Delano Grape Strike History

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With the aim of many Filipino American to improve the meaning of Filipino identity, many turned to reclaiming the contributions of earlier Filipino American immigrants. One of the Filipino organizations that recover the stories of earlier Filipino migrants is Bridge+Delta. The aim of Bridge+Delta is to publish stories about immigration for immigrants to learn about their past. One of their published books is the Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong, which talks about the Delano Grape Strike movement. The Delano Grape Strike is a movement initiated by Larry Itliong and other manongs to advocate for fair salary and better working conditions (Choy, “Remembering the Filipino American Origin”). This strike is significant because it launched …show more content…
Filipino American often find themselves in a situation, where their responses are often contradictory. As a result, their experiences are complex in a way that their response to achieve their goal is also the cause for them not to successfully fulfill it. For instance, Filipino American aim to create visibility to the lives of undocumented Filipino immigrants. This was seen in the coming out of Jose Vargas, where he stated that even though he is a college graduate and successful journalist, he is still undocumented (Guevarra 364). Another example is when Nico Santos desires for his character Mateo Liwanag in Superstore to become a “corporate ladder,” and with this, he hopes for Mateo to receive a US citizenship (Webber “Nico Santos Q&A”) Vargas, a public figure, and Santos, playing a role of an undocumented immigrant in an American TV show, achieve the goal of creating visibility to the lives of undocumented immigrants as they are able to show to a wider audience that immigration is also a problem of some Filipinos. However, the response of Vargas and Santos also create invisibility to another sector of undocumented Filipino immigrants. Vargas, who justified that he deserves to be documented because he is a successful journalist, and Santos, who hopes for his character to become a corporate leader to receive US citizenship, limits the definitions who should be granted a documentation. This is because there are undocumented Filipinos who “.... are unable to experience the same upward mobility and are instead rendered immobile in an exploitative industry that profits from their vulnerable status” (Gueverra 365). These Filipinos then do not have the “success story,” that can make them a model citizen who deserves to be documented. However, this do not make them less of a good citizen. These Filipinos, like others, work hard or might even be harder as they have