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Delano is an agricultural city of about 51,000 people in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California, in Kern County about 30 miles north of Bakersfield. Surrounded by vineyards, it is a major table grape growing area, and it has long been home to large Filipino American and Mexican American communities.
Delano holds a special place in American labor history. In 1965 Filipino farmworkers led by Larry Itliong walked out of the vineyards, and Cesar Chavez's mostly Mexican American union soon joined them in the Delano Grape Strike, a five-year struggle that led to the founding of the United Farm Workers. The union's first headquarters, the Forty Acres, is now a National Historic Landmark.
Visitors can walk the grounds of the Forty Acres, see Agbayani Village, built for retired Filipino farmworkers, and visit the Filipino Community Hall where strike meetings were held. Downtown has murals, the Kern National Wildlife Refuge lies to the west, and Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, a town founded by African American settlers, is about 30 minutes northwest.
The first headquarters of the United Farm Workers, on the western edge of Delano, developed during the grape strike era and now a National Historic Landmark. Cesar Chavez held his 25-day fast for nonviolence here in 1968. Walk the grounds and read the signs; call ahead, as access to the buildings is limited.
A Mission-style retirement village completed at the Forty Acres in 1974 for aging Filipino farmworkers, the manongs, who had spent their lives in the fields and had no families in the United States. It honors the Filipino role in the grape strike. View it from the grounds and read the interpretive signs.
The meeting hall of Delano's Filipino community, where farmworkers voted in September 1965 to strike against grape growers, launching the Delano Grape Strike. It remains a community gathering place and a site of pilgrimage for labor history fans. Visit respectfully and look for the historic markers.
Colorful murals on buildings around downtown Delano celebrating farmworkers, the city's Filipino and Mexican heritage, and local history. Walk the blocks around Main Street and the older commercial buildings to find them. Pair the walk with a meal at one of the local Filipino or Mexican restaurants.
Delano's older downtown along Main Street, with early 20th-century commercial buildings such as the former Hotel Kern, the Masonic Temple and an old bank building, along with family-run Mexican and Filipino restaurants and bakeries. Walk a few blocks to see the architecture, then stop for lunch.
A national wildlife refuge about 20 miles west of Delano that preserves wetlands and alkali scrub of the old Tulare Lake basin, with an auto tour route through managed marshes. In fall and winter it fills with ducks, geese, cranes and raptors. Check the refuge website for seasonal road access.
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California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
California, United States
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Photo: Publichall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Publichall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Publichall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
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Photo: Jmelendresmd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Photo: Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain