It started with a walkout in the grape fields of Delano, but grew into a movement that would later change the course for farmworker rights. Sixty years later, the fight and the legacy live on. As the community prepares to celebrate the historic fight, 23ABC sat down with one man who lived through the event.
"Filipinos weren't normally the type of people to go into anything like this so when I heard that we were participating in such an event at a young age, my head wasn't ready to wrap that around yet,” said Dominador Tomate, member of the Filipino American National Historical Society.
In 1965, when the Grape Strike broke out in the fields of Delano, Dominador Tomate was only 12 years old.
Coming from a farm-working family, Tomate says it was very surreal seeing hundreds of people stop work and recalls the moment he knew something was happening.
"An army of filipinos, and they actually stopped one of the trucks that had grapes in it, lots of grapes,” said Tomate. “They toppled the truck over halfway and the grapes that were picked were all over the road."
Soon after the Filipinos walked out, Mexican American workers joined them, led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta.
Tomate, who started working in the fields at the age of 9 says they didn't even have access to bathrooms, one of the many things they fought for.
"Wage was about a dollar, when I started I was 9 which you can't do that now, I was paid 75cents an hour,” said Tomate. “We didn't have breaks, we didn't have that 10 or 15 minute break so we asked for breaks, we asked for a living wage."
Together, they launched the Delano Grape Strike. One march later turned into five years of marches, boycotts, and hunger strikes that eventually won farmworkers their first union contracts in U.S. history.
Now, six decades later and the community of Delano still gathers to celebrate the victory that started it all for farm workers.
The 60th anniversary happens at Robert F. Kennedy High School and includes a Historical Tour of the Delano Grape Strike Tour and Filipino American Experience, panel discussions by strike veterans, scholars, community activists, student voices, and local community leaders.
Celebrations will be conducted all day Saturday starting at 8 am and going on until 7 pm.
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