Larry Itliong, catalyst of the Delano Grape Strike and Filipino farmworker revolution leader

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Source: Illustration by Andre Sibayan. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution

Source: Illustration by Andre Sibayan. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution

Fewer people know about the contributions of Larry Dulay Itliong, which reflects how the contributions of Filipino Americans to the farm labor movement have often gone untold. Itliong empowered his community, and was right there alongside the California household names of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

On Sept. 6, 1965, Itliong, known as “Seven Fingers” or simply in his community as “The Man,” convinced 2,000 Filipino farmworkers to stop work on California vineyards and walk off the job, which began the famous Delano Grape Strike. It was from that point Itliong widely inspired a legacy of service and activism in his community.

In 1913, he was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States in 1929. Itliong joined his first strike in 1930 when he was only 14 years old. He went to work in the fisheries and salmon canneries in Alaska. It was here where he lost three fingers and won groundbreaking rights for cannery workers.

After serving in World War II, Itliong settled in Stockton and became active in the 1948 asparagus strike. Filipino workers led the way in unionization efforts among farmworkers in the 1930s and 40s. Stockton was once home to the largest population of Filipinos in the 20th century, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Source: Farmworker Movement Documentation Project/University of California San Diego Library

Source: Farmworker Movement Documentation Project/University of California San Diego Library

Itliong intended to become an attorney and seek justice for the poor. However, the violent racism and poverty he and other Filipinos experienced stopped Itliong from getting the education he wanted. Instead, he made his mark as a leader and organizer in Alaska and throughout the West Coast.

Itliong recruited more than 1,000 workers to join the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). His quick success led to union leaders asking that Itliong head to Delano to organize the grape workers.

For decades the migrant, bachelor, Filipino farmworkers - called Manongs, or elders - had fought for better working conditions. In the summer of 1965 pay cuts were threatened around the state, and these workers were prepared to act. This is where Itliong stepped in, urging local families in Delano to join Manongs in asking farmers for a raise. They demanded $1.40 an hour, 25 cents a box, and the right to form a union. The farmers resisted, so workers gathered at Filipino Community Hall for a strike vote.

Itliong soon contacted Chavez and appealed to him. Chavez had been organizing Mexican workers around Delano for a few years, but they had not planned yet for a strike. Chavez didn’t think they were ready. Itliong was the catalyst. Chavez took Itliong’s request back to the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and, along with Huerta, spoke to nearly 1,000 of their members. In a unanimous vote, Mexicans joined Filipinos, and one year later, they merged unions to become the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Source: Farmworker Movement Documentation Project/University of California San Diego Library

Source: Farmworker Movement Documentation Project/University of California San Diego Library

The Delano grape strike lasted five years, which included an international boycott of table grapes.

While Chavez took the limelight, the historical record of Itliong, a co-founder and former assistant director, faded and became overlooked. He changed the face of agricultural labor in California.

Itliong resigned from UFW in 1971 due to disagreements with union governance and felt that the union was not doing enough to help aging Filipinos.

He helped retired Filipino farmworkers in Delano and was a delegate at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Itliong helped work toward building a retirement facility for aging UFW workers. He continued to support others in the organized labor movement, despite leaving the UFW. He was involved in planning a strike against Safeway supermarkets in 1974.

Itliong died in 1977 at the age of 63 of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

““Larry Itliong was a mobilizer, he was always revered as a kuya (Filipino for older brother). Whatever he decided or he saw is right is how everybody followed it. […] And they saw that what he actually fought for — rights of workers, equal pay — that they benefited from it.” ”
— Mallare-Jimenez, professor of ethnic studies at California State University, Sacramento, in the Sacramento Bee.
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