Filipino Activism Link to Cesar Chavez | Lost LA | KCET

The two big figures in the middle are Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong. They were farmworkers but then became leaders in the farmworker movement, came together with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to form the United Farm Workers, but they already started organizing strikes for their basic rights to raise wages around issues of actually being able to have access to restrooms, heat protections, things like that on the job, and then when they came together, approached Cesar Chavez and Dolores Hue

rta to join them to actually launch a grape strike in Delano. At that time, they said they weren't ready, but the Filipino manong said, "You know what? This is the time. We're gonna go ahead and do it anyways," so they went out, they struck, they were on a picket line, and then they were getting attacked by the owners, who had hired armed guys to come and attack the picket lines. The Mexican farmworkers saw that, and like, "We can't let our brothers actually go through this," so they then came t

ogether and decided to join the strike. Masters: That's a less visible aspect of that history because most Americans when they learn in history class, they learn about the strike, they learned that's Cesar Chavez, and they don't learn about the Filipino workers who drove that action. Versoza: Yes, that's really true, and that's a big shame because it misses a lot of the lessons of what we learned, like how coming together makes us so much more powerful, so...