Lorraine Agtang is Mexican/Filipino American labor activist from Delano, California. Agtang worked closely with the United Farm Workers during the 1970s, serving as the first manager for the Paolo Agbayani Retirement Village and as a labor organizer in California's Central Valley. This collection consist primarily of photographs and a few documents donated by Agtang.

Lorraine Agtang was born in a labor camp near Delano, California on 1952. Agtang is of Mexican and Filipino descent. Her mother, Lorenza Agtang, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Her father, Platon Agtang, was a migrant worker from Cavite Province in the Philippines, who worked at the sugar fields in Hawaii, canneries in Alaska, and the farmworker circuits throughout Central California. Agtang’s exposure to farm labor activism occurred at an early age, as Agtang and her family left the fields of Giumarra Farms in support of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee during the 1965 Delano Grape Strike. As Agtang grew older, she became increasingly involved with the United Farmworkers (UFW), first working at the hospital clinic at the UFW’s 40 Acres facility. After the completion of the Agbayani Village retirement home, she served as the facility’s first manager. While working at Agbayani Village, Agtang interacted and befriended several Filipino veterans of the 1965 strike, including Willie Barrientos, Sebastian Sahagun and former UFW Vice President Philip Vera Cruz. During the 1973 Strike, she served as a UFW organizer in Northern and Central California. Today, Agtang continues to advocate for the history of Filipino Americans in the United Farmworkers, often giving speeches about the accomplishments of Manongs (An Illocano word for “Older Brother,” typically attributed to the original 1965 Filipino strikers). Her image is depicted in the Chavez memorial at Sacramento’s Cesar Chavez Park.

2.22 GB

Courtesy of Lorraine Agtang

Lorraine Agtang granted the Welga Project non-exclusive rights for digital publication of her personal collection. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact archivist Allan Jason Sarmiento at ajsarmiento@ucdavis.edu to forward the request to Lorraine Agtang.