Agbayani Village

Agbayani Village is a housing compound for retired farm workers. Many Filipino farm workers lived there at one time or another, and it was named after a Filipino farm worker that died on a picket line in 1967.

Agbayani Village was built by United Farm Workers volunteers in 1973 in recognition of Filipino contributions to the farm worker movement and their often solitary lives. It became a place of pilgrimage for young Filipinos who craved knowledge of their roots and saw the workers as symbols of ethnic pride.

These men were among hundreds of thousands that immigrated to the United States starting in 1898. They were an integral part of the thriving agricultural business in California. They were heroes, which makes the name proper, because bayani means hero in Pilipino, the national language of the Philippines.

Filipinos and the 1965 Delano Grape Strike

Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) trustee Emily Lawsin shared with her Facebook friends an article entitled "Cesar Chavez Day and the Forgotten Asian Americans," which can be found at http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/03/31/cesar-chavez-day-and-the-forgotten-asian-americans/. It highlights Pilipino farm laborers and their role in starting the 1965 Delano Grape Strike, which gave birth to the United Farm Workers (UFW) Union that Cesar Chavez is best known for.

The writer asks that we "restore the forgotten heritage of all people forged through struggle and remember the stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) as a vibrant political force again."

Our community would gain a strong sense of pride by taking that advice.