country at first, but poverty and prejudice prohibited him from doing so. By that, he began his career by working his way around the nation, mainly on farms harvesting fruit or in canneries.
In the 1930s, he co-founded the Alaska Cannery Workers Union after going on strike with lettuce pickers in Washington state. He soon made his home in Stockton, which he named his hometown. In 1956, he established the Filipino Farm Labor Union there. Though the most famous strike he led was the Delano Grape Strike of 1965, in which the farmers refused to pay the union’s $1.40-an-hour wage demand. He initially called Cesar Chavez and requested that Mexican farmworkers join the strike. After five arduous years, The UWF and the grape producers would create a precedent by raising salaries, improving working conditions, and introducing benefits for present and future generations of agricultural employees. Itliong passed away in Delano, California, in 1977, when he was 63. By 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation designating the day as “Larry Itliong Day,” cementing his place in American history.
Works Cited
Biography.com Editors. “Larry Itliong.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 7 May 2021, https://www.biography.com/activist/larry-itliong.
Guillermo, Emil. “Eclipsed by Cesar Chavez, Larry Itliong’s Story Now Emerges.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 Apr. 2019, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/eclipsed-cesar-chavez-larry-itliongs-story-now-emerges-n423336.
Loto00. “Larry Itliong, the Filipino Labor Leader Who Changed the Nation.” CalAsian Chamber, CalAsian Chamber, 26 Oct. 2020, https://www.calasiancc.org/post/larry-itliong-the-filipino-labor-leader-who-changed-the-nation.
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