Philip vera cruz biography

American labor leader (1904–1994)

Philip Villamin Vera Cruz (December 25, 1904 – June 12, 1994) was a Filipino American labor leader and farmworker.

He helped found the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), which later merged with the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). As the union's long-time second vice president, he worked to improve the working conditions of migrant workers.^[1]

Early life

Vera Cruz was born in Saoang, San Juan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines (then a territory of the United States) on December 25, 1904.

As a small boy, he tended to water buffalo(carabaos) for his father, which he described as much easier than the work he would do in California.^[2] In 1926, Vera Cruz moved to the United States, where he performed a wide variety of jobs, including working in an Alaskan cannery, a restaurant, and a box factory.^[3] He was briefly a member of the Indust