Governor Newsom Proclaims Larry Itliong Day 2022
PROCLAMATION
Today we celebrate the trailblazing Filipino-American labor leader, civil rights champion and California Hall of Fame Inductee Larry Itliong. Born on this day in 1913 in a province of the Philippines, Larry Itliong immigrated to the United States as a youth in 1929, where he would go on to shape the watershed farm labor movement.
While working in the fisheries and canneries of Alaska, Itliong helped found the Alaska Cannery Workers Union, fighting for better working conditions. After serving in World War II, Itliong settled in Stockton, where he continued his organizing efforts. He helped launch the asparagus strike of 1948 – the first major agricultural strike after World War II – and in 1956, Itliong founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in Stockton. Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz and other leaders also helped create the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.
In 1965, Itliong fought alongside grape workers in the Coachella Valley for increased pay. After that victory, the Manongs – respected elder workers in the Filipino-American community – voted in 1965 to organize against exploitative grape growers in Delano. Shortly after, the Manongs joined forces with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the National Farmworkers Association, beginning a nationwide boycott of grapes that led to the first farmworker union contracts.
Recognizing his incredible impact on our state and advocacy for those without a voice, I had the honor of inducting Mr. Itliong into the California Hall of Fame during Filipino-American Heritage Month last year. Today, on the 109th anniversary of his birth, we honor the great contributions of Larry Itliong and the Manongs whose hard-fought battles helped advance farmworkers’ rights and social justice. Let us remember their message of “Isang Bagsak!” – we are all connected together in our fight for justice, and we rise and fall together.
NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim October 25, 2022, as “Larry Itliong Day.”IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 25th day of October 2022.
GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California
ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State
