How the Delano Grape Strike of 1965 Began

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: Delano was the Wild West, a small town divided by the train tracks and Highway 99, the farm workers on one side and the powerful growers on the other.

[CHATTER]

SPEAKER 2: Delano had a different dynamic than the other places. There was a lot of local Filipinos working with a lot of the local Mexicans, and a lot of these people knew each other.

SPEAKER 3 The Filipino community was pretty good size, and they called it Chinatown. Why I have no idea why they call it Chinatown instead of Filipino Town, but, yeah, halls and poker places and other things. [CHUCKLING]

SPEAKER 1: Though Mexicans and Filipinos socialized in town, in the fields, it was a different story.

DOLORES HUERTA: Well, in Delano, the growers would keep the crews separate, and they worked in the same fields but not integrated. You had the Filipino crews over here, and you had the Mexican crews.

SPEAKER 1: The unions were also divided along ethnic lines. Mexican workers were led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Larry Itliong organized the Filipinos.

PETE VELASCO: Larry Itliong came to my camp. He told me that he is organizing Filipinos to go on strike because we needed to have better wages.

LARRY ITLIONG: For the first three months that I worked for the union, all I did was talk, talk, talk, talk.

SPEAKER 5: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

LARRY ITLIONG: Got home, I got home about 11:00, 12:00, 1:00. But let me tell you, my mouth was sore.

SPEAKER 6: After listening to Larry during those meetings, the more I got upset about the situation.

LARRY ITLIONG: I felt that they are not being treated fairly by their employers, so they took a strike vote. They took a strike vote, and when we asked for them to raise up their hands for those that would volunteer to picket, only one raised his hand to picket. So we asked them why.

Well, they said we don't want to picket our boss. We've been working for him for 10, 15, 30 years. We don't want him to get mad at us.

So I said, well, forget about the strike. You go back and work.

BRUNO DISPOTO: How long have you been working here now?

SPEAKER 7: 25-- 20 years.

BRUNO DISPOTO: How many years?

SPEAKER 7: I think maybe almost 30 years now.

BRUNO DISPOTO: Almost 20 years. How many years you've been over here now?

SPEAKER 8: 1939 when I came here.

BRUNO DISPOTO: 1939. Well, let's see. What-- you worked up in the northwest, where, in Alaska?

SPEAKER 8: Alaska.

BRUNO DISPOTO: Yeah. Working on tuna. Then he goes up on asparagus and then comes back down here. It's all right. No Mariano's been around a long time and another faithful worker.

That's not a gun. Don't worry.

SPEAKER 10: Do you think your employers have been fair with you?

SPEAKER 11: Well, in my behalf, yes. But in general, it's not so good.

SPEAKER 10: Do you own any property?

SPEAKER 11: Just a car. Just a car.

SPEAKER 12: Everybody was getting so mad because it came out that the growers were disregarding our demands.

LARRY ITLIONG: A couple of days later, they come back again. They wanted to have another meeting. And, well, we meet again.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: September 7, 1965, in their twilight years and with everything to lose, Larry and the Manongs poured into the Filipino community hall, ready to put what little they had on the line.

SPEAKER 12: They decided unanimously, Yeah. We will strike. And then he said tomorrow morning be here at 3:00.

SPEAKER 1: The next morning, the Manongs met out in the grape fields, pretending that it was a normal workday.

SPEAKER 13: We picked the ripe grapes and trim it and then move on to the next vine and do the same thing. At noon hour, there are a lot of picked grapes under the vines. That is when about 1,500 Filipinos went on strike against the grape growers in Delano.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LARRY ITLIONG: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

SPEAKER 1: As they would over the next several years, the growers used intimidation and violence to crush the strikers.

DOLORES HUERTA: They turned off the lights and the labor camps. They turned off the gas. He turned off the water so the workers wouldn't be able to even cook for themselves. Some of them were beaten up. There was so much violence.

SPEAKER 14: The first time I saw one of the workers getting beat up, I was probably about five years old. So and being afraid, seeing the police come and harass some of the farm workers and at a young age saw the distinct line between white and brown.

CU ROBERTS: You're asking me to answer off the cuff now. I don't care to do this.

SPEAKER 15: Let me ask you this. What do you think of the idea of a union for farm workers?

CU ROBERTS: I think it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER 2: The growers like to play off the races or the ethnic groups. You can always break a strike. If the Mexicans are striking, you calling the Filipinos pay them a nickel more. Of course, when the Filipinos go on strike, then the Mexicans are going to cross over and they're going to scab our strike. And they're going to make the money. So no one ever really wins.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 12: I think September 13th was the Mexicans were crossing the picket line. So we thought, well, how are we going to stop these guys.

[CHATTER]

LARRY ITLIONG: We are your brothers and sisters over here. Come on! Come on out!

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: After a week of violence from the growers and Mexican workers crossing the picket line, the Filipinos were losing the strike.

LARRY ITLIONG: We talk to them in English. They don't speak English. We don't talk Spanish, so we have a hell of a time trying to communicate with them. And so that's when I started thinking that maybe I'll go see Cesar Chavez.

SPEAKER 2: Itliong then goes up to Chavez and says, look, we need your support, and Chavez says, no, I can't give you my support. Itliong says why not. He says-- Chavez says I'm not ready. We'll wait two or three more years.

But then you got to remember, the Filipinos were getting old, and for them, for every penny, for every quarter, for every dollar, for every lug that they got paid extra, that went into the retirement fund. And Itliong says, no, we go on strike now, and you join us. Or when you go out and strike, we're going to break your strike.

SPEAKER 1: After years of the Mexicans and Filipinos being pitted against each other in the fields, Larry was pushing for an immediate, unified strike.

DOLORES HUERTA: It was just a very scary moment. But we met a week later on September the 16th, and then we took our strike vote.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 2: And the place was crowded. They're speaking mostly Spanish, and then somebody would translate to English for the rest of us, pros and cons, why they should support the Filipinos or not support the Filipinos. So I just went outside. I was with some other guys just tossing pennies and everything else, and there was a bunch of other Mexican kids.

And every once in a while, we'd hear some clapping, and everything else. And then all of a sudden, I heard this sigh, sí se puede. And then I heard vamos [SPANISH]. Let's go on strike.

[CHANTING]

SPEAKER 12: And I was there in the Filipino hall, and all of a sudden, I saw the Mexicans coming in joining us for breakfast. For the first time, the Filipinos and the Mexicans were together fighting for the same cause.

DOLORES HUERTA: That Filipino hall became like the center of our working together and eating together and getting to know each other was really, really beautiful.

Come on, our brothers, we are waiting for you.

SPEAKER 15: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

SPEAKER 3 We were all brothers and sisters in one organization. There wasn't, well, you're the Filipinos and you're the Mexicans. We were all one brotherhood.

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]