"Itliong was born in the Philippines and came to the U.S. in 1929 at the age of 15. He started working as a farm laborer and began participating in and organizing strikes. The firebrand was later tapped to lead the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, a union made of primarily Filipino members formed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or the AFL-CIO."
"His most pivotal organizing efforts came in 1965 when he led more than 1,500 Filipino farmworkers to strike against grape growers in what was known as the Delano Grape Strike in Delano, a city 30 miles north of Bakersfield. The strike lasted five years and resulted in workers receiving collective bargaining contracts that protected them from getting sprayed by pesticides, provided health benefits and increased pay."
""That's when I thought, 'Wow, that would be really cool if we have a street named after Larry Itliong too,'" Barry told San José Spotlight."
A group of San Jose Filipino residents is pushing to rename the downtown pedestrian Paseo de San Antonio after labor leader Larry Itliong and aims to raise $50,000 for the effort, with $7,000 collected so far. Tiffany Unarce Barry, founder of The Larry Itliong Way Project, is leading the campaign and drew inspiration from a 2021 renaming of a portion of Bird Avenue after former President Barack Obama. Itliong immigrated from the Philippines in 1929 at age 15, worked as a farm laborer, organized strikes and led the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. He led over 1,500 Filipino farmworkers in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike, secured collective bargaining contracts with workplace protections and reached out to Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, leading to a 1967 merger that formed the United Farm Workers.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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