COINCIDING with the 50th anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, a celebration of Filipino American History Month at Los Angeles City Hall on Friday, Oct. 23, included the honoring of Johnny Itliong, the son of Filipino labor leader Larry Itliong.
In an emotional address inside the City Hall Council Chamber, Itliong, who is fighting to include the role of his father and Filipino farm workers in the American labor movement in American history books, said his father deserves more than to be ignored for 50 years.
“Fifty years after he started the first civil rights and labor agricultural fight for justice. It’s been too long and I will continue to fight … for those who are in the fields, who are still struggling, who live poor. Thank you very much for doing this, for giving this to me,” he said.
A proclamation declaring October as Filipino American History Month was also issued, and two other honorees were recognized at City Hall: director and author Marissa Aroy, who directed a 30-minute documentary called “Delano Manongs,” and the Basco family.
At a lunch reception hosted by the Los Angeles Filipino Association of City Employees, Aroy, whose grandfather was a Delano farmworker, shared stories he told her about having card games in the basement and how the workers held cockfights on the farms. Such revelations about that history are important, she said.
“And it really just started with me seeing that my grandfather was getting older and asking questions and then starting to realize the importance of it. So I think all of this really begins with us just asking our own family members about their lives, about their past, about coming here and immigrating,” Aroy said.
“[Just] realizing how important all those stories are is probably where I started doing … the documentaries and realizing that our story is just as important.”
The Basco family, including Fil-Am actor Dante Basco whose credits include “Hook” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” was recognized for its contribution and strides in the entertainment industry.
“Just want to thank everyone for being honored. Our work as a family over the last three years in Los Angeles has just helped widen the scope of the vision of what it is to Filipino American and we’re just proud to [get] this award.” Basco said.
Also present at the celebration was Fil-Am Board of Public Works commissioner and former executive director of non-profit organization Search to Involve Pilipino Americans Joel Jacinto, who spoke about what it is to live as a Filipino-American in the United States.
“[It’s] clear to me that we have to live in a state of ‘mabuhayness,’ of giving each other that life, that energy, that sense of kapwa, where we recognize ourselves in the other human being,” said Jacinto, who is among only a handful of Asian Americans who have served in his current position. “And this is something that I’m trying to bring to City Hall, to bring ‘mabuhay’ and ‘aloha’ to City Hall. So the opportunity to serve as a commissioner for the Board of Public Works is pretty historic and I represent you all. I represent us.”
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, whose district includes Historic Filipinotown, Councilman Jose Huizar and Philippine Consul General Leo Herrera were also among individuals who participated in Friday’s celebration.
