IN THE MIX BY MIC DIAZ: CHAT WITH MIC
For Johnny Itliong, preserving history is deeply personal. As the son of Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong, Johnny grew up in Delano, California, surrounded by the Filipino farmworkers known as the Manongs—men whose sacrifices helped change the course of American labor history.
During my Chat With Mic conversation with Johnny, he shared memories of growing up in a Filipino-Mexican household and witnessing firsthand the lives of the farmworkers his father fought to protect. Many of the Manongs had come to the United States as young men, working difficult jobs while building communities far from their families in the Philippines.
Larry Itliong emerged as one of their most important labor leaders. On September 8, 1965, Filipino farmworkers with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee walked off the grape fields in Delano, demanding better wages and working conditions. Led by Itliong and other Filipino labor leaders, they later asked César Chávez and the largely Mexican American National Farm Workers Association to join them. The two groups eventually united in a historic multiracial labor movement.
For Johnny, however, this history is more than dates and events. These were the people who surrounded him as a child. He remembers the Manongs looking after him and his siblings and becoming part of their extended family. He also remembers his father sacrificing time with his own family because of his commitment to improving the lives of farmworkers.
Our conversation also made me reflect on my own childhood in the Philippines. I remember hearing my parents talk about how scarce and expensive grapes had become. Grapes were considered a luxury and were often brought home as pasalubong by relatives returning from the United States. Only years later did I understand how the grape boycott connected families thousands of miles away to a labor struggle taking place in California.
Johnny has made it part of his life’s work to ensure that his father’s contributions—and those of the Manongs—are not forgotten. He continues to speak publicly about their role in the farm labor movement and why Filipino Americans deserve to see themselves represented accurately in American history. As he has emphasized, this is not only Filipino history; it is American history.
My conversation with Johnny was a reminder that history does not live only in textbooks. It survives through the people willing to carry its stories forward. Through Johnny Itliong, the sacrifices of Larry Itliong and the Manongs continue to be remembered—and passed on to another generation.