Cesar Chavez opened at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood this week
before its nationwide opening Friday.
The story about a civil rights and labor icon, while an important one, disappointed Filipino Americans who feel their story was left out, reports the Examiner (photo from mural at Milpitas Public Library).
Johnny Itliong expressed dismay that the role his father played right along Chavez in the farm labor movement wasn’t fully told.
It was his father Larry Itliong, along with Philip Vera Cruz, who passionately persuaded Chavez to join the farm workers strike. It was Larry who impressed on Chavez the power of the Union.
“It’s an injustice to my father that he is not at that table (referring to pivotal scene in the movie) and that was everything that he fought for was to get the bargaining rights on that piece of paper and in the movie it shows him in the crowd as a spectator and that’s not right in my heart and I don’t think it’s right for our Filipino community to be a spectator to something that he was a major player in.”
You can read more about this movie premier and the controversy in the Examiner.
Also check out blogger Emil Guillermo’s take on this and the sharp contrast with the film
“Delano Manongs” by Marissa Aroy below.
