Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
University of Washington Press
DDC/MDS
| 818.5209 |
Description
"First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well-known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West. Bulosan does not spare the reader any of the horrors that accompanied the migrant's life, but his quiet, stoic voice is the most convincing witness to the terrible events he witnessed"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member camarie
If you are interested in the true racism that Filipinos experienced when coming to America in the twentieth century, then this book is for you. It is heartbreaking to think of the troubled lives they lived while trying to make a better life for their families. This book will make you appreciate our
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own life and accomplishments. Show Less
LibraryThing member jscape2000
This "memoir-novel" (the amalgamation of Bulosan's experiences with others he witnessed or heard about) tells the story of his immigration to America from the Philipines during the Great Depression. Bulosan's language is unambiguous and direct, but the same quality holds his writing back from the
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transcendent depictions of bigotry and oppression achieved by writer-activists like Frederick Douglass or Bill Mullen. Show Less
LibraryThing member brianfergusonwpg
This panorama of life originating in the Colonial-dominated Philipines and driven by privation and naive-idealism to west-coast America in the thirties and forties is divided like a triptych. Each sub-book deals with the central issue with a respective focus. The first part inhabits the author's
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sentimental affection for his home. The theme is anything but purely sentimental though as also described in detail in the day-to-day struggle to survive against the rigged game of mass land ownership incursion by outsiders. The second panel reads like neo-dirty-realism set in depression-era America. The harsh, grimy realities described unsparingly make it worthy of many trail-blazing social-realist/naturalists and later dirty realists (he was reading John Fante) of the time period. The last component is historical documentation of the establishment of social-labor rights on the west coast of the US in the face of organized suppression, violence, and absolute unrelenting racism. It works accessibly on all these levels and thus is the work of an under-recognized genius and non-elitist. The positive upshot, also the ultimate significance of the book is that in spite of years of sustained abuse and neglect the author sees and loves the potential, yet to be realized, in America. The sad note is that the author was not quite given the recognition he deserved in his lifetime. For some reason, the artistic and intellectual community did not see fit to accept him into their ranks. Luckily for us this book is still around for us to immerse ourselves in, should we desire. Show Less
LibraryThing member ProfH
Hard not to compare to the Grapes of Wrath. It is an important part of history that very much deserves our attention. The writing and storytelling is unfortunately a slog.
LibraryThing member lethalmauve
Hmm I am personally conflicted about America Is in the Heart. Although a semi-autobiography that never undermines the impact of violence, self-inflicted or otherwise, ugly and unclothed, its apparent one-dimensional portrayal of women as seemingly damsels in distress is difficult to ignore. Despite
Under Spain for more than three hundred years, more than three decades under the U.S., the Philippines of today still looks up to its colonisers like a child needing parental guidance, at times a teen in rebellion. I don’t think any good parent would have done nor do what it’s doing at all—most particularly the U.S. I am starting to think of it as a wild case of Stockholm Syndrome instead.
“Why was America kind yet so cruel? Was there no way to simplifying things in this continent so that suffering would be minimized? Was there no common denominator on which we could all meet?”
As a Filipino myself I wonder if I am too harsh and critical of my own country. I may even be a hypocrite since I left the Philippines two years ago for a “more promising” job in another and plan to leave this one again in a year or so. I am also looking for belongingness and acceptance. I haven’t felt I belong anywhere nor is there anyone / anything there / here for me. It makes me ask, is this a reflection of my own country’s confusion with its own identity? Perhaps, perhaps...
Personal mulling aside, America Is in the Heart is an essential story not only of the Filipino migrant experience but also of marginalised people and their constant fight for equality and respect. A book that will benefit from a better editor, it is an undeniable horrific and heartrending story.
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this weak spot, its most riveting and tearing moments are tightly fastened to its narrator’s struggles to attain education and freedom whilst his native country uncertainly wades the murky waters and waves of post-colonialism. As these waves splash, soft yet insistent with its gift of fresh-from-the-oven independence, its own version of the “American Dream” materialises along the crippling poverty and evident social class divide in the Philippines. And with the phrase’s notion of a better life it turns its promises into a nightmare of (police) brutality and (racial) discrimination. It shatters into a broken dream. Bulosan further complicates these acts of aggression with his contradicting characterisation of Americans his narrator, Carl, encounter. Amidst this despairing narrative it clings onto hope in its rare visits through far and between gentleness and kindness. Somehow there is an implicit sentiment that still believes in the innate goodness of people; and an explicit belief on the strength and inspiration literature gives. As it jumps from state to state, from one work to another, from person to person, America Is in the Heart at its core desires belongingness and acceptance.Under Spain for more than three hundred years, more than three decades under the U.S., the Philippines of today still looks up to its colonisers like a child needing parental guidance, at times a teen in rebellion. I don’t think any good parent would have done nor do what it’s doing at all—most particularly the U.S. I am starting to think of it as a wild case of Stockholm Syndrome instead.
“Why was America kind yet so cruel? Was there no way to simplifying things in this continent so that suffering would be minimized? Was there no common denominator on which we could all meet?”
As a Filipino myself I wonder if I am too harsh and critical of my own country. I may even be a hypocrite since I left the Philippines two years ago for a “more promising” job in another and plan to leave this one again in a year or so. I am also looking for belongingness and acceptance. I haven’t felt I belong anywhere nor is there anyone / anything there / here for me. It makes me ask, is this a reflection of my own country’s confusion with its own identity? Perhaps, perhaps...
Personal mulling aside, America Is in the Heart is an essential story not only of the Filipino migrant experience but also of marginalised people and their constant fight for equality and respect. A book that will benefit from a better editor, it is an undeniable horrific and heartrending story.
Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1946
ISBN
9780295993539
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