New allegations against Cesar Chavez are forcing a long-overdue reckoning with the pivotal yet often overlooked role of Filipino farmworkers in launching the U.S. farm labor movement, sparking moves to rebrand a state holiday and center the stories of women and survivors.
The iconic imagery of the U.S. farmworkers movement has long featured Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. But the true origin story of the historic Delano grape strike begins not with them, but with a Filipino labor leader named Larry Itliong and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee he led.
On September 8, 1965, Itliong and fellow organizer Philip Vera Cruz led a vote for their predominantly Filipino membership to strike against California grape growers in Delano, demanding at least the federal minimum wage. This decisive action, taken by workers who had already endured decades of discrimination and poor conditions, was the spark that ignited a five-year labor war.
Itliong then called Cesar Chavez, who headed the National Farm Workers Association. According to historical accounts, Chavez was initially hesitant, concerned his largely Mexican American union was not ready to confront powerful agribusiness interests that often exploited ethnic divisions. A week later, the two groups formally united as the United Farm Workers, creating a multi-ethnic coalition that would rock the industry.
This foundational history, chronicled in the broader narrative of the movement, is now being urgently revisited. The catalyst is a wave of allegations that Chavez sexually abused young women and girls within the labor rights movement.
For Filipino American communities, including descendants of the striking “manong” generation, this scandal is a profound crisis. It demands a painful navigation of how to celebrate a historic chapter of solidarity while confronting the alleged abuses of its most famous figurehead. Filipino groups have already canceled plans to march on César Chavez Day, and advocates are pushing to rename the March 31 celebration to focus on Filipino and Chicano farmworkers, particularly women, while explicitly acknowledging the survivors of Chavez’s alleged abuse.
“We really need to kind of center this trauma of women and sexual abuse,” said Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising. “It’s definitely what the discussion needs to be.”
The Long Arc of Filipino Farmworker History
To understand the current moment, one must look back to the early 20th century. When the U.S. exerted colonial rule over the Philippines from 1898 to 1946, it created a pipeline. Many Filipinos studied English and were authorized to immigrate. From the 1920s to the 1960s, tens of thousands—primarily men from the Ilocano region—flooded into the U.S. agricultural workforce, becoming the backbone of West Coast farms and canneries.
They arrived as “manong,” an affectionate term for older brother, but faced brutal discrimination: inferior wages, shabby housing, and dangerous conditions. Compounding their isolation, few Filipino women immigrated, and anti-miscegenation laws prohibited interracial marriage, leaving many to endure profound loneliness.
“It came out of necessity and desperation to protect themselves, to try to live in dignity,” said Dennis Arguelles of the National Parks Conservation Association. This desperation fueled organization. By the 1960s, Filipino farmworkers had formed the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, setting the stage for the Delano strike.
A Strike That Changed America
The popular narrative has almost always paired Itliong with Chavez in textbooks, murals, and monuments. But the historical record shows a clear sequence: the Filipino workers walked out first. Chavez’s subsequent decision to join the strike was transformative, merging two unions into the United Farm Workers and creating a powerful, unified front.
The five-year Delano grape strike became a national sensation, famous for its consumer boycotts and Chavez’s fasts. It ended in collective bargaining agreements for thousands, a monumental victory. Yet, as the allegations surface, historians and activists warn against deifying any single leader.
“There always seems to be a need to be like a main character,” Delvo noted. “But the problem is that is not what a union is about.” The scandal has revived debate about Chavez overshadowing other critical figures, from Itliong and Vera Cruz to the countless women who sustained the movement.
“Maybe this is our opportunity to tell a more accurate and comprehensive narrative of what took place,” Arguelles said. “I see that as being a positive thing.”
The Push for a New Holiday and a New Narrative
The concrete impact is already here. Last week, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors took steps to rename César Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day. Some proposed moving the holiday to September 8 to honor the Filipino strikers who initiated the walkout.
Johnny Itliong, Larry Itliong’s 60-year-old son, testified that Chavez had tried to “erase the history” of how the Delano strike began. “I’ve spent my whole life speaking up for my father and his generation of men and women who fed America,” he said at the meeting.
Centering the Women: The Movement’s Unsung Backbone
The reexamination is not just about swapping one male leader for another. It’s a profound shift toward acknowledging the women who powered the movement from behind the scenes. The new musical “Larry the Musical: An American Journey” deliberately centers the women in Itliong’s life who kept him accountable and passed on knowledge. Its producers stated this was intentional from the start.
Ethnic studies professor Vernadette Gonzalez at UC Berkeley sees a critical teaching moment. She asks educators to ask, “Who’s missing from the story?” While the United Farm Workers is often framed as “Larry Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers,” she insists we must also ask, “Where are the women?” Hispanic female members, for instance, were busy raising families and preparing food for meetings—labor rarely credited in official minutes.
The current crisis, therefore, is more than a historical correction. It is a forced maturation of the American labor narrative, moving from a simplified hero’s journey to a complex, truthful account of solidarity, sacrifice, and the imperative to hold power accountable—even in the service of a righteous cause.
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