Larry Itliong was a Filipino-American activist who lead the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a group mostly comprised of Filipino workers who sought to represent and organize their community. Formed in 1959, the AWOC is notable for its role in beginning the Delano Grape Strike after grape growers in California's Coachella Valley attempted to pay local workers less than they originally agreed. Under Itliong’s leadership, an initial strike involving Filipino workers on eight separate farms took place. In order to strengthen the movement, Itliong called upon Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association to join them. Together the two groups traveled to different farms to picket and later successfully organized a wide-scale grape boycott. The AWOC eventually merged with the NFWA to join the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC).
From his history with revolutionary work in the Philippines to his work in California, Itliong and those he worked with did not merely fight for better working conditions or higher pay. In response to the discrimination and racial violence the Filipino community faced at the time, the AWOC and its leaders were fighting “for their own dignity to be recognized as human beings, as persons,” in their own words. Though it has been decades since his passing, Itliong’s name has yet to be as recognized or associated with the California labor movement by the populous. However, for those who have learned about him, his name is synonymous with the many achievements and victories enjoyed by agricultural workers today.
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