Category Archives: news

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, diversity, Filipino, news, politics, race

Emil Guillermo: Remembering the Delano Grape Strike and the Filipino American leader who forged the way, Larry Itliong

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Fifty years ago on Sept. 8, the Filipino farm workers in Delano, Calif., began the historic Grape Strike that brought the civil rights movement to the fields.

Workers  had been used to working for less than a dollar an hour, but now demanded  a fair wage–$1.40 an hour. Or else.

A unanimous strike vote was taken on Sept. 7 in Delano’s Filipino Community Hall. On the next day, the workers were set. Two-thousand or so men and women  of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO) walked off the job.

Click here to read more about their leader.

Cesar Chavez?

Nope.

Larry Itliong, the unsung Filipino American labor leader of the strike.

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Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, diversity, everything else, news, politics, race

Emil Guillermo: This week’s writing–Report says Asian Americans overcharged for SAT Prep; The slur on Asians by the Wall Street Journal; And the deportation cloud over Daniel Maher

SAT PREP OVERCHARGING:  It’s being called a “Tiger Mom Tax.”  There’s nothing illegal about unintended discrimination in online pricing, but that doesn’t make it right. I report on NBCNews.com’s Asian America section.

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TIME TO RETIRE ‘CHINK IN THE ARMOR.” : It’s ok if you’re a fashion reporter discussing the latest medieval designs (“What would Lancelot wear?” ) But when describing China’s president? No, no, Wall Street Journal. Here’s where we need an apology.

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DEPORTATION CLOUD:   Daniel Maher immigrated  to the U.S. from Macao when he was 2. But now China and ICE are using him as a political pawn and he can still be swept up and  deported at any time. Read my piece on NBCNews.com.

 

 

 

blog, Filipino, news

Emil Guillermo: L’Amande bakery owners flee country, say to lawyers they won’t defend suit, then say to me they will.

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If you’ve been following my reporting on the  civil lawsuit alleging trafficking and labor violations against the L’Amande bakeries, owned by the scion of one of the Philippines elite families, then you’ll want to see the new twists in the case.
The lawyers of bakery owner Ana Moitinho de Almeida have told the lawyers for the 11 former workers suing Almeida, that the owners have fled the country and would no longer be defending the suit.

But this is inconsistent with what Ms.Almeida communicated to me.

Is it just a ploy?   This comes after the plaintiffs failed to attach the Almeidas’ assets, which have been re-positioned to seemingly be out of reach of the court.  The first court date had been set for late September.

See my story in the Philippine Inquirer here.

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, diversity, news, politics, race

Emil Guillermo: Winner of the 2015 Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice

Humbled and honored at this year’s 15th Asian American Journalists Association national convention.

 


Twenty years of column writing and reporting on Asian American issues, the last five at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s site, http://www.aaldef.org/blog