Philip Vera Cruz.

Vera Cruz was part of the first generation of Filipinos—or manongs, as they were respectfully called in the Filipino dialect of Ilocano—who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s and early 1930s. He helped found the United Farm Workers, serving as the union’s vice president from its founding in 1966 to his departure in 1977. Vera Cruz embodied the ideals of internationalism as he dedicated his life to the causes of immigrant and human rights, especially for workers located in the United States and the Philippines.