Raising a Cup to Larry Itliong Way

"I was first schooled on Itliong ten years ago, at what was then called the J-Town Film Fest, while watching a 30-minute documentary, Delano Manongs. Itliong and a group of Filipino farm workers instigated the legendary Delano Grape Strike of 1965, an event that essentially led to the creation of the United Farm Workers (UFW). The strike went down in history as a Chicano movement under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, but the role Filipinos played in the adventure often gets forgotten."

"Now Larry Itliong will hopefully get his own street. Paseo de San Antonio is a central pedestrian corridor that connects San Jose State with Plaza de Cesar Chavez. It used to be an actual street, San Antonio, the same San Antonio that continues on the other side of the university, first eastward through the leafy confines of Naglee Park, and then all the way to the East Side."

An effort is underway to rename Paseo de San Antonio in downtown San Jose after Larry Itliong, the Filipino American labor organizer. Itliong and Filipino farm workers instigated the 1965 Delano Grape Strike that helped create the United Farm Workers. Filipino contributions to the strike are often overlooked in favor of Cesar Chavez and the Chicano movement. Itliong assembled about 1,500 Filipino workers to strike against Delano grape growers, triggering long-lasting multiracial labor collaboration. Paseo de San Antonio is a central pedestrian corridor linking San Jose State and Plaza de Cesar Chavez. A project committee including Chavez's son and Itliong's daughter says the renaming recognizes Itliong and San Jose's multiracial identity.

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