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The Delano Strike of 1965 made the front pages of the national newspapers and was featured at the top of the TV network news. The media interviews of Filipino farm worker leader Larry Itliong made him a hero to the Pinoy community, countering the stereotyped public image of Filipinos as docile houseboys and obedient navy stewards. There was now a new positive image of an assertive Pinoy who was articulating the just demands of the Filipino workers
“I’m an SOB when it comes to fighting for the rights of Filipino farm workers,” Itliong said.
The Delano Strike was the talk of the town among Filipinos all over the U.S. but none more so than in San Francisco where Filipino community leaders, led by Alex Esclamado, publisher of the Philippine News, and Ariston Armada, president of the Iloilo Circle, mobilized the Bay Area Filipino community to gather canned goods to support their kababayans in the picket lines in Delano.
Emil Heredia of the Filipino Professionals group, Celestino Alfafara of the Caballeros de Dimasalang, Mike Magdaluyo of the Filipino Community of San Francisco and other community leaders asked the members of their organizations to collect canned goods among their friends, relatives and neighbors to help their manongs in the fields of Delano.
After two weeks of collecting canned goods, the San Francisco Filipinos drove in a convoy to Delano to the Filipino Community Center. It was billed as the Filipino Food Caravan of 1965, the forerunner of future Filipino community efforts to help other Filipinos in need whether victims of natural calamities in the Philippines or locally in labor strikes.
Los Angeles ProTem Judge John Armington, the son of Filipino farm worker leader Basilio Armington, recalled eating corned beef for several weeks at the Filipino Community Center and thinking that it was a native Philippine delicacy because San Francisco Pinoys had brought tons with them.
While the Bay Area Filipinos were in Delano, they joined the striking farm workers in the picket lines to express their solidarity. They also sat down together at the Filipino Community Center to form the Filipino American Political Association (FAPA), the first national political organization of Filipinos. Larry Itliong as unanimously elected the first national president of FAPA.
There had been national Filipino cultural, religious, military, masonic, professional community organizations in the past, but no national political organizations had been formed. This was a national organization that would develop and advance the Filipino political agenda of opposing discrimination and working for the election of Filipinos to elective office.
In just a few years, FAPA established 39 chapters throughout the US. Its members were elected to various elective positions in California including Leonard Velasco as mayor of Delano, Monty Manibog as mayor of Monterey Heights, and Glen Olea as Mayor of Seaside. Mark Pullido, the current Fil-Am mayor of Cerritos, California is spearheading a revival of FAPA in time to celebrate its golden anniversary next year.
The National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), at its National Empowerment Conference held in San Diego on August 8-10, 2014, approved a resolution to celebrate the golden anniversary of the three September 1965 events – the Delano Strike, the Food Caravan and the founding of FAPA – in September of 2015. There will be commemorative events in Filipino communities throughout the US.
Larry Itliong died in 1977, at age 63, leaving a wife and 7 kids. At his funeral, Cesar Chavez eulogized him as “a true pioneer in the farm workers movement.”
But Fred Cordova, a past president of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), believes he should be considered more than just a pioneer.
“I’d like to see his grave site included as a national shrine and the name Larry Itliong mentioned in the same breath as Cesar Chavez. His impact on the Filipino American experience is unsurpassed,” Cordova said.
(Rodel Rodis taught Philippine History and the History of Filipinos in America at San Francisco State University. He is the General Counsel of NaFFAA. Send comments to Rodel50@gmail.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 4127 or call 415.334.7800).