Students for Filipino Farmworkers is a newly formed student organization on San Jose State’s campus that aims to bring attention to the struggles Filipino farmworkers faced in the 1960s.
The organization was created as a part of sociology and interdisciplinary social sciences professor Scott Myers-Lipton’s sociology class. In the class, Myers-Lipton tasked his students with launching a campaign around a social injustice of their choice.
The organization was preceded by Asian American Arts and Action, another social-action organization that seeked recognition for Filipino farmworkers.
Applied anthropology masters student Kayla Celest Taduran, also a member of Students for Filipino Farmworkers, said raising awareness to the crucial work of Filipino farmworkers is important, as there is yet to be a large-scale monument on campus in recognition of their work.
“We have the Cesar Chavez arc here on campus, and Filipino Americans, you know, Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, they contributed to the United Farm Workers movement,” Taduran said "But there’s no recognition for them.”
Antonio Gutierrez, sociology junior and member of the group, said before he joined the organization, he was unaware of the role Filipinos played in the United Farm Workers movement.
He said the lack of recognition Filipino farmworkers receive resonates with him, and he said he believes the history behind the United Farm Workers movement wasn’t explained to him as thoroughly as it should’ve been.
Gutierrez said there were two main reasons Mexican Americans were mainly attributed with the credit of enhancing farmworkers rights.
“When the Mexican farmworkers tagged along with the labor strikes, they had the numbers on their side,” Gutierrez said. “And since there’s a large Mexican American population, or Latino population in California in general, there was more support.”
Students for Filipino Farmworkers is demanding a minimum starting budget of $100,000 for an art installation on campus that represents Filipino farmworkers, an amount calculated from guidance Myers-Lipton gave them, according to a Wednesday Instagram post by the organization.
Taduran said Myers-Lipton told her SJSU spent $300,000 on the Cesar Chavez arc, and that a starting budget of $100,000 wasn’t unreasonable.
“Having like a similar budget to the arc, because again, we’re trying to get that equal representation and kind of getting the real story out, that’s where [the $100,000] came from,” Taduran said.
Raymond Goni, sociology senior and member of the group, said the organization made it clear that its goal is not to diminish the importance of existing on-campus memorials.
Goni said the class is not a typical lecture, and that the action-oriented components provide a foundation for creating meaningful dialogue.
“This class is social action,” Goni said. “They’ve had many successful campaigns, one of their campaigns was raising the minimum wage in San Jose from $8 to $10, it started in his class.”
Taduran said it’s inspiring to have a supportive professor and to be able to follow the footsteps of other prosperous campaigns.
Goni said the group has reached out to a multitude of organizations on campus in hopes of gaining their support and wants to build a positive relationship through their outreach.
“We’re trying to just educate people through this process,” Goni said. “Bring people together is our biggest thing, we’re not here to tear anyone down, we’re here to build bridges with everybody.”
Gutierrez said in the ’60s, Filipino farmworkers were getting paid $1.25 an hour for their work.
He said one of the organization's main goals is to make the history behind the struggles of Filipino farmworkers relevant to people today.
“It’s very important to highlight and remember the history they went through because it’s really difficult to work in the farms as well as, you know, the hot sun bearing down on them – and they were faced with deportation,” Gutierrez said.
Taduran said being located on a diverse campus like SJSU adds an extra layer of support the organization might not have gotten in a different location.
“We have the Olympic statues, we have the arc, right?” Taduran said. “So what’s another thing to add on to [campus] – so I’m sure we have a lot of backing being in the bay.”
Business marketing senior Dillon Gadoury said the diversity of the campus and the abundance of Filipino students inspired him to tap into his Filipino heritage.
Gadoury is a member of Akbayan, an organization that strives to increase knowledge of Pilipinx American culture at SJSU and other universities, according to their website.
He said hearing that there’s a new organization on campus looking to educate people on an undermined part of Filipino culture is good news.
“I think it’s great that, you know, we have organizations and specifically this one that will have student leaders empower one another in creating tangible change on campus,” Gadoury said.
