Remembering Carlos Bulosan

By Kye Leung
2001

Filipino Writer in our Hearts

Carlos Bulosan came to the United States to seek a better life. He also came to find his brothers who had written in letters back to the Philippines how well they were doing. What he found out though, was a hostile country and being Filipino was a crime. When he finally found his brothers, he discovered that the brutality of living in an oppressive society had driven his brothers, whom he admired much, to criminal acts in order to survive. He was shocked to see Filipinos violently victimizing their own people. In 1946 he published his autobiographical accounts in America Is in the Heart. Soon thereafter, Bulosan vanished from the public.

From Philippines to U.S.

Bulosan was born in Binalonan, a small rural village in northern Philippines. His baptismal record states the year 1911. At 18 he came to the U.S., following the footsteps of two elder brothers who had cam earlier. Bulosan paid $75 for passage in the steerage of the Dollar Line. On July 22, 1930, the ship reached Seattle.

Philippines was a territory of the U.S. after the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War. Filipinos came to the U.S. through their status as nationals. By 1929, there were 75,000 Filipinos in the U.S. Many of them were migrant workers who moved from place to place in search of seasonal work. Upon arriving in the U.S. and having no money to pay rent, Bulosan was sold to an employer who took him and other Filipinos to work in the fish canneries in Alaska.

"In those days labor unions were still unheard of in the canneries, so the contractors rapaciously exploited their workers. They had henchmen in every cannery who saw to it that every attempt at unionization was frustrated and the instigators of the idea punished. The companies also had their share in the exploitation; our bunkhouses were unfit for human habitation. The lighting system was bad and dangerous to our eyes and those of us who were working in the semi-darkness were severely affected by the strong ammonia from the machinery," wrote Bulosan.

Forgotten Poet and Writer

Blacklisted as a communist after World War 2, Bulosan faded from public view despite having published America is in the Heart, a book on Filipino folktales, several poetry books and an essay in the Saturay Evening Post. While Bulosan was not a communist, his critical stance on U.S. society and his work in union organizing branded him as a leftist. Bulosan passed away in 1956. He suffered from pneumonia and tuberculosis. For two decades much of Bulosan was forgotten.

But in 1973 the University of Washington republished Bulosan's America is in the Heart to a generation of Asian Americans who were influenced by the Asian American movement. This generated more interest in the life and works of Bulosan and more of his works were reprinted. Today, America is in the Heart is used in many Asian American Studies courses. Half a century later, the writings and poetry of Carlos Bulosan still remain as inspiration for new generations of Asian Americans seeking to change the contradictions found in U.S. society.