DELANO, Calif. (KERO) — Nearly 60 years after Filipino farmworkers launched what would become one of America's most significant labor movements, the Filipino American National Historical Society Delano Chapter gathered Saturday to honor that legacy with tours and seminars at Robert F. Kennedy High School.
The Delano grape strike began on September 8, 1965, when several hundred Filipino farmworkers walked off the job during the height of the table grape picking season. Mexican workers led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta soon joined them on the picket lines in what became a nearly five-year struggle for better working conditions and pay.
Dominador Tomate, a member of the Historical Society, said the event aimed to give people insight into Filipino American culture and ensure it's not lost to time.
"We worked hard and we earned a living, and we created families, people from the cities currently, and they have no idea that their roots came from places like Delano, Stockton, Salinas, because this is where our my father came in in 1920s they lived here and they created communities that has a rich history that the people today may or may not know most of the time, I guarantee you they don't know," Tomate said.
Saturday morning's tour took patrons inside key landmarks associated with the strike, offering lessons in labor history that resonated deeply with participants.
For Pierre Igoa, the experience highlighted the sacrifices of previous generations.
"What I learned a lot is mainly that and that that we can't forget the struggles that are our elders, our ancestors, have done on our behalf so that we can live a better life," Igoa said.
Jodrell Dimaculangan said the tour evoked pride in the broader American story of labor rights.
"It's not just a Filipino story, it's not just a Mexican story, but it's an American story. And to understand that history brings a certain level of pride as a Filipino American, right?" Dimaculangan said. "We took a stand in many parts and many points of history that had significant ramifications and echoes even to this today."
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