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America Is in the Heart

Author: Carlos Bulosan (ca. 1911–56)

First published: 1946

Type of work: Autobiographical novel

Type of plot: Coming of age; Social issues

Time of plot: ca. 1918–41

Locales: Binalonan, Philippines; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; and various other cities in the western United States

Principal characters Carlos "Allos" Bulosan, a Filipino American writer, poet, and union activist

Macario, one of his older brothers, who immigrates to the United States

Amado, another one of his older brothers, who also goes to America

Allos's father, a Filipino peasant farmer

Meteria, his mother

Jose, a union organizer, Allos and Macario's friend

Eileen Odell, a woman who nurtures Allos's intellectual growth

The Story When America Is in the Heart begins, World War I has ended and Carlos "Allos" Bulosan is around five years old. He is reunited with his eldest brother, Leon, who returns home to the Philippines after fighting in the war in Europe. With his family, Allos, who has three other older brothers and a younger sister, lives in Mangusmana, a barrio on the outskirts of Binalonan, a rural peasant village on the Philippine island of Luzon. There, his family owns four hectares of land, on which they cultivate a wide variety of crops during the year to survive. That land, however, quickly dwindles: first, Leon marries a local peasant girl and sells his one-hectare share of the property to live in another part of Luzon, then Allos's father gradually sells off the other hectares to moneylenders to pay for his brother Macario's schooling.

Though Macario graduates from high school and starts teaching in Binalonan, Allos's family eventually loses ownership of all of their land to the moneylenders. The remainder of his childhood is defined by poverty and hardship, as he goes to live with his mother, Meteria, and baby sister, Irene, in Binalonan. (Allos's father remains in Mangusmana to raise crops on other family members' property.) Allos attends school for only a short time before being forced to drop out to support the family; he works a number of odd jobs and frequently travels from village to village with his mother to trade crops. Through the influence of Amado, the brother closest to him in age, he cultivates a love of books and reading, which offers him solace from the harsh realities of peasant life. A series of misfortunes nonetheless befalls Allos's family: Irene dies after a brief illness and soon afterward Macario is forced to move south after a peasant girl tries to blackmail him into marriage. Amado and Macario eventually immigrate to America in search of better opportunity, inspiring Allos to do the same.

Finding his way onto a ship as a steerage passenger, young Allos harbors idealistic notions of life in America and arrives in Seattle, Washington, in 1930 with naïve expectations. It is not long, however, before those expectations are dashed, as he falls victim to callous exploitation and prejudice. Just days after disembarking, he is hoodwinked into working in a fish cannery in Alaska, and upon returning to Seattle, he learns that he has been bilked out of most of his pay. He soon makes his way to California, where he reunites with his brothers—first Amado in the city of Lompoc, then Macario in Los Angeles. To his surprise, both brothers have become hardened to life in Depression-era America, which for them and other Filipinos has come to be characterized by rampant racism and abject poverty. They have also become desensitized to the unbridled violence and brutality that constantly surround them. Allos eventually does, too, after witnessing beatings, shootings, and rapes on a near daily basis.

Allos passes in and out of his brothers' lives over the next decade, during which he leads an itinerant existence living and working up and down the western United States. Traveling mostly by freighthopping, he picks crops as a farm laborer, washes dishes in restaurants and hotels, gambles for money, and even occasionally steals. Through first-hand observations and his own traumatic experiences, he becomes acutely aware of the gross social injustices endured by Filipino immigrants in America, prompting his involvement in the country's labor movement. Discovering a natural talent with words, Allos, along with his friend Jose, a labor organizer, starts writing for a union- leaning newspaper based out of San Luis Obispo, California. The two then relocate to Los Angeles, where they help launch a literary magazine founded by Allos's brother Macario; Jose's brother, Nick; and an activist named Felix Razon. The magazine soon folds due to insufficient funding, but Allos continues to lead labor rights efforts all over California.

Those efforts come to an abrupt halt, however, when Allos learns that he has become stricken with tuberculosis. The disease confines him to a hospital bed for two years, during which time he undergoes various surgeries. Undaunted, he becomes a voracious reader during this time through the help of a friend, Eileen Odell, who brings him a steady stream of books. He also begins writing poetry in earnest and several of his poems are published. Not long after he leaves the hospital, he is informed by a doctor that he has roughly five years to live, a revelation that leads him to further immerse himself in writing, as well as dive back into the labor movement. He adopts socialist leanings and conducts educational classes for Filipino farm workers all over California. Meanwhile, his first book of poems, titled Letter from America (1942), is published. The novel ends shortly after Japan bombs the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, which leads to the country's entry into World War II. In the wake of the bombing, Allos says goodbye to Macario and Amado, after both enlist in the US armed forces. He then heads north to continue fighting for workers' rights, proclaiming his indomitable faith in America.

Critical Evaluation As its title suggests, America Is in the Heart is a closely autobiographical account of author Carlos Bulosan's life, from his peasant upbringing in the Philippines to his turbulent first decade on American soil. In a unique work of fiction that subverts traditional novelistic conventions, Bulosan combines his personal experiences with those of many others to create a vividly harrowing portrait of Filipino immigrants living in the western United States in the period from 1930 to 1941. Divided into four parts, the novel eschews chronological dates in favor of historical references to establish context for the reader and is told from Bulosan's intimate first-person perspective, one that veers from wide-eyed innocence to hardened sagacity.

At the heart of America lies the theme of class divisions, which form the roots of the prejudice, discrimination, and oppression that Allos is subjected to throughout the novel. In the first part of the novel, for example, when he accompanies his mother to a neighboring town to sell beans, he witnesses firsthand the scorn that Filipino middle-class citizens hold toward the peasant classes, after a young, well-dressed girl deliberately knocks over their basket of beans when they simply look at her. Such treatment, however, pales in comparison to that in America, where, Allos explains, "the lives of Filipinos were cheaper than those of dogs." Relegated to living in the seedier parts of towns and cities, parts of which are peopled heavily by gamblers, prostitutes, and drug pushers, Allos and other Filipino immigrants not only have to endure relentless prejudice and exploitation but are also treated like criminals. He is repeatedly beaten up while looking for jobs, and in one instance, he is sadistically assaulted, without provocation, by two police officers because of his race. At one point, he likens his daily struggle to survive to "going to war with other soldiers."

Allos nonetheless maintains an unwavering "hope for the future," and it is this hope that allows him to overcome the class divisions that perpetually encroach upon his spirt. Discovering that America has as much kindness as it does cruelty, he resolves to keep his faith in the ideals of the country and to make a lasting contribution to society. This ultimately comes in the form of his writing and labor activism. During his long convalescence, the hospital becomes "a world of hope," and upon being released, he is determined to face society again with his newly developed "intellectual weapon." In the final part of the novel, he comes to understand how America is in the hearts of men, explaining that "it was this small yet vast heart of mine that had kept me steering toward the stars."

One of the first English-language works to depict the plight of Filipino American immigrants, Bulosan's novel is widely regarded as a classic of social justice literature. Through the voice of Bulosan's own alter ego, Allos, readers will gain powerful insight into the unspeakable hardships that Filipino immigrants were forced to endure during the Great Depression, as well as discover the sustaining and exalting powers of hope in the face of crippling despair.