Chavez abuse claims prompt reflection on the history of Filipino farmworkers in the US

Filipino and Mexican American farmworkers united in 1965 to strike against California grape growers, under the stewardship of Filipino labor leader Larry Itliong and one of the founders of the National Farm Workers Association, César Chavez. It was a pivotal moment that has been highlighted in books, monuments and even a stage musical.

In the wake of recent allegations that Chavez sexually abused young women and girls in the labor rights movement, Filipino Americans — including descendants of the striking workers — are navigating how to celebrate this historic chapter moving forward.

Filipino groups have canceled plans to march on César Chavez Day, and advocates want to rename the March 31 celebration to focus on Filipino and Chicano farmworkers, particularly women, while acknowledging the survivors of Chavez's abuse.

“We really need to kind of center this trauma of women and sexual abuse,” said Dillon Delvo, executive director of Little Manila Rising, a longtime Filipino community hub in Stockton, California. “It’s definitely what the discussion needs to be.”

How Filipino immigrants came to work on US farms

When the U.S. exerted colonial rule over the Philippines from 1898 to 1946, many Filipinos studied English and were authorized to immigrate to America. From the 1920s to the ‘60s, tens of thousands of Filipinos joined the U.S. agricultural workforce, working on farms and in factories and canneries, primarily in the West. The first wave of men — who arrived from the Philippines' Ilocano-speaking region — were known as “manong,” an affectionate term for older brother.

Many Filipino farmworkers suffered discrimination in the form of inferior wages, shabby housing and poor working conditions, just so they could earn money to send home. They also weathered loneliness since few Filipino women immigrated and anti-miscegenation laws prohibited marrying outside their race.

By the 1960s, Filipino farmworkers had formed the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to plan labor strikes.

“It came out of necessity and desperation to protect themselves, to try to live in dignity,” said Dennis Arguelles, Southern California director for the National Parks Conservation Association. The region Arguelles, who is Filipino, monitors includes monuments to Filipino farmworkers and Chavez.

Filipino organizers take strike initiative

Itliong and fellow organizer Philip Vera Cruz led the Committee to vote on Sept. 8, 1965, to strike against grape growers in Delano, California. They demanded to be paid at least the federal minimum wage. Itliong, the more “fiery union leader,” called Chavez who — along with Dolores Huerta — headed the then-named National Farm Workers Association.

“Chavez was hesitant to strike,” Arguelles said. “You didn’t feel like the National Farm Workers Association was ready to take on these powerful agribusiness interests. These business structures were very effective in pitting different ethnicities against each other to break strikes.”

A week later, they officially joined forces as the United Farm Workers. The Delano grape strike lasted five years and rocked the industry, ending in collective bargaining agreements for thousands of laborers.

The popular narrative around Itliong's leadership has almost always been attached to Chavez, as they appear together in textbooks, historical exhibits and murals around California.

The allegations against Chavez have sparked warnings against elevating — even deifying — historical figures.

“There always seems to be a need to be like a main character,” Delvo said. “But the problem is that is not what a union is about.”

It's also revived debate about Chavez overshadowing others in the labor movement.

“Maybe this is our opportunity to tell a more accurate and comprehensive narrative of what took place, Arguelles said “I see that as being a positive thing.”

Last week, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors at a public meeting took steps to rename César Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day. Some suggested moving the holiday, which is Tuesday, to Sept. 8 to honor striking Filipino workers. Itliong's 60-year-old son, Johnny, said Chavez had tried to “erase the history" of how the Delano strike began.

“I’ve spent my whole life speaking up for my father and his generation of men and women who fed America,” Itliong said at the meeting.

Focus on the women

“Larry the Musical: An American Journey,” a musical about the Filipino farmworkers movement, refers to Chavez only once, in a scene when Itliong calls him. The producers also made sure the story included the women in Itliong's life. Recent events have reaffirmed the importance of that creative decision.

“From the beginning, we have always centered this musical on the women of the community as those who keep Larry and the community accountable, and the ones who pass on knowledge to the next generation,” co-producers Gayle Romasanta and Bryan Pangilinan said in a statement.

Vernadette Gonzalez, an ethnic studies professor at University of California, Berkeley, said educators should seize the chance to herald the unsung heroes of the Filipino farmworkers movement. For example, Hispanic female members of the United Farm Workers were busy raising their families and preparing food for meetings.

“Nobody's crediting them in the minutes of the meeting,” Gonzalez said. “Who's missing from the story? In the United Farmworkers movement, folks will say ‘It’s Larry Itliong and the Filipino farmworkers.' But I would also say ‘Where are the women?’”