According to the book Little Manila is in the Heart by Dawn Mabalon, more than 31,000 Filipinos came to California between 19, many in search of agricultural work.

The first big wave of Filipino migration to the U.S. But while they performed the same jobs in the same fields, they had arrived into California’s agricultural industry via very different routes. The farm workers of Central California’s San Joaquin Valley largely hailed from two groups: Mexican-Americans and Filipino-Americans. “They were focused like a laser, and decided that they were going to force the issue.” Who Started the Delano Grape Strike? “The Filipinos were far more radical” than the Mexican-American farm workers, says Matt Garcia, a professor of history at Dartmouth College and the author of From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement. Rather, it was Larry Itliong, a Filipino-American organizer, who led a group of Filipino-American grape workers to first strike in September 1965. But while Chavez has been honored with a national monument, a postage stamp and three state holidays, he wasn’t the only catalyst for change.

Cesar chavez united farm workers