American History

Carlos Bulosan a fiction writer, activist and perhaps one of the most celebrated story tellers from the Philippines produced an exceptional piece in 1946 titled America Is In the Heart a personal history.  Carlos vividly describes his childhood memories in his country the Philippines, his experiences in the voyage and his life in America. He also describes his years in hardship, despair and suffering while working as a laborer. The author labored as a harvester in the west and he does not shy away from giving in details the ardent horrors that accompanied his life as an immigrant. He writes this piece in such awe and passion in a stoic voice of all the events he witnessed. Although the author went to America in search of a better life, what he met there was the imaginable ills of racism and exploitations which he didnt expect at all.

The author always thought of America as every foreigners dream simply because of the rosy picture that was always painted of it. Carlos just like other Filipinos had imagined America to be a land where freedom, equality, good life and all other positive attributes thrived. This was not so until the sudden reality of how life is really like in America dawned on them. The story begins when he sees his brother Leon, coming through the tall grass. The author reminisces how he saw him coming slowly through the tall grass in the dry bottom of the river (Bulosan, 1). The author gives account of how they had a small farm that was barely sufficient to keep the family from surviving (5).

Carlos claims that starvation was a real threat and this together with the radical change that was going on in the country prompted them to search for better alternatives. This was the time in which he coined the idea of looking for greener pastures in the west. He finds America exhilarating as he narrates on how My first sight of the approaching land was an exhilarating experience( 99). He claims how he saw everything as native and promising. This as he points out is the perception that he always had of America. However upon arrival what he and other Filipinos found left them perplexed. While in America, they found out that racism, prostitution, gambling and any other unimaginable ills that a societies can posses bred in this country.

This situation leaves Carlos in a state of despair and it nearly destroys them since what they had envisioned of America was totally different from what they found. They nearly fell into the traps of alcohol, crime and other social ills out of desperation as Carlos depicts, But I found only violence and hate, living in a corrupt corner of America (164). The author also finds that racism is predominant in America he clearly comes in terms it when he narrates how at the Social Service Department, a woman comes to him not with the intention of helping him but to tell me that there was racism even in the Los Angeles County Hospital (253). This statement actually depicts the sad state of racism that thrived in America during that period.

The author does not shy away from showing his resentment towards the police after countless incidents with them. He vividly narrates how he was talking to a gambler when out of nowhere, two police detectives darted into the place he continues to explain how they mercilessly shot a little Filipino on the back (129). The author uses a tone of displeasure when narrating this incident and his pain reverberates across this story of how the boy fell on his knees, face up and expired.

However, with all these difficulties in America Carlos does not at any time lose his confidence in the country transforming for the better. The author uses a variety of tones which have the effect of expressing how he holds the country dear to his soul. The author clearly highlights the feeling that most immigrants feel upon arriving at the shores of America. Carlos portrays the overall picture of America as an unfinished item into which all people living in the country should make concerted efforts to perfect it. Carlos through his conclusion argues that he and other Filipinos had come to the ideal country and that is what they should strive to make it into.

Although the writer depicts America as an object that is far from finished, its conclusion is much more of a dreamer rather than a critic as it starts. His revelations however lead to the belief that unity is the only way to fight for social justice and thus eliminate racism. The book has been hailed as a masterpiece in Asian American literature studies as well as history.