A person who does not look back to where he came from would not be able to reach his destination.
– Dr. Jose P. Rizal, Filipino revolutionary and national hero
This year’s theme of Filipino American History Month is “Hands That Built America: Filipino Americans in the Labor Movement.” It’s appropriate that October was the chosen month for this designation, as October 25th is Larry Itliong’s birthday, and this year is special because it is Itliong’s 100th birthday. Itliong was a Filipino American labor organizer who led the Filipino grape pickers out of the vineyards on September 8, 1965, in what was the beginning of the Great Delano Grape Strikes, which lasted into the 1970s.
To read an excerpt from my novel-in-progress, A Village In the Fields, go to The Dress at 50 or click here.