Larry itliong death
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Rise Up for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Larry Itliong
Source: Wikipedia
Larry Itliong was born on October 25, 1913 in San Nicolas, Pangasinan, The Philippines, and immigrated to the United States in 1929. He made his living working as a farm laborer and in Alaska’s salmon canneries. Itliong faced poverty and racism as a Filipino laborer but would soon become a charismatic and effective labor organizer and fighter for social justice.
Beginning in the 1920s, migrant, bachelor Filipino workers (Manongs) labored in the fields and canneries of the western United States. Since Filipinos were considered US Nationals, their numbers grew to replace the Chinese and Japanese laborers, who were effectively barred from immigrating in 1924.
On the night of September 7, 1965, Filipino farm laborers voted to strike against the table grape growers in Delano, California, demanding better pay and working conditions. Strikes were not new, but this vote was historic. Itliong was one of the main leaders of the more than 1,000 Filipino laborers who voted to strike. At the
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Larry Itliong
Explore This Section
Public Service
(1913-1977)
California Connection
- Lived and worked in Stockton, Calif., and Delano, Calif.
Achievements
Biography current as of induction in 2021
Larry Itliong was one of the most important civil rights leaders of the 20th century and a father of the West Coast labor movement.
Born in the Philippines, Itliong immigrated to the U.S in 1929, hoping to become a lawyer. Instead, he ended up working in the Alaskan fish canneries and along the West Coast as a farm laborer. During that time, he experienced how badly laborers were treated and saw the power they could gain by working together. He became an activist and organizer.
Following his service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Itliong became a U.S citizen and in 1954 moved to Stockton’s Little Manila, where he organized for the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). He was so good at recruiting new members that union leaders asked him to move to Delano to organize Filipino grape workers. It was there that he helped change
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Larry Itliong was a Filipino American labor leader who organized West Coast farm workers, starting in the 1930s. 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. The five-year strike won better pay and benefits for agricultural workers and led to the eventual formation of the United Farm Workers.
"I feel we are just as good as any of them. I feel we have the same rights as any of them,” Itliong said in a 1976 speech. “Because in that Constitution, it said that everybody has equal rights and justice.”
History Shorts: Dolores Huerta Organizes a Movement
Early Life and Migration to the United States
Modesto “Larry” Dulay Itliong was born on October 25, 1913 in the bucolic town of San Nicolas, Pangasinan Province, Philippines. He was among the six children of Francesca Dulay-Itliong and Aretemio Itliong. At an early age, Larry knew he wanted to become a lawyer to fight for the rights of the common people.
Itliong belonged to the “Manong” (Ilocano for “
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