Larry Itliong

Remember that this class will work as a collective. This means that we will show care for everyone, help one another learn, help one another understand, work together, talk together, share our ideas, and work to trust one another.

As a whole class, review your shared values. Use these during your discussions.

A. Warm up

Think about the questions below. Talk about your ideas with your classmate(s).

1. Have you ever picked fruits and vegetables? If yes, how did it feel? What was it like?
2. Where is the Philippines? What do you know about Filipino culture?
3. Where is Mexico? What do you know about Mexican culture?
4. Where is California, USA? What do you know about California?
5. Do you know who César Chavez was? Do you know who Larry Itliong was?

B. Vocabulary Preview

In this section, you will preview the vocabulary from the reading. You can check your answers to Exercises 2-3 afterward by visiting: Answer Keys by Chapter.

Exercise 1:

These are the words that you will learn in this chapter. How many words do you already know?

Exercise 2:

Choose the best word or phrase to match each definition. Use a dictionary to help!

1. to stop working as a protest (verb)
   1. Strike
   2. Hardship
   3. Establish
2. to not buy something as a protest (verb)
   1. Establish
   2. Boycott
   3. Union
3. an organization of workers that protects worker rights (noun)
   1. Pesticide
   2. Establish
   3. Union
4. a chemical that kills insects and small animals to protect farms (noun)
   1. Agricultural Worker
   2. Divide
   3. Pesticide
5. something that makes life very difficult (noun)
   1. Hardship
   2. Divide
   3. Boycott
6. to start an organization or a company (verb)
   1. Agricultural Worker
   2. Boycott
   3. Establish
7. medical insurance that your employer pays for (noun phrase)
   1. Agricultural Worker
   2. Working Conditions
   3. Healthcare Benefits
8. the safety, demands, and environment that you work in (noun phrase)
   1. Healthcare Benefits
   2. Working Conditions
   3. Agricultural Workers
9. farm workers; they pick fruits and vegetables for pay (noun)
   1. Hardships
   2. Pesticides
   3. Agricultural Workers

Exercise 3:

Choose the best word or phrase to complete each sentence. Please note: screen readers will read the blank spots as “underscore.”

1. The construction workers will _. They are protesting unfair pay.
   1. hardship
   2. strike
   3. divide
2. Rosa Parks was an activist during the Montgomery Bus _.
   1. Boycotts
   2. Agricultural Workers
   3. Health Care Benefits
3. You should always wash your fruit before you eat it. Fruits may have _ on them.
   1. unions
   2. hardships
   3. pesticides
4. Students with _ may not be able to pay for school. Our college offers some scholarships for them.
   1. pesticides
   2. hardships
   3. healthcare benefits
5. My sister works at a terrible grocery store. The _ are not good and there are no_.
   1. working conditions, healthcare benefits
   2. pesticides, boycotts
   3. working conditions, hardships
6. The United Farm Workers _ was _ in 1962.
   1. pesticide, divided
   2. union, boycotted
   3. union, established
7. Working as _ is a difficult job. You work outside for many hours in hot weather.
   1. a union
   2. an agricultural worker
   3. a boycott

C. Prepare to read

Get comfortable in your seat. Pay attention to your body and your place (i.e., your environment and the position of your body). Take three slow breaths. Now you are ready to read.

D. Read all about it!

Larry Itliong

Picking fruits and vegetables is a difficult job. Agricultural workers have to bend, reach, and lift all day long. The weather outside can be extreme—very hot or very cold. Workers can get sick or injured easily. In Delano, California, USA, in the 1960s, there were many agricultural workers from the Philippines and Mexico. They needed better pay and better working conditions.

Larry Itliong was a Filipino American leader. He only finished the sixth grade in Pangasinan in the Philippines. But he spoke thirteen languages such as Pangasinense, English, Japanese, Cantonese, and Spanish (History.com Editors). He moved to the United States because he wanted to become a lawyer, but instead he worked on farms. He had a tough personality, and he smoked cigars. Itliong inspired agricultural workers in Delano to join unions. Together, they asked for more pay. Unfortunately, the farm owners said no again and again.

In September 1965, Itliong led a union called the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). Most of the members were from the Philippines. They decided to strike. They stopped picking grapes, and they asked again for workers’ rights. But the farm owners hired Mexican workers instead.

Itliong realized that the grape strike needed the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Most of the workers in that union were from Mexico. Itliong went to the NFWA and asked them to join the grape strike. The leader of the NFWA, César Chavez, asked his union members to vote. They decided to join the grape strike! Then the AWOC and the NFWA united and became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). In this way, the farm owners could not divide the Filipino workers and the Mexican workers again.

For many years, the agricultural workers striked. “To go on strike, you suffer a lot of hardship. Maybe you get hungry. Maybe you gonna lose your car. Maybe you gonna lose your house,” explained Larry Itliong in an interview (“Filipino”). Most of the agricultural workers lived on the farm owners’ land. The farm owners even turned off the water and sent people to beat up the strikers. In 1967, the UFW union asked people everywhere, all over the world, to stop buying grapes from Delano. News of the grape strike spread to television and radio stations, magazines, and newspapers worldwide. After a long time and a lot of hardship, the strike and the boycott finally worked. In 1970, the farm owners agreed to give the workers more pay, healthcare benefits, and protection from pesticides (Janos).

Larry Itliong led a long and difficult grape strike that united immigrant farm workers, got the attention of the world, and established farm workers’ rights in the United States.

E. Grounding

• Notice your feelings about the reading.
• Which parts gave you those feelings?
• Why?
• Now let go.
• You can take three deep breaths, stretch, or count down from ten.

You can choose to talk about your reactions or not. Maybe you want to think or write quietly, or maybe you want to talk. Our reactions teach us about our beliefs and experiences.

F. Discussion

Read the questions below, then look at the reading again. Talk about the questions with your classmate(s). Where did you find the answers? Show (quote) the answers from the reading if possible.

1. What did the farm workers ask for in the beginning? What did they get in the end?
2. Why did Itliong go to the NFWA?
3. What hardships did the farm workers experience during the strike?
4. What strategies did the farm workers use to protest?
5. How many years did the strike last?

G. Topics for Writing

1. The reading states an overall main idea. (An overall main idea is also called a “thesis statement.”) In the reading, what statement gives the overall main idea? Where is it? Write another overall main idea in different words. You can use different words and sentence structures to say the same thing in a different way.
2. In the reading, the workers fought for and got healthcare benefits. What are more examples of benefits? Which companies or career fields are famous for having great benefits? Which are famous for having terrible benefits?
3. Do you know your rights as a student at your school? And/Or, do you know your rights as an employee at your job? Which rights do you know about, and which rights do you want to know more about?
4. Itliong helped to organize different groups of workers. He showed that if they worked together, they could reach their goals. Write about a time when you worked together with someone or with a different group to reach your goals. How did you work together? What did you gain? What did you learn?
5. Itliong fought for the rights of farm workers. Choose one change that your community needs (for example, with housing or education, etc.). Why do you think it is important? How can you and your community create this change? What steps would you need to take?

H. Project!

Option 1:

Think about the products that you buy. What do you know about the companies and farms that make those products?

1. Brainstorm a list of brands and companies. Find out more about the companies and products. How do they treat their workers? For example, do their workers get healthcare benefits? What materials do they use for the products that you buy? For example, do they use plastics or harmful pesticides?
2. Talk about what you learned, with a partner or in a small group. Can you choose something to boycott?

Option 2:

Research more about César Chavez. Find information in English or in another language. You can read a website, an article, or an infographic, or listen to a video, an interview, or a podcast.

1. Choose one text–that is, one website, article, infographic, video, interview, or podcast.
2. Summarize that text–that is, say the main idea and key details.
3. How is that text similar to the reading about Larry Itliong? Do the creators make similar points? Do they have similar opinions or feelings about the Delano Grape Strike?
4. How is that text different from the reading about Larry Itliong? Do the creators make different points? Do they have different opinions or feelings about the Delano Grape Strike?

Option 3:

Choose a country or area to research labor laws. Do an internet search to find information about the questions below. Find information in English or in another language. Share your notes with a partner or in a small group.

1. How many hours are in a work day?
2. How many times can workers take a break? How long are breaks?
3. Do workers get time and money to take care of their babies? Is this different for men, women, and non-binary people?
4. Do employers protect workers? How?
5. Is there a minimum wage? Do workers get more money for working more hours?
6. Do injured workers get time and money?

I. More Information

• AJ Rafael (Song): “Our Friend, Larry Itliong” Official Music Video by AJ Rafael (6:32) This video shows the singer with a guitar, standing at the Filipino Community Cultural Center of Delano and walking through grape fields. Also, actors act out the story. At the beginning, a child in school opens a book about Larry Itliong, and at the end the child closes the book.
• Smithsonian Folklife (Oral History): Filipinos in the UFW Movement: Agustín Lira & Patricia Wells Solórzano on Larry Itliong (5:50) This video shows images of Filipino and Mexican farm workers working and taking breaks in fields, musicians and actors on stage, the Filipino Community Cultural Center of Delano, union workers at meetings, and Larry Itliong. It shows the quote “It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life Cesar Estrada Chavez” and union workers posing in a large group. It shows a newspaper photo of Larry Itliong smiling as he walks past police officers and César Chavez on stage with microphones.