America Is In the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

Free Filipino by Mervin Liongco
Is it possible for a person to be an alien in his or her own home? In the 1930’s, America was very much a stranger to Filipino immigrants. The book America Is In the Heart by Carlos Bulosan, is his autobiography, and it details his life and his struggles in both the Philippines and the United States. An important thing to note by the introduction is that because Carlos Bulosan met many people during his travels, it is possible that Carlos Bulosan actually didn’t experience everything he documented in his book. Rather, he may have taken the experiences of others and told the story from a first-person perspective.
One of the biggest trends in the book is the attitude of Carlos as he goes through his life as it appears to be a continuous rollercoaster of ups-and-downs. The highs of his life, however, consistently overcome the lows. Bulosan is ultimately happier for it because he never forgets America’s ideal of equality, which he hopes it will eventually reach.
Carlos Bulosan was born November 2, 1913 in Binalonan, a municipality located on Luzon, one of the main islands of the Philippines. He was to a family that worked on a farm, even as a child he was engaged the activities of farm work. In the beginning of the book, he documents himself speaking to his father about his brother who is off fighting in a war. His father replies to Carlos and doesn’t clearly say whether or not his brother will return or not. One day, Carlos sees a man walking in the distance towards his family’s field. Carlos quickly climbs up of a tree and sees that it’s his brother. He and his father move to embrace his brother.
Shortly after his brother returns, his brother finds a girl to marry. The wedding celebration lasts for a week and at the end, there is specific ritual that goes horribly wrong. This ritual involves the husband carrying his bride into their new house and sending of a smoke signal to the people invited to the wedding. The smoke indicates whether the bride was a virgin or not, and unfortunately, no smoke signal was sent up. This put the attendants in a rage, and in their fury they tied the bride to a tree and attempted to stone and spit on her. However, the husband valiantly protects his bride and protects her from the beating given by the people. By the end of their flogging, the husband, battered and bruised, carries his scarred and bleeding wife into their new home so they may start their lives together. Sadly, because the community disapproved of their relationship, the new family moved shortly afterwards.
When Carlos was 17, with high hopes and big dreams, he migrated to the United States. Just like his life in the Philippines, the United States was another rollercoaster for Carlos to ride. It was here that he faced oppression, hunger, near-death, and oddly enough, freedom.
Although America is frequently hailed as a “land of opportunity”, Carlos Bulosan realized that a lot of that depended on who you were. Foreigners had a much more difficult time than white men. Carlos’ brother even mentions that it was “a crime to be Filipino”. This was because although minorities in the states had a rough time, Filipinos had a doubly hard because they were a people that were oppressed by other minorities as well, including Filipinos.
During Carlos’ first day in Seattle, he was sold to work in the fish canneries of Alaska for a measly $5 because the group was unable to meet. The Filipino man laughed to himself because he knew that the men were suited to work there, but he didn’t care because he made an easy profit. Once Carlos was in Alaska, the conditions only got worse. His job, which was cleaning fish, exposed him to lye and ammonia. However, he wasn’t the worker that had it the worst. Due to the poor lighting in the cannery, one of the workers got his hand cut off and it floated right into Carlos’ station. If the Filipinos weren’t exploiting other Filipinos, the Chinese were getting in on the action.
The Chinese owned opium houses, whorehouses, and dance halls. Carlos wasn’t interested in the opium houses or whorehouses for he knew these things would affect his character, and on numerous occasions he begged God not to let him change. Because the dance halls were more “legitimate” institutions in his eyes, he didn’t mind the visit so much. During one of his visits, his friend Marcelo realized that the dancer was cheating him by pulling off the paid tickets off too fast. He shoved her into the wall and pulled a knife on her. Immediately gunshots rang out, and Carlos ran for his life.
The bulk of Carlos’ life was spent moving around. If ever he was working, he usually stayed in housing provided by his employer. This had both its pros and cons. It was nice that Carlos was “taken care” of by his employers. He had a guaranteed place to sleep, food, and a source of income. However, his employers took advantage of this and they would overcharge him, and others, for every single expense possible. It came to a point where his employer was taking approximately 90% of Carlos’ salary with charges. The worst part was that Carlos just had to take what he could get.
Despite all of the hardships that Carlos had to face, he never lost faith in the ideas of America. He would rather be in America than in the Philippines, because he would rather be in a place that had at least thought of the idea of equality, than not have contemplated it at all. Despite all of Carlos’ time in the United States, he never became a citizen. However, he was just as American as any natural born citizen. His words encompass his hope for America: “The old world is dying, but a new world is being born. It generates inspiration from the chaos that beats upon us all. The false grandeur and security, the unfulfilled promises and illusory power, the number of the dead and those about to die, will charge the forces of our courage and determination. The old world will die so that the new world will be born with less sacrifice and agony on the living.”