1966, and continued the strike into 1970. In the new union, Vera Cruz served as second vice president and on the managing board. Leaving the UFW and later life Vera Cruz resigned from the UFW in 1977. Vera Cruz and Chavez had been drifting apart, and Vera Cruz felt that Chavez did not give Filipinos due credit for their role in starting the labor movement. Things culminated that year, when Chavez traveled to the Philippines to meet with Ferdinand Marcos, whom Vera Cruz saw as a brutal dictator. Vera Cruz continued to live in the San Joaquin Valley of California after his resignation, and remained active in union and social justice issues for the rest of his life. Vera Cruz received the Ninoy M. Aquino Award in 1987, traveling to the Philippines for the first time in fifty years to accept it. In 1992, the AFL-CIO's Asia Pacific American Labor Committee honored Vera Cruz at its founding convention. He died at the age of 89 in 1994, in Bakersfield, California. Legacy In 2013, the New Haven Unified School District renamed Alvarado Middle School as Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in honor of Vera Cruz and Larry Itliong; this school is the first school in the United States to be named after Filipino Americans. See also Dolores Huerta Larry Itliong Cesar Chavez References Further reading Vera Cruz, P., Valledor, S. A. (2006). The Original Writings of Philip Vera Cruz. United States: Dog Ear Pub.. Scharlin, C., Villanueva, L. (2011). Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement. United Kingdom: University of Washington Press. American trade union leaders United States Army personnel of World War II Filipino emigrants to the United States Gonzaga University alumni Industrial Workers of the World members People from Ilocos Sur United Farm Workers people 1904 births 1994 deaths People from Delano, California Trade unionists from California American trade unionists of Filipino descent