"Filipino labor organizers like Itliong played a pivotal, and too often overlooked, role in California's labor history. Honoring his legacy is long overdue. But the proposed location - the Paseo de San Antonio - is already home to a dedicated public art monument honoring another pioneering farmworker labor leader: Ernesto Galarza (1905-1984). To rename this walkway would unintentionally displace the memory of a figure whose scholarship and activism helped lay the groundwork for the very labor struggles Larry Itliong would later lead."
"Galarza was among the first to organize farmworkers across racial and gender lines. As 1940s and 1960s director of the National Farm Labor Union (AFL-CIO), he led more than 20 major strikes involving Filipino, Mexican, and white American men and women workers. His early campaigns against corporate "Agri-business" and his groundbreaking critiques of the Bracero Program paved the way for later successful movements and unions led by Itliong, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta."
Larry Itliong's pivotal contributions to California labor history deserve recognition. The Paseo de San Antonio already contains a four-block public art installation, "A Man of Fire" by Kim Yasuda, dedicated Sept. 16, 1998, with eight bilingual plaques honoring Ernesto Galarza's arrival to San Jose, scholarly work, poetry, and farmworker advocacy. The Paseo also honors Saint Anthony of Padua as protector of farmers. Galarza organized farmworkers across racial and gender lines, led more than 20 major strikes as director of the National Farm Labor Union, campaigned against corporate "Agri-business," and critiqued the Bracero Program, paving the way for later leaders.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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