Larry Itliong: The Silent Architect of America’s Farm Labor Movement

Unsung hero, forgotten, overlooked – these are common descriptors of Larry Itliong and his significant contributions to the American Farm Labor Revolution. Carmina and Patch join the growing voices seeking to remedy this tragic oversight by honoring Larry in this episode. Learn why, during every Filipino American History Month, we must commemorate our ancestors’ contributions to the fabric of this great nation. Finally, learn why it is important to call it Filipino-American HISTORY (and not “Heritage”) Month.   

 Learn more: Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong, PBS News Hour: The story of Filipino-American labor organizer Larry Itliong, Filipino American Farmworkers | Asian Americans, Forgotten Hero of Labor Fight; His Son’s Lonely Quest, Filipino American National Historical Society, History of Filipino Labor Leader Resides in Shadows, Larry Itliong Day in the Philippines 2024, YouTube: Our Trip to Delano, Larry the Musical – Know History, Know Self, Who Is Larry Itliong, The life and legacy of Filipino American labor rights leader Larry Itliong, Filipinos in the UFW Movement: Agustín Lira & Patricia Wells Solórzano on Larry Itliong, If only he knew: The legacy of labor leader Larry Itlion – The Yappie, San Francisco Chronicle-Life and legacy of Filipino American labor rights leader Larry Itliong, and Little Manila Rising-Donate to our capital campaign!

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines. Hi Patch.

 Hi Carmina.

 So today, we're going to talk about Larry Itliong. But before we go into Larry, why are we even talking about him?

 Because it's the month of October, and it's the Filipino American History Month.

 Every time I see on social media that Filipinos are talking about it, I've told myself, and especially since we started this podcast, one day we will get into that. I do have some historical tidbits about it that I wanted to go through before we wanted to talk about Larry. And I want to credit FONS, the Filipino American National Historical Society.

 On October 18, 1587, the first documented landing of Filipinos in what is now known as Morro Bay, California happened. They were called Luzones Indios, and they were either crew or slaves of the Manila Galleon that they were on. These people were often sent ashore as a landing and scouting party.

 I wonder why? And I kept thinking was, okay, they're bait because when people landed back in the day, they didn't know if the people that they were going “to see on the other side were friendly or not. When the Morro Bay landing happened, not all of these Filipinos left.

 Many of them stayed behind. And I really would love to discover if there's any historical documentation of where they went, you know, how they lived afterwards. In any case, that's why October 18 was designated Filipino American History Month.

 It's more of a commemoration instead of a celebration. And it took years to get this month commemorated.

 Especially because we are the third largest AAPI group in the US and the second largest in California. And so it really is very curious why it took so long.

 It was the late Dr. Fred Cordova with his wife, Dr. Dorothy Ligo Cordova, who were the first to introduce Filipino American History Month in 1992 with a resolution from the FAHNS National Board of Trustees. And it was only in 2009 when US Congress officially recognized it. This is particularly impressive, not just because of the resilience that they displayed, but because this was an intergenerational effort.

 So a lot of other generations, apart from their own, including their daughter and a woman named Dawn Buholan Mabalon, who unfortunately “, she's passed, and others like them, including youth activist organizations, lots of efforts from other parts of the diaspora, who made this possible. I just wanted to acknowledge FAHNS. It's a really important organization for us to know as Filipino Americans, and we are for sure going to talk more about them in future episodes.

 Their official theme for this year's Filipino American History Month is struggle, resistance, solidarity, and resilience, which really embodies what it took to get us here. So this is the other thing that struck me when October happened. There were a lot of posts about why it was important to call it Filipino American History Month and not Heritage Month.

 I mean, I didn't even really understand the vehemence in which these posts were saying this. The tone was just so urgent. I can't say it as eloquently as others.

 So let me just quote a post by the late Dawn Bohulano Mabalon that she made in October of 2013, and I quote, "History is inclusive of heritage and culture, but it's also about stories of how we change this nation and ourselves in the process. Our political struggles, transformations, labor, migration, activism, impact of  imperialism and war, victories, etc. Where as heritage is more limited to what we pass down in terms of culture, tradition, legacies."

 Look, folks, we have more than just culture. We made history. We helped build this nation.

 That's what this month is about. And this time from Kevin Nadal, who is the current president of FAHNS, and I quote, "October is Filipino-American history month, not Filipino-American heritage month. The distinction is important."

When you call it heritage month, you erase Filipino-Americans' historical struggles with discrimination, isolation, and suffering. You also erase their strength, passion, and dignity. We have everything we have today because of the people who fought for us.

 We honor their histories. Reaction?

 Well, it kind of makes you feel emotional because truly we often don't think about the contributions of Filipinos and the struggle our forefathers had in building this nation. So I would have to agree with what they both say about the important distinction between heritage and history.

 And that gets us to Larry. Larry is an example of how this nation now has a very strong farm worker labor movement. And yet, he's not mentioned in any of the history books.

 He's not really even well known to the Filipino Americans. That is such a tragedy.

 Oftentimes, the Filipino contribution are often overlooked. And again, we're glad for the work of Dawn Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta, who have really dedicated their lives to enlightening us, not only the Filipinos, but the rest of the world, about the contributions of Larry Itliong and others.

 So, who is Larry? I mean, I've got to admit, that was the first question I asked myself when we started coming across his name.

 Larry Dulay Itliong was born on October 25, 1913, in San Nicolas, Pangasinan, in the Philippines. And at the age of 15, he immigrated to the United States in 1929, as part of the Manong Generation. They are the first wave of Filipino immigrants between the 1900s to the 1930s.

Although he aspired to become a lawyer, he found that discrimination and poverty prevented him from pursuing that path.

 I mean, Larry is his nickname. His real name is Modesto, right? And I was thinking to myself, wait, Modesto, Larry.

 It's like not even connected. But we have to remember what was happening in the world in 1929 when he immigrated. By that point, we had been a US colony for 31 years.

 And there had been this huge influx of Filipino migration over that period, with most Filipinos being utilized by America to work in agriculture as farm workers. And because there was a colony, there really was an unimpeded immigration at that point. And we were very needed by America at that point.

 And so this long history of migration created this phenomenon, like you mentioned, the Manong generation. And it means older brother in Ilocano. It's a term of endearment or respect.

 And majority of the Filipinos who were part of these waves of migrations were men, because, you know, farm labor is very tough physically.

 Backbreaking, right?

 And because they were often isolated in the farmlands where they worked, and also because of anti-miscegenation laws, they really couldn't marry. So a lot of these manongs came here single and died single. And then lastly, from a historical viewpoint, because there was no quota on Filipinos coming, it bred tensions amongst Americans who saw us as a threat and therefore led to increased racial discrimination and unfair labor conditions.

 This was also a time when the US is about to go into the Great Depression, which further worsened the tensions. So Patch, you mentioned he was 15 when he arrived. Right.

 And I believe he only completed his 6th grade education.

 Yeah, because during the US colonial period in the provinces, there was only the 6th grade education available to him, but obviously he is a man of great ambition.

 Right. He wanted to be a lawyer.

 All around him, apparently, there were a lot of people who already migrated, people who were older than him, his neighbors, his relatives. We have to also remember that in those schools, Americans taught, right? We talked about the Thomacites in a previous episode.

 And their main propaganda basically was promoting America to the Filipinos as this land of wealth and promise.

 Great.

 So he and his friends dreamt of nothing but to come to America. And apparently letters that they were getting from people who were already here were telling them that you could be anything and do anything in America. So that became his dream.

 But his father did not approve.

 His father was a farm worker, right?

 Both parents, yeah. So their whole family worked on farms, right?

 Both parents, yeah. So their whole family worked on farms. He had three brothers and two sisters.

 And his father wanted him basically to stay back and help with the farm. And this is why Dawn Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta are very important because there are very few books about Larry. And one of them, and I think the first of them, was written by these two.

 And a lot of the things that I'm talking about, the inside scoop, came from that book. So he apparently had five pesos in his pocket and proceeded to gamble at a card game and turned it into five thousand pesos.

 Wow! Okay. So he supposedly was a really good card player.

 I'm not going to use the name Shark, but if you were able to increase your five pesos to that amount, then maybe.

 I mean, and not only that, and I don't know who he was gambling with at that age, but he also apparently acquired 12 acres of land. 

 What? So if you were his dad, and he came to you with this, how could you say no at that point?

 Because he was basically paying his own way now.

 I would say no, because my son needed to stay with me and make more money.

 I thought you were going to say, just apparently what the dad said, just stay here and turn these 12 acres into something.

 But that's basically what I'm saying too.

 So by that point, couldn't say no anymore. So he boarded a steamship named Empress of Asia, and he was the youngest on that ship. And on that ship, he was with other Filipinos.

 Some of them were professionals, so nurses and doctors who were going there, and many who were farm workers like him.

I heard that he left behind his sweetheart.

 Yes. Just that he promised to come back.

 Yeah, that's what I heard too.

 Apparently, that was the promise.

 Very difficult.

 I mean, by all accounts in this book and other articles that I mentioned, he intended to.

 Okay.

 Okay. So after 22 days, that's how long it took in the past patch to travel by sea. He landed in Seattle, where he met other Filipinos, and he had an uncle there.

 He was very happy to meet with his uncle. I'm sure that he was very excited, very excited for his future. And then his uncle pretty much asked him if he had any money to loan him, right?

 I know. Yes.

 I mean, red flag, right? That was his very first red flag. It was also in Seattle, where he met other Filipinos, who worked in salmon canneries in Alaska during the winter.

 And they told him that after the winter was done, they traveled all throughout California, Washington and Montana to harvest fruits and vegetables. That was his second red flag, because he was fully expecting to hear that these people were going to school, becoming professionals. But many of them told him that that was their first aspiration, and they were very quickly disabused of the notion that they could ever do it.

 So his very first job was in Montana as a sugar beet harvester. And what a harsh reality he encountered there, because he witnessed the harsh conditions. His Filipino compatriots experienced, including exposure to a lot of chemicals because of the pesticides.

 And Patch, I know you found something about this. His nickname became Seven Fingers.

 Yes. So the popular legend was that he lost three fingers due to a canning accident in Alaska while he was working in the canning industry. However, according to his wife, or rather one of his wives, Nellie, he lost the fingers while jumping trains.

 When he got into that accident and lost his fingers, obviously that really limited a lot of his options. And his father advised him to come back home. But at that point, he refused mostly because of pride, it seemed.

 He didn't want to go back without having had success. So he stayed. That second portion of his life had a long history of being involved in strikes and labor movements.

 And during these experiences, the importance of unity was instilled in him. One of the stories that was mentioned in the book was when he was working as a janitor in the Frye lettuce farm in Washington because of his injury, but his fellow Filipinos were out in the fields.

 So, get this Patch. The white workers went on strike and demanded a raise, even when their work was really easier than the Filipinos. So these folks were working in the shed. After the Filipinos picked the lettuce, these white Americans were washing the lettuce and boxing them.

 Those shed workers were fighting for a 10-cent raise, and they asked the Filipinos to join them and promised the Filipinos that no one would go back to work until everyone got that raise. So even if he was an indoor worker, he joined the strike in solidarity. And then after a few weeks, the leaders at Frye agreed to give the white workers their 10-cent raise, but only gave the Filipinos 5 cents.

 So understandably, the Filipinos felt essentially betrayed because the white shed workers went back to work. And worse, when the Filipinos stood their ground, the company found scabs and replaced the Filipinos, and then all the Filipinos lost their jobs. So this was the first lasting impression that was made on Larry as a labor organizer.

 And we mentioned the cannery. That was the next significant strike he was a part of in Alaska, where he saw that the white bosses were being fed steaks and pork chops. And the Filipinos got seaweed, rice, and one small piece of salmon for every meal.

 Oh my gosh.

 The story goes that he got so upset about this that he walked off. And one of the four men basically ran after him and said, you can come back because they're gonna now give you pork chops. And then he said, well, me, like just me, no way.

 I want all Filipinos to get the pork chop. I mean, from that early age, I just feel like he already showed that he wasn't just about himself. Everywhere he went to follow the work, he witnessed the same things over and over.

 And then along the way, the Great Depression happened, and it's really so eerie that the same theme is being repeated today. The blame was put on immigrants, specifically Mexicans and Filipinos. And then two laws were passed, one after the other, that were specifically targeting Filipinos.

 The first one barred almost all Filipino migrant workers from entering the United States, and another one called the Repatriation Act offered Filipinos a one-way ticket home to the Philippines.

 Larry was offered that as well, but he refused. Now, that one-way ticket to the Philippines, I'm glad you mentioned that because that really meant you could go back to the Philippines, but you can never come back. And Larry refused.

 So this is where the heartbreak comes in right? Because he did promise his sweetheart that he would return. And the book said that he wrote a very heart-wrenching letter to her and to his family and told them of his decision, because at that time he realized that while he could never become a lawyer, he had a new purpose, which was to become a labor organizer.

 In 1939, he enlisted in the US. Army as a mess man and served for the duration of World War II.

 Yeah, the reason why he could only serve in the mess hall is because of his injury. And as we know, the Philippines became independent after World War II. And because he served, he was given a path to citizenship, and he did pass that citizenship test.

 Larry went back to farm work and made Stockton his home base. And Patch, Stockton, California is in itself another topic for a future episode. It has the largest Filipino community in the US mainland.

 After the war, his activism did not stop. In fact, he continued, eventually participated in the Stockton asparagus strike, which was the first major agriculture strike post-World War II.

 In 1959, a friend of his invited him to become a member of the agricultural workers organizing committee called AWOC. And his work there had him go to as many farms as possible to enlist new members. And he was so good at his job that he recruited a thousand new members.

 And during the course of his work, he was asked to move to Delano to lead the Filipino grape workers. And here we should mention that Larry spoke many languages. So apparently six Filipino languages, and Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, and of course English.

 So that probably also had a lot to do with his effectiveness, because he was able to communicate with so many different types of people. A lot of these unions were multi-ethnic, and certainly his language skills helped with that. So this is where Larry's most consequential work happened.

 And we of course know of Coachella Valley because of the music and arts festival that happens there every year. But there was a really important event that happened there in May of 1965. The Filipino grape workers there went on strike for better wages because the grape owners were paying some workers $1.40 an hour, but they were only “giving Filipinos $1.25.

 So they went on strike and demanded not just $1.40, but also 25 cents on the box of grapes that they packaged. They got their demands after 10 days of striking. And so as is the nature of that work, after they've completed harvesting there, they traveled north to begin harvesting at the next location, which is in Delano.

 But when they got there, the growers refused to give them the same pay. So Larry organized the Filipino workers to strike on September 8, 1965. And as the strike went on, of course, violence began and the growers, unlike those in Coachella Valley, employed every tactic in the book and started to let loose the police on the Filipinos.

 And they also started to hire Mexican scabs. And as you know, Patch, this is one of the tactics pitting Mexicans and Filipinos against each other in these kinds of situations.

 Right, divide and conquer. So, of course, we all know about Larry Itliong's relationship with Cesar Chavez, a very prominent figure in this movement, who he met in 1960s and he approached him to join this strike, right?

 Yeah. So at that time, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, who organized the National Farm Workers Association, which was mostly composed of Mexican Americans.

 Larry understood that for the strike to succeed, it was crucial to involve the Mexican workers and create a larger, unified force.

 Yeah. And it's a culmination of everything he learned, because over and over, he had seen how every time Filipinos stood up for their rights, they were just basically replaced by the Mexicans. And so he approached Cesar.

 And I think Cesar, Dolores and Gilbert at that time were planning their own movement and felt at first that that wasn't the time because they weren't already with whatever it is that they were planning. But Larry was convincing. And in the end, Cesar decided to put it to the vote, to the members.

 And thankfully, the members of the NFWA voted unanimously to join the Filipinos.

 Eventually, there was a merger that resulted between AWOC and NFWA, and that formation led to the United Farm Workers Union.

 That was such an important merger. Cesar served as the director and Larry the assistant director. And under that UFW umbrella, they had several campaigns.

 They sent volunteers across the US and asked the entire world to refuse to buy grapes from Delano. People all over the US and even Europe boycotted and marched in solidarity. The union convinced groceries to stop carrying Delano grapes.

Even Robert F. Kennedy got involved. And Cesar, as one of his tactics, fasted for 25 days.

 I believe he lost up to like 35 pounds or something, like an incredible amount. Yeah.

 I don't know if I can fast for three days, let alone 35 days.

I was about to say a day. What do you mean three days? Let's be for real, Carmina.

 I mean, the three days would have been a lot of cheating involved in those three days. So, I mean, the strike eventually worked. That's why it was called the Great Delano Grape Worker Strike, right?

 But my mind was blown when I read how long it took.

 Yeah, it took five years.

Five years! So, the strikers didn't earn any money, but the community helped. And the Filipinos were really instrumental in making sure that they were fed, that their families had nothing to worry about.

 And, again, the solidarity was just incredible. And it went across lines. It was not just the “Filipinos that the Filipino community took care of.

 It was also the Mexican families who were involved, and vice versa. The Mexicans also took care of the Filipinos.

 This was not only about the workers not going to work, right? There was also a lot of threat and violence against them during this five years. So, it's not just about not earning financially, but also the threat to their lives.

 And they were harassed. So, it was very difficult, and clearly they were very committed to this movement.

 In 1970, the Delano grape workers agreed to the pay increase. They also included medical insurance and less exposure to toxic pesticides. And I really urge our listeners to watch this video footage that I found of the grape strike.

 It's going to be in the show notes. It described the strike and interviewed people from that time. And more importantly, it showed clips of Larry's interviews, video of him and Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta together, and moments, actual moments, when the Mexicans and Filipinos walked off the grape farms.

 And apparently, this is how they orchestrated it. They would pick the grapes, put them in the baskets underneath the vines, and then at a certain time, they all walked off. So you would see all of these grapes and baskets under the vines.

 And of course, what were the growers supposed to do then? Right?

 Right.

 So it was so impactful.

 One of the articles that I read was about his daughter, Patty. She was reminiscing about her memories of her father, and she was feeling overwhelmed sometimes when she sees the farm workers now. She mentioned something like the very existence of restrooms, shade, clean water, and water breaks overwhelmed her because she realized the impact of her father and others who did the work.

 But if you think about it, simple things like restrooms, shade, clean water, and water breaks, we don't really think much about it now. But obviously, the workers before this strike were not entitled to any of this.

 So heartbreaking if you think about it. I can't even imagine. Patch, what about this theme that we started with, that Larry is often described as the unsung hero of the farm labor movement?

 And we, of course, wish that the story would end here, right?

 Right.

 But unfortunately, it didn't. And there were several factors that led Larry to leave the UFW.

 In 1971, I believe he resigned from the UFW, and much of what is known is that he had concerns about the disproportionate benefits between Filipino workers and the other workers in the union.

 Some Filipinos felt that the union rules were less favorable to Filipinos, and union meetings were primarily being done in Spanish without any translation, and there were apparently strategies that the Filipinos were not comfortable with, including several ideological and religious undertones. Also, the push for non-violence in favor of self-defense. So this is where you'll see this scrappiness of Filipinos, because they were like, nope, I'm defending myself if I'm in danger, right?

 But that was one of the tenets that the UFW was apparently propagating. And most impactful was the fact that Cesar was the only face of the union, and he was the only one that reporters often wanted to talk to. So Larry felt invisible.

 Also, Larry, during the later years of that union, he was having more difficulty having direct access to Cesar Chavez.

 Yeah, that's what I read too. And, you know, as I was reflecting on this, I was wondering why before I saw all the videos. And then when I saw the videos, I'm like, isn't this so typical?

 And I don't know if this is the real reason. But when you see clips of Cesar, I mean, he plays well to an audience because he was tall, he was attractive, he spoke with less of an accent.

 He was very charismatic.

 Very charismatic. But imagine what would have happened if Larry didn't set aside his pride and didn't think of the idea to unite their forces. Many are saying today that it was really Larry who was the architect and led to the success of the movement because he had more experience in organizing and just the union administrative work.

 He knew all of that more than Cesar.

 When he left the union, he dedicated most of the rest of his life to making sure that the aging Filipino population was taken care of.

 Right. He made sure that the Manong generation had care. The UFW actually established the Paolo Agbayani home for the Manongs.

 And Paolo Agbayani is one of these strikers who died of a heart attack during the strike. But he was also very passionate about educating the youth. So he traveled all over the United States to talk to the youth activists who were organizing and inspired them.

 So sadly, Patch, Larry died young. He was only 63 when he died on February 8th, 1977 of Lou Gehrig's disease. And his life was also somewhat complex.

 And you mentioned earlier, he had married many times, to be exact, six times.

 Yeah, he left behind seven children, four boys and three girls. And after his passing, I am so relieved to learn that there are now efforts, although late, to spread the word about the life and work of this really great man. In 2021, a library in Delano was dedicated and renamed in its honor, and it even features a mural of Larry.

 In 2023, there was established the Larry Itliong Unity Park, and that opened in Delano as well. And of course, you mentioned the book Journey for Justice, The Life of Larry Itliong that was published. But there was also a musical that was produced in San Francisco.

 And of course, there's going to be a musical, right?

 And Gayle Romasanta, one of the co-authors of the book, was heavily “involved in that.

 I'm really very thrilled and relieved to learn that there's so many efforts to celebrate his life.

 And just to give you and the listeners the monumental task that led to all of these efforts. So I found a New York Times article from October 18, 2012. So again, just checking our timeline, right?

 So the Filipino American History Month was only really officially recognized in 2009. And this article in 2012, the backdrop was President Obama's visit to the United Farm Workers Headquarters, which was seen as his acknowledgement of Cesar Chavez. And this article isn't taking anything away from Cesar's significant achievements, not at all.

 But it was also at the same time asking why Larry wasn't as recognized. The article featured his son, Johnny, who was 47 when this article was published and who is now 59. He himself was a farm worker, and he started at five years old, and he was 11 years old when Larry died.

 So in this article, Johnny was described as making homemade displays about his father because he wanted his son Alex and daughter Angela to know about their grandfather. And at that time in 2012, he was trying to raise money to place a simple bench beside his father's grave. So one last thing that I wanted to require our listeners to do is to listen to another link that we're going to put in our show notes from the PBS NewsHour.

 It's very, very short, but it was a narration of Johnny talking to his son Alex about Larry's legacy. It was so heartfelt. Patch was very emotional, but also very hopeful because not only did his son remind him of his father, Larry, but apparently Alex is taking up the mantle of his grandfather.

 And I really can't wait for what Alex will achieve in the future.

 You know, Carmina, after learning about Larry Itliong's life and contribution, I have to say that every time I buy grapes, it's now such a different experience for me.

 Same here. Just yesterday, I was eating grapes, and I will never ever look at grapes the same way again.

 And that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip.

O siya, siya.

Ingat.

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