[gentle music]
- Johnny Itliong: One of his nicknames was Seven Fingers,
because when he was up working in Alaska,
he lost three of his fingers.
He was small in stature.
But he was a very, very strong man.
He always wore pocketed shirts, thick Ray-Ban glasses,
and he would always have his cigar, his Cubanos.
And I remember, I would have to get up
at 3 o'clock in the morning,
and we would jump in the back of the truck,
load it up full of boxes,
and you stack 'em maybe 10, 12 feet high.
I could carry about eight of them stacked up.
There were so many good men living in box carts, sheds,
whatever they can make out of the elements.
And I remember maybe one guy had one suit,
and whoever would get a date would wear that suit.
So they would share the suit, 20, 30 guys.
You know, that's the brotherhood.
And when they would pass,
they didn't have family in the United States.
They had no one to say goodbye to them.
And it was just us: me, my father, my brother.
Men who worked the fields.
They fed the United States.
You know, my father stood up for the people who need help.
At five years old, I remember
running around getting the sticks, you know.
I would bring sticks
to the ones who were nailing the picket signs.
I think that was probably, like, my earliest memory.
He sacrificed a lot of his family time
to make a better world for us.
We have big shoes to walk in, man. [laughs]
- Aleks Itliong: Yeah.
- Johnny: I don't feel like I'm even close.
But your demeanor reminds me of him
because he was very calm.
He always listened.
When it was time for him to speak,
what he said was important.
And already, you follow those footsteps.
["Cast in Wicker" by Blue Dot Sessions]