Larry Itliong

Larry Dulay Itliong was a Filipino-American labor organizer who rose to national prominence in 1965 when he, and others, demanded equal pay for farm workers.  He has been described as ‘one of the fathers of the West Coast labor movement.’

Larry ItliongWiki MediaItliong was born in San Nicolas in the Philippines on the 25^th October 1913. He was one of six children to Artemio and Francesca Itliong.  He had a very limited education, leaving school after sixth grade but he spoke several languages including Spanish, Cantonese, and Japanese. In 1929, at the age of 14, Itliong emigrated to the Unites States and joined his first strike the following year.

During World War II, Itliong served as a steward’s assistant on a U.S. Army transport ship.  After the war he settled in California's Central Valley where he became involved in the 1948 asparagus strike.  In 1956, he founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union and by 1957 he was elected president of the Filipino Voters’ League. By 1965, Itliong was leading the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee where the majority of members were Filipinos who had arrived in the USA in the 1930s.

Itliong is most famous for organising a strike in 1965 set to elevate the pay of grape workers in California's Coachella Valley.

Itliong died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1977 at the age of 63.

To find out more read ‘JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE: THE LIFE OF LARRY ITLIONG,’ written by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta and illustrated by Andre Sibayan. It tells the story of Itliong's lifelong fight for a farmworkers’ union, and the birth of one of the most significant American social movements of all time.