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Virtually every American child of Mexican descent grows up knowing about the great Cesar Chavez and about how he organized the oppressed farmworkers into a farm labor movement which led to the vast improvement in the working conditions of farmworkers. This image was supported recently by the nationwide release of the Hollywood movie, Chavez.
In contrast, virtually no American child of Filipino descent grows up knowing anything about Larry Itliong, the Filipino farmworker leader who convinced a reluctant Chavez to get his Mexican farmworker supporters to honor the picket lines set up by 1500 Filipino farmworkers in Delano who called a pivotal strike which eventually led to the formation of the United Farmworkers Union UFW), AFL-CIO.
But, hopefully, not anymore. A new documentary, the Delano Manongs, by young Filipino American filmmaker Marissa Aroy will seek to correct that historical injustice.
I saw the movie for the first time at the UFW auditorium at the Union’s Forty Acres facility in Delano on June 21 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Paulo Agbayani Retirement Village which opened in 1974.
I was teaching a Filipino History in America class in the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University in the Spring of 1974 when I brought my students to Delano to do volunteer work on 56 units of housing for retired Filipino farmworkers. We arrived on a Friday evening in Delano and, after dinner provided by the farmworkers for the volunteers, cuddled up in our sleeping bags in the rooms provided for the volunteers. The next day, we were assigned tasks, depending on ability and experience, in various phases of the construction.
The village was named after Paulo Agbayani, a Filipino farmworker who died while manning the picket line in 1965. The idea for the village was proposed by Larry Itliong who was concerned that there would be no housing for aging Filipino farmworkers who could no longer work and live in the workers’ huts where they had lived since they were brought to the US in the 1930s.
Marissa Aroy’s film was an eye-opener even for those who thought they knew everything there was to know about the Delano Strike of 1965 and the central role played by Larry Itliong.
This is the synopsis of the film prepared by Benjamin Ferrer of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center:
“Clocking in at a lean-and-mean 27 minutes, DELANO MANONGS covers now-familiar territory — the recruitment of Filipinos to America at the turn of the 20th century to provide cheap labor, the establishment of a bachelor society as a result of racist miscegenation laws designed to prevent Filipinos from marrying and establishing families — but saves the bulk of its story to recount the leading role of the manongs in the 1965 Great Grape Pickers’ Strike in Delano, CA that resulted in the establishment of the United Farmworkers Union (UFW) five years later. For that, and for foregrounding the leading role of legendary labor organizer and farmworker Larry Itliong in that epic struggle, this latest addition to the Filipino American cinematic oeuvre is destined to be a classic.
As told by director Marissa Aroy (the latest in a long line of Film Festival artists trained at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism), DELANO MANONGS positions the Great Grape Pickers’ Strike as a “last stand” for decent wages and working conditions…
That the Filipinos who instigated the years-long action found themselves marginalized from this momentous victory is a sad footnote to this chapter of labor history, one that director Aroy seeks to rectify. Incorporating rarely-seen live archival footage and previously unheard audio tapes of Itliong himself, the film’s “you are there” aesthetic is palpable, yet intimate. With the manongs now gone, it is left to cinematic works as DELANO MANONGS to fill in the many gaps in our collective histories. It moves that ongoing process forward — exponentially.”
The film describes the efforts by Larry Itliong of the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee of the AFL-CIO to organize the Filipino farmworkers into a union. Through first person eyewitness interviews, it recounts the pivotal meeting of Filipino farmworkers at the Filipino Community Hall on September 5, 1965 called by Itliong. It was a packed standing room only meeting of Filipinos who had been working in the fields since the 1930s when Itliong called for a vote on whether to strike.
Only one hand was raised in support of a strike. So Itliong asked the workers why they were opposed to a strike. Many of the workers said they were worried that their grower bosses would be upset with them. Itliong accepted the vote and the meeting was adjourned.
Two days later, another meeting was held at the hall and a new vote was called. Only this time, the vote was unanimous, 150-0, for a strike.
Itliong then gave instructions to the farmworkers. The next day, on September 8, they would all report to work at 4 AM, as they normally do, and cut the grapes from the trees and put them in a box at the foot of the tree. Then whistles will be blown signaling the beginning of the strike. They would leave the grapes in their boxes and walk out to set up a picket line with signs prepared by Itliong.
About 1500 Filipino farmworkers joined the strike, an inspiring display of unity, discipline and cohesion. Not one of the 1500 Filipino farmworkers broke ranks to warn the white grower bosses of the planned strike.
It was the Filipinos’ finest hour, all forgotten by all, until now.
[To be continued].
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