A 1946 Filipino American social classic about the United States in the
1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures
racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream,
with a foreword by novelist Elaine Castillo
Poet, essayist, novelist, fiction writer and labor organizer, Carlos
Bulosan (1911-1956) wrote one of the most influential working class
literary classics about the U.S. pre-World War II, a period and setting
similar to that of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
Bulosan's semi-autobiographical novel America is in the Heart begins
with the narrator's rural childhood in the Philippines and the struggles
of land-poor peasant families affected by US imperialism after the
Spanish American War of the late 1890s. Carlos's experiences with other
Filipino migrant laborers, who endured intense racial abuse in the
fields, orchards, towns, cities and canneries of California and the
Pacific Northwest in the 1930s, reexamine the ideals of the American
dream. Bulosan was one of the most important 20th century social critics
with his deeply moving account of what it was like to be criminalized in
the U.S. as a Filipino migrant drawn to the ideals of what America
symbolized and committed to social justice for all marginalized groups.
Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month
with these three Penguin Classics:
America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (9780143134039)
East Goes West by Younghill Kang (9780143134305)
The Hanging on Union Square by H. T. Tsiang (9780143134022)
