Dolores Huerta praised role of Filipino farm workers and Larry Itliong

Dolores Huerta with Larry Itliong, left, and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers.

Dolores Huerta, the fiery and resolute co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers, died Wednesday, Oct. 28, at her home in Bakersfield, California, at the age of 96. 

While mainstream media obituaries will rightfully laud her for coining the immortal rallying cry "Sí, se puede" and spending seven decades organizing for the dispossessed, an essential truth of her legacy must not be left out of the history lessons: Huerta was one of the loudest, most consistent voices demanding just credit for the Filipino labor organizers who built the modern farmworkers' movement.

For years, Huerta used her platform to correct the mainstream narrative that treated the movement as strictly Chicano. She frequently reminded audiences that the historic September 8, 1965, Delano grape strike was started not by Mexicans, but by the Filipino "Manongs" of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). 

"If you knew the history of labor, you knew Filipinos in California," Huerta famously declared, explicitly pointing out how growers historically used ethnic divide-and-conquer tactics until Filipino and Mexican leaders made the conscious choice to lock arms in solidarity.

Huerta frequently reminds audiences that the historic 1965 Delano grape strike was not initiated by Mexican Americans, but rather by Filipino workers. 

"The historic Delano grape strike started on September the 8th of 1965. The Filipino farm workers went out on strike," she recalled. "And they were treated so brutally by the grape growers... They turned off the lights and the gas [in the labor camps], and then some of the Filipino workers were beaten." 

Huerta often proudly shares the story of how she personally recruited the legendary Filipino labor leader Larry Itliong into the broader organizing effort in Stockton during the late 1950s, before the UFW was even formed. 

She has joked in speeches, "I have the great honor, and I will brag about it, that I organized Larry Itliong," noting that she intentionally sought him out because her Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) desperately needed a strong Filipino organizer to unify the workforce 

She explains that her own organization (the NFWA) had not planned to strike for several more years, but the bravery of the Filipino workers forced a choice. She recalls telling her members that they had to vote on whether they were ready to walk out in solidary to "support the Filipino farm workers," to which the Mexican workers agreed. 

Huerta was a close friend of the legendary Filipino leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz though their relationships were complex, forged in the fires of intense union politics.

 Huerta proudly brags that she actually "organized" Larry Itliong in Stockton during the late 1950s when they both briefly worked under AWOC. She frequently described their bond as deeply personal, noting, "Larry and I have always been very, very close. He was a strong leader."

It was Itliong who ultimately convinced Cesar Chavez and Huerta to merge their respective associations to form the UFW. While Itliong later resigned from the union in 1971 due to frustration over the UFW sidelining its Filipino membership, his personal and professional respect for Huerta's organizing grit remained intact.

Philip Vera Cruz served directly alongside Huerta on the UFW executive board for years as the union's second vice president. They shared a mutual dedication to grassroots organizing and cross-cultural solidarity. 

Like Itliong, Vera Cruz eventually left the UFW over political disagreements regarding the centralized, often dictatorial leadership structure under Chavez. However, Huerta never stopped championing his legacy, consistently honoring him alongside Itliong as the indispensable architects of the movement.

Despite the fractures that caused both men to walk away from the UFW in the 1970s, neither Itliong nor Vera Cruz ever minimized Huerta's immense sacrifices. They frequently spoke of the grueling, unpaid hours, the constant threat of violence from growers, and the shared exhaustion of the Delano strike years. 

In later years, Vera Cruz acknowledged that Huerta, as a single mother of eleven children, faced unique societal pressures and hardships that the male leaders of the movement never had to endure, cementing a permanent respect for her endurance.

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In the male-dominated sphere of 1960s labor organizing, both Itliong and Vera Cruz deeply respected Huerta's formidable grit.

The complex knot of loyalty and silence within the UFW’s early leadership came into sharp focus and understanding why such a strong woman supported Chavez's leadership following Huerta’s recent public revelations in March 2026 regarding the severe abuse she quietly endured from Chavez. 

Reacting to those disclosures, Larry Itliong’s son, Johnny Itliong, spoke out to validate the immense pressure Huerta had been under. He noted that the Filipino leadership had long been aware of Chavez’s toxic internal behavior, adding a layer of retroactive clarity to why the old-school Filipino organizers like his father and Vera Cruz had fought so hard against the centralized power dynamic that Huerta had felt trapped into defending.

As we mourn the loss of Dolores Huerta today, we honor her not just for her own incredible strides, but for her refusal to let the foundational contributions of the Filipino American community be erased from the fields of California.

Dolores Huerta with Attorney General Rob Bonta.

In closing, we reprint the statement from Rob Bonta, California's Filipino American Attorney General, whose parents were UFW organizers.

“Dolores Huerta was a friend, a mentor, a source of inspiration and guidance, and a lifelong hero of mine.

"Her activism and inspiration touched countless lives, and her ongoing legacy will surely touch countless more in the years ahead. I’m grateful she had such an influence on my own life. From my early days growing up in the headquarters of the United Farmworkers of America, to my time in public office, she was a constant, firm, irresistible force for justice and needed change.

"Her rallying cry 'Sí Se Puede' perfectly encapsulated who she was — a woman full of fight and right who knew that if we worked together, there was nothing we couldn’t achieve.

"She helped shape the history of the farmworkers' movement and changed the face of the labor movement forever. She defined what it meant to own our power, use our voice, and ensure the people always remain the most potent force in our American democracy ... This is a devastating loss for so many in the labor movement and across the nation.”

Huerta's deep personal and professional partnership with Filipino organizers dismantled ethnic divide-and-conquer tactics, proving that enduring power is born when multi-racial communities unite against oppression and exploitation.

We honor Dolores Huerta, not only as the fiery co-founder of the United Farm Workers ]and also as a master strategist of the broader civil rights movement. Huerta understood that true social justice cannot exist in silos. By actively bridging communities, she recognized that the fight for farmworker dignity was inextricably linked to the larger struggle for racial, economic, and human rights across America.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, feel free to repost.

California marks day honoring Filiipino American labor leader Larry Itliong

The late labor leader Larry Itliong's birthday is Oct. 25.

California is still the only state that marks the birth of Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong.

Governor Jerry Brown first signed the law creating Larry Itliong Day in 2015 and every year since, the state has officially recognized the day. Wednesday, Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis signed the proclamation since Gov. Gavin Newsom was on a trade mission in China.

The proclamation read, in part:

While working as a laborer in the fisheries and canneries of Alaska, Itliong helped found the Alaska Cannery Workers Union. His efforts helped secure a contract that gave workers an eight-hour workday with overtime. Following his service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Itliong settled in Stockton, California.

Itliong continued his work in the labor movement, emerging as a leader in the Filipino-American community of respected elders known as Manongs. He was involved in organizing the asparagus strike of 1948 – the first major agricultural strike after World War II – and in 1956, Itliong founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in Stockton. Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and Manong leaders helped create the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.

            RELATED: Why all states should honor Larry Itliong

In the Spring of 1965, Itliong allied with grape workers in the Coachella Valley, fighting for increased pay. Following that victory, the Manongs voted in September 1965 to organize against grape growers in Delano who were exploiting workers toiling in their fields. The Manongs joined César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and the National Farmworkers Association to launch a nationwide boycott of grapes, ultimately delivering the first farmworker union contracts.

The UFW recognized the significance of Itliong and other Filipino American labor leaders in the formation of a union that joined Mexican and Filipino farmworkers.

"Both Larry Itliong and Cesar Chavez knew growers had defeated unions for 100 years by using one race to break the strikes of another. So from the outset of the walkouts, they insisted both Filipino and Latino strikers share the same picket lines and union hall, and eat in the same strike kitchen. The two unions merged in 1966, to form what today is the United Farm Workers of America. Solidarity between the races helped produce the first union contracts with table grape growers in 1970, and was a key factor in establishing the first enduring farm workers union in American history," read the UFW statement.

"Tough and courageous, Larry Itliong joined other Filipino American leaders such as Peter Velasco and Philip Vera Cruz who built the UFW alongside Cesar Chavez and his Latino colleagues such as Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla," the statement concluded.

The historic five-year long Delano Grape Strike ended successfully with farmworkers receiving fair wages, benefits and better working conditions.

In 2014,  the overpass over Route 54, also known as the Filipino American Highway, in the City of San Diego was renamed the "Itliong-Vera Cruz Memorial Bridge.

In 2015 the Alvarado Middle School in Union City, California was officially renamed the Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School, after Itliong and his friend and fellow Filipino American labor leader, Philip Vera Cruz.

Itliong passed away on February 8, 1977 at the age of 63. He was survived by his wife and seven children. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

1965 Grape Strike, launched by Filipino farm workers, is part of US labor history

 

Filipino farmworkers voted to strike against the California grape growers in 1965.

On September 8, 1965, Filipino American farm workers organized as the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) voted to strike against grape growers in Delano, California, to protest years of poor pay and working conditions.

The Delano Grape Strike grew from a long history of labor organizing and protest by Filipino workers in agriculture and canning on the West Coast. Led by Larry Itliong, AWOC asked the more cautious National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), a mostly Latino farm workers union led by Cesar Chavez, to join their strike.

To Delano resident Roger Gadiano, the nondescript Filipino Hall in town is a shrine. “This is our Mecca,” he says. “I guess it’s our Selma," referring to Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, when some 600 civil rights marchers headed attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.

This decision by the Filipinos was a big risk for Delano’s grape workers. Many lived in company housing and could be evicted with little or no notice, and, indeed, many eventually were forced to leave their homes as a consequence of striking. There was also a risk that the growers might draw from the large population of Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers to replace the striking Filipino crews. Such tactics had long been an effective check on union power.

In August 1966, the two organizations merged to form the United Farm Workers (UFW), a union committed to nonviolent protest that sought to organize migrant farm laborers to improve their wages, education, housing, and legal protections.

The protest that began in the fields in Delano grew into a broader boycott that asked for help from consumers in urban areas. Filipino Americans living in the cities and suburbs supported the farm workers by bringing them groceries by the carload, lobbied their lawmakers and boycotted table grapes and wine.

By 1970, the UFW grape boycott was a success. Table grape growers signed their first union contracts, granting workers better pay, benefits, and protections.

In the decades that followed, the UFW continued to use nonviolent strikes, boycotts, marches, and fasts to help farm workers stand up for their rights and gather support from ordinary Americans to aid them in their efforts.

What began as a labor dispute in the fields of Delano blossomed into a civil rights struggle, a movement for achieving justice for farmworkers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.

New national park proposed to honor Cesar Chavez, Filipino labor leaders and the UFW

The Cesar Chavez National Monument in La Paz, CA would become part of the proposed
national park honoring the agricultural workers movement.

A bill was introduced to Congress to create a new national historical park to mark the life of Cesar E. Chavez and the wider farmworker movement including the pivotal role of Filipino labor leaders on Thursday, June 9.

The bill submitted by California's Rep Raul Ruiz and Senator Alex Padilla would designate a Cesar Chavez and Farmworker Movement National Historical Park, is the result of more than a decade of work by community advocates, members of Congress, and a wide range of organizations, including the National Parks Conservation Association.

If passed, the bill would expand the existing Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in La Paz, CA. and create a new park with multiple sites in California and Arizona. 

In addition to exploring Cesar Chavez’s life and work, the park will celebrate and share other leaders and aspects of the farmworker movement including Larry Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers who were instrumental to the creation of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. Without Itliong and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee that he represented and made up mostly of Filipinos, there would be no UFW.

(EDITOR'S OPINION INSERTED HERE: Perhaps a more appropriate name for the proposed park would be the "Chavez-Itliong and Farmworker Movement National Historical Park.")

The park would also include “The 40 Acres” in Delano, California, which served as the first headquarters for the UFW and the site of Agbayani Village, a retirement home for farmworkers. It would also include the route of the 300-mile farmworker march to Sacramento in 1966, which generated national attention to their struggle for dignity, better working conditions, and fair wages.

The legislation follows recommendations finalized by the National Park Service in 2012 from its multi-year study of the life of Cesar Chavez and the history of the farmworker movement in California and the West.

“It is crucial that our national parks represent the diversity of America and respect the rich heritage of its people. Establishing this National Park would help fulfill this vision,” said Dr. Michelle Magalong, President of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation. 

“Establishing such a park is an opportunity to spread the legacy and vision of Chavez and other leaders in the farm labor movement to audiences around the country. We support honoring the legacy of many leaders of the farm labor movement and support legislation by Senator Padilla and Representative Ruiz to establish the Cesar E. Chavez and the Farmworker Movement National Historical Park,” said Magalong.

Larry Itliong, right, and Cesar Chavez, left, were co-leaders of the UFW.

NPCA has been involved in multiple aspects of the effort for more than a decade, including calling for and celebrating the establishment of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, supporting the Park Service in its multi-year study, facilitating conversations with key stakeholders and partners, and assisting the legislative offices now championing this effort in Congress.

“Only 8% of historic, cultural, and public land designations are based on Latino, Black, Indigenous and other communities of color histories and this offers an opportunity to expand our nation’s narrative to be inclusive of the histories and contributions of Latino communities in the United States.” said Shanna Edberg, Director of Conservation Programs for Hispanic Access Foundation. 

“Ten years after President Obama established the César E. Chávez National Monument, we call on Congress to build upon that foundation through a National Historical Park that will preserve the broader history of the Farmworker Movement – a movement that united heroic women and men who were seeking fairness and equality,” said Sehila Mota Casper, Executive Director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation. 

“We also recognize that the National Park Service must continue to improve upon its efforts to be America’s storyteller and thereby attract, educate, and serve America’s increasingly diverse population," Mota continued. "The César E. Chávez and the Farmworker Movement National Historical Park would interpret an important chapter in our nation’s history, celebrate our nation’s growing diversity, and strengthen the unity we must share today if we are to overcome the challenges of tomorrow.”

The NPCA played a similar role in the establishing the newest national park, the Amache National Historic Site in Colorado where thousands of Japanese Americans were unconstitutionally incarcerated during WWII. It gained national park status in March of this year.

“The new park will highlight Cesar Chavez’s life and work, as well as celebrate and share other leaders and aspects of the farmworker movement including Larry Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers, who were instrumental to the creation of the United Farm Workers," said Sally Garcia, Los Angeles Outreach Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).  

"It will play an important role in our political and social discourse in immigration, civil and labor rights, and issues relevant to the Latinx community,” 

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