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(Modesto "Larry" Dulay Itliong)
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He was one of six children of Artemio and Francesca Itliong. Larry had only a sixth grade education. 


He immigrated to the United States in 1929 when he was just 15 years old. He was an excellent card player, an avid cigar smoker, who spoke Ilocano, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and 6 other Filipino languages. He was fluent in English, Japanese, Cantonese and Spanish. 



Itliong worked in Alaska where he organized cannery and agricultural unions. While living in Alaska, he helped found the Alaska Cannery Workers Union, which later became Local 7 of the United Cannery and Packing and Allied Workers Union, then Local 7 of the International Longshoreman's and Warehouse Workers Union. He lost three fingers in an accident in an Alaskan cannery, which earned him the nickname, "Seven Fingers."


He also worked as a farmworker in Washington, and up and down California and in Montana and South Dakota.


Some of the labor organizers whom Itliong met in his early days had ties to the Communist Party. Filipinos in California led the way in unionization efforts among farmworkers in the 1930s and 40s. 


Itliong served in the U.S. Army from 1936 to 1943. He later gained U.S. citizenship in 1944 for his service in World War II.


After the war, he settled in the city of Stockton in California's Central Valley. In 1948, Itliong (along with Rudy Delvo, Chris Mensalvas, Philip Vera Cruz, and Ernesto Mangaoang) became involved in the 1948 asparagus strike, which was the first major agriculture strike after World War II. 




Itliong served as the first shop steward of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 37, in Seattle, and was elected its vice-president in 1953. He served as secretary of the Filipino Community of Stockton from 1954 to 1956. In 1956, Itliong founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in Stockton. In 1957, he was elected president of the Filipino Voters League in Stockton. By 1965, Itliong was leading the AFL–CIO union Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC); the majority of members of the committee were Filipinos who arrived in the United States in the 1930s.



In May of 1965, Itliong led a successful strike of Filipino farm workers in vineyards of Coachella, California. This victory empowered farm workers throughout California's Central Valley to protest against low wages and miserable working and living conditions. Among their demands were basic necessities such as clean water and toilets. 



A little over three months later, on September 8, 1965, thousands of Filipino American farm workers led by AWOC went on strike in Delano, California, which became known as the "Delano Grape Strike". Itliong then asked the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, to join the Filipino American farm workers on strike. Chavez initially declined, believing that the Mexican American farm workers needed at least two more years to be ready.


Eight days later, on September 16, 1965, the Mexican American farm workers walked out and joined the Filipinos on strike. AWOC and NFWA soon merged to form the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement with Itliong as assistant director. 


The Delano Grape Strike lasted for five years and became one of the most pivotal labor movements in the history of the United States.


Itliong was skeptical of the AWOC-NFWA merger, as he believed that Mexicans would become dominant over the Filipinos when the organizations merged, and that improving work conditions would come at the expense of Filipino farmworkers. In 1966, the California Rural Legal Assistance was founded as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Itliong sitting on the founding board. Itliong served as assistant director of the UFW under Cesar Chavez, and in 1970 he was appointed the UFW's national boycott coordinator. In 1971, Itliong resigned from the UFW because of disagreements about the governance of the union. Itliong also felt that the union was not willing to support aging Filipinos.

Larry Itliong: Fil-Am Agricultural Labor Organizer

Today in Philippine history, October 25, 1913, Larry Itliong, a Filipino-American agricultural labor organizer in California was born in San Nicolas, Pangasinan

October 25, 1913: Larry Itliong, a Filipino-American agricultural labor organizer in California was born in San Nicolas, Pangasinan