Chon-ny says:

Those looking for an uplifting read need to look elsewhere; Bulosan’s “America…” reads like a laundry list of suffering and hopelessness. Bulosan writes powerfully, compellingly and beatifully, but he would have been better off sticking to his own story instead of trying to create a composite.

With tragedy so frequently present nowadays, it doesn’t seem hard to believe that Bulosan’s protagonist would experience so much tragedy (extreme poverty, deaths, heartbreak in every sense of the word, a severely debilitating disease, etc., etc.). A closer reading reveals that he has indeed created a composite, mashing the numerous hard-luck stories of the Filipino migrant workers of that time into a single person’s life. It is difficult to believe, but if you can get beyond that fact, “America…” proves a depressing read with important historical weight, chronicling the ups and mostly downs of the Filipino migrant, with a progression from childhood to the life’s winding down phase.

I lent this book to my grandfather, who lived at approximately the same time, and could very well have been in the provincial areas, practicing the customs Bulosan described. It was extremely disappointing but enlightening to have him give the book a thumbs down based on accuracy. Many descriptions of the hardships of not only Bulosan but those around him, particularly in the Philippines, were much too tragic for my grandfather to take, although he had suffered plenty in his childhood.

Often in writing stories, reality is much more interesting than fiction; by trying to unrealistically include everyone’s experiences as one individual’s trial does create an unbelievable tale, that will be even more difficult for those unaccustomed to the goings-on and atmosphere of a third-world country.

Bulosan’s work is important as it is one of the select pieces of Filipino-American literature that has made the rounds in universities and literary circles, and that it covers an often forgotten group and struggle in American history. However, his attempt to create an all-encompassing experience within a single character is his downfall. A read recommended with a grain of salt.
Rating: 3 / 5

Juan A. Ramos says:

I purchased this book as part of my research for a play I’m considering writing based on the Anti-Filipino riots of 1930 in Watsonville.

My father was Filipino and came to America in his early 20’s. He was part of the influx of primarily young, uneducated Filipino men who were lured to America to serve as a primary source of cheap agricultural labor in Hawaii, Alaska and California, from 1924 through 1930.

They were exploited socially, politically and economically, not only by Americans, but by Japanese, Chinese and sadly enough Filipinos who preceded them. White American males, especially those financially strained by the Depression, used them as a scapegoat for the lack of employment, well-being and companionship of available white women.

They were quickly labled the 3rd oriental invasion and the fear tactics used to justify hatred for the Chinese and Japanese were dug up and recycled by the American white majority. Yet unlike their previous counterparts, they could not be easily deported because the Phillipines was a colony of the U.S.A. Yet they had no rights of American citizen. This did not stop them from quickly adapting to the American lifestyle, including clothes, cars and women, despite efforts to keep them poor and segregated. This only increased the tension which exploded in late 1929 and early 1930 culiminating in the shooting death of one unfortunate young Filipino man. And leave it to the American politician to find a way to rid America of such a lesion by quickly authoring laws to do so.

My father married my mother, who is Mexican in 1947. Mexican women were somehow still legally considered “white” by archaic anti-miscegenation laws, so they were married in New Mexico. Like most Filipino men of his generation he never spoke in detail of what he experienced as a young man in this country. There was no indication that it was negative, but his many bouts with depression and his drinking spoke otherwise. I could never understand the silence . . . until I read “America is in the Heart” by Carlos Bulosan.

This book is heart-wrenching. At the height of his misery, he encounters a black man who is astounded that Filipinos experienced the same overt racism as himself. That summed up the book for me. I highly recommend it to any Filipino or Filipino-American. This book will sharpen and sober your perspective on how the road was paved by this particular generation for what we now take for granted. And given the crap that our first bi-racial president has to take from those who feel they own this country simply because of the white color of their skin . . . not much has really changed. And if we don’t take a stand and speak up for ourselves, history could easily repeat itself.
Rating: 5 / 5

Arlene C. Guerrero says:

This book shed some light to me. Mr. Bulosan’s story is something I would dearly encourage Filipinos to read and identify their roots.
Rating: 5 / 5