On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, the California Council for the Humanities announced the latest recipients of its California Documentary Grant Award Program. Among the seventeen awardees was Marissa Aroy, a Pinay that grew up in the Delano area.
Her documentary will be entitled The Delano Manongs: The Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). Her piece will document a small group of Filipino farm labor leaders--including Philip Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong--in Delano, California, who instigated the great Delano grape strike in 1965 and helped create the UFW. The grape strike catapulted Cesar Chavez into the national spotlight, but the Filipino leaders received little recognition for their efforts. Using animation, archival footage, and interviews with key leaders, participants, and historians, the film tells the gripping story of this forgotten part of labor history.
Ms. Aroy is no stranger to ethnic history, having worked on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) productions Little Manila: Filipinos in California's Heartland and Sikhs in America. I met her at a screening of the Little Manila documentary here in Sacramento. I am glad to know that she is using her career and her craft to advocate for and educate about marginalized groups and history.
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