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Philip Vera Cruz. Former Vice President of the United Farm Workers Union, embodied the story of the Manong Generation - the first wave of Filipino Immigrants who came to the United States in the early twentieth century to work in the west coast agricultural fields, canneries, hotels and restaurants. Vera Cruz came to the U.S. in 1926 and spent the next half century laboring in America. In 1965, Vera Cruz was working with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, when Filipino farm-workers began a sit down strike in the Cochella Vineyards. The strike launched what was to become the United Farm Workers Union. Under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, Vera Cruz became the Union's highest ranking Filipino officer. He left the union in 1977 because of political differences with the leadership. From 1979 Vera Cruz lived in Bakersfield and continued to dedicate his life to the causes of unionism ans social justice. He passed away on June 10, 1994.