Asian Americans

I remember we were working, when my father says, "Come on, we're leaving" I says, "We're leaving? "It's 10.00 o'clock in the morning" So we left. To go on strike to suffer a lot of hardship. Maybe you get hungry, maybe you're gonna lose your car, maybe you're gonna lose your house. And I remember leaving the field, and driving to the, seeing the strikers, so the Filipinos. -

Narrator

But the Filipinos face a dilemma as they strike for a union, the farmers bring in Mexican workers to replace them. It's one of the things I learned that the farmers like to do. They like to pit the Mexicans against the Filipinos because you're gonna be fighting for the same pot of gold. -

Narrator

Many Mexican laborers have already joined the National Farm Workers Association, led by the charismatic Caesar Chavez. I remember meeting at the Filipino Community Hall in Toledo. All the labor contractors were there and a lot of the farm workers were there and they're trying to decide, are we gonna end the strike or are we going to negotiate with the Mexicans to join us? And then, Larry Itliong says, "I'm gonna go talk to the Mexicans" When the strike happens, Caesar Chavez wasn't really quite ready. But Caesar also knew, that if they didn't join the Filipinos then, then they would never have. -

Narrator

Larry approaches Cesar Chavez and is calling Dolores Huerta as one of AWOKS co-founders her relationship with Larry and the Filipinos goes back years. And then a couple of days later, we're at this church. They're talking about this strike. They're discussing, should we go on strike or not go on strike? And all of a sudden there's this swaga I said, "What the heck's swaga?" Because I thought they were saying, hell no. They said, "it means strike, we're going on strike" And so the Mexicans joined us. Where are your brothers and sisters over here? Come on.