Berkeley, California - Fifty years ago, on September 8, approximately 1,500 Filipino American farmworkers walked out of the farm fields in California, demanding fair wages and humane working conditions. Their action launched the five-year Delano Grape Strike and helped catalyze the modern farmworkers’ movement.

While many are aware of Mexican American farmworker organizing, “the formative role played by Filipino American labor leaders, such as Larry Itliong, in the Delano Grape Strike has been for the most part overlooked and obscured,” writes Catherine Ceniza Choy, professor of ethnic studies, on the Berkeley Blog.

The half-century anniversary of the Delano strike offers an opportunity to repair historical amnesia about Filipino farmworkers, she says, in a piece highlighting new books and films illuminating the subject.