Fil-Am labor rights icon Larry Itliong remembered on Labor Day

Filipino American labor rights icon Larry Itliong / FILE PHOTO

SACRAMENTO – Labor Day is a time to celebrate the contributions of workers and honor the hard-fought history behind workers’ rights in America.

In its “The Men Who Fed America” segment, StoryCorps spotlights the heroism of Filipino American labor rights icon Larry Itliong through the eyes of his son, Johnny.

In a conversation with his son, Aleks, Johnny remembers how his father dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of Filipino American farmworkers in the 1960s. Itliong worked together with labor leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in fighting for farmworkers’ rights during the famous grape strike of 1965.

Johnny Itliong, who grew up in the California grape fields, spent his days as a child helping his father and the men who worked in the fields.

He talks about how his father lost three of his fingers in an accident in an Alaskan cannery, which earned him the nickname, “Seven Fingers.”

“When he was up working in Alaska, he lost three of his fingers. He was small in stature. But, he was a very, very strong man,” he says.

“I remember, I would have to get up at 3:00 in the morning and we would jump in the back of his truck, load it up full of boxes and stack ‘em maybe ten, 12 feet high. I could carry about eight of them stacked up.”

Johnny shares his memories of the picket lines. “At five years old, I remember running around getting the sticks, you know I would bring the sticks to the ones who were nailing the picket signs. I think that was probably like my earliest memory,” he tells his son, Aleks.

“You know my father, stood up for the people who need help. He sacrificed a lot of his family time to make a better world for us. We have big shoes to walk in, man.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has issued the annual Labor Day Report highlighting the empowerment of workers, also honored Larry Itliong and the other labor leaders who inspired him to continue to fight for justice in the workplace.

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