Meet the Filipino American Civil Rights Icon Who Was Forgotten By History
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Larry Itliong dreamed of becoming a lawyer when he immigrated to the United States as a teen in 1929.However, the circumstances of being a Filipino American worker at the time would eventually lead him to a higher calling.
Itliong started young in leading the fight for migrants’ labor rights during a tumultuous period in America, according to the Smithsonian. While a growing number of people recognize him now as a key figure of the Asian American movement, many are still unfamiliar with his story.
He had a dream
Delores Huerta in front of a painting of Cesar Chavez at United Farm Workers (UFW) headquarters in Keene, California. Annie Wells/Getty Images
More than 50 years ago, a determined young woman stepped up and created the iconic slogan
¡Sí, se puede! ( Yes, we can! ) that would lift up the voices of the voiceless and change the state of labor in the United States forever. That woman, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, would go on to co-found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Cesar Chavez.
The NFWA later became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) and, as vice president of that organization until 1999, Huerta helped launch the first farmworkers strike in the country, which kickstarted the fight for union rights and labor organizing in the agricultural sector in the U.S. and changed the lives of farmworkers forever.
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Updated: 7:40 AM EDT May 17, 2021 Holly Yan, CNN Video above: The Fred Korematsu Story: The man who defied internment camps for Japanese AmericansImagine getting through this pandemic without Zoom. Or not having any days off work, toiling seven days a week with no overtime pay.Asian Americans have improved the lives of fellow Americans in countless ways. But some of the biggest contributions don t end up in history books.Here s how five Asian Americans of different ethnicities helped shape America:Larry Itliong bolstered farm workers rights and working conditionsAfter losing three fingers working at an Alaska cannery, Larry Itliong spent decades fighting for better pay and treatment for agricultural workers.His work as a pioneering union leader helped generations of farm workers to come. Yet many Americans don t know his name. Itliong became the great Filipino American historical omission, reads a blog post for the Asian American Legal Defense Education Fund. Whi
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