“I’m Asian?!” my son exclaimed.
He was 7, and we had arrived at a summer time camp on the border of San Jose and Milpitas. “You didn’t know?!” I responded incredulously. As a Filipino dad or mum of biracial youngsters, I’ve typically questioned about this interplay with my now teenage son. I remorse my response, scolding him for not understanding. The identical factor occurred to me just a few years in the past once I instructed a White colleague that I didn’t find out about Larry Itliong till I used to be 40. “Actually?! Even I knew about him,” he stated judgmentally.
Though I used to be raised in San Jose by Filipino immigrants, I had no information of Larry Itliong, the primary Filipino-American civil rights activist. Itliong performed a major function in forging the United Farm Employees Union (UFW) with Cesar Chavez. He was a powerful advocate for employees’ rights and one of many Delano Manongs, the primary wave of Filipino males to immigrate to the US. They skilled extreme discrimination and racist violence throughout the Watsonville riots. Itliong was the catalyst for the historic Delano Grape Strike. With out him, the American labor motion wouldn’t be what it’s right this moment.
It’s essential to acknowledge this exceptional Filipino American whom many nonetheless have no idea. A technique to do that is to rename a road in downtown San Jose after him. I suggest that we rename a part of Park Avenue — from Barack Obama Boulevard to Plaza de Cesar Chavez — “Larry Itliong Means”.
San Jose boasts an Asian inhabitants of 38%, with 6% being Filipino. We see our reflection in school, work, in outlets and corporations all through Silicon Valley, additionally impacting neighborhood life with Pinoy eating places and Asian grocery shops. Organizations corresponding to FAHNS-SCV, LEAD Filipino and PAWIS exist to assist assist and educate our communities within the South Bay. There’s even the little recognized Pinoytown on Sixth Road the place Filipino immigrants settled within the Thirties-Nineteen Fifties.
Regardless of these reflections, our Filipino diaspora continues to be generally disconnected because of colonial mentality and intergenerational trauma from centuries of Spanish and American colonialism. There are generations of Fil-Ams who have no idea our historical past within the Philippines or our historical past right here within the states. Many people are unaware of the contributions of Filipino farm, cannery and home employees. We are sometimes nonetheless cautious of one another, competing for visibility, area and voice.
The educational and unlearning can start with us. Illustration issues. San Jose is a multi-racial, progressive-minded metropolis that may solid mild on the historical past and struggles of working-class individuals of shade, join our previous with our current, and affirm those that are right here and people but to return.
If Itliong had by no means immigrated to the US and rallied the Filipino and Mexican farmworkers, Cesar Chavez won’t be broadly recognized right this moment. Their lives have been destined to intersect, setting the stage for one of the vital essential labor actions of the twentieth century. That’s the reason I consider within the symbolism of renaming the Park Avenue intersection with Plaza de Cesar Chavez “Larry Itliong Means”. Itliong’s means was to name out injustice, band collectively and battle for one another’s rights — he epitomizes what it means to be a civil rights activist.
I’ve begun a petition to collect assist for this road renaming. Be a part of me in signing it so we will honor Itliong’s legacy, rectify the erasure of Filipinos in California and assist future generations know their historical past. Making this initiative a actuality may very well be the very factor that connects and unites us, not simply as Filipino People however as a various neighborhood dedicated to uplifting all.
Tiffany Unarce Barry was raised in San Jose, graduated from San Jose State and is an adjunct lecturer in music training at SJSU and Sacramento State College.
