Carlos Bulosan

*Image borrowed from Literary History

Carlos Bulosan was a Filipino American writer and poet, whose semi-autobiographical book, America is in the Heart describes his childhood in the Philippines, his immigration to America, and the racial discrimination against Filipinos.

Carlos Bulosan was born in the Philippines between the years of 1911 and 1913, where he grew up in the countryside with his family as a farmer. During his childhood he received an American-style education, ingrained in the Filipino culture since the Thomasites and Pensionado program years before. Bulosan believed he could receive the same kind of opportunities in the United States. Bulosan’s older brothers left the Philippines for America, and to afford their fare the family began selling their farmland. Bulosan followed their footsteps at the age of 17, and arrived in Seattle, Washington in 1930.

Bulosan was told tales of the land of opportunity, and believed he could reach success doing menial jobs. However, the Depression and market crash had left the country in economical turmoil, and the status of Filipinos as “aliens” further distanced the Filipino immigrants from white Americans. Jobs were scarce, and Filipinos were limited in their choice of job opportunities. He worked as a field laborer and followed the seasons to earn money, as well as at an Alaskan fish cannery. His experiences led him to join the labor movement, organizing Filipino labor unions between 1935 and 1941.

Bulosan’s experiences with racism and economic turmoil became the social inequalities he began to write about. He wrote poetry and short stories, getting published in literary magazines and newspapers. One bimonthly Filipino magazine, “The New Tide”, introduced Bulosan to other writers and thus a wider circle of readers.

Through his writing and labor union involvements, Bulosan was a well versed and widely recognized leader amongst Filipino immigrants. His activities got him blacklisted as a radical from anti-Communist leaders and the FBI. Bulosan, however, continued to advocate for Filipino American immigrants.

In the 1950s Bulosan had returned to Seattle. An earlier case of tuberculosis finally caught up with him and he died in 1956.


*Image borrowed from Ilokano Literary Portal

His book America in the Heart is one of the most crucial Filipino American literary works, as it is one of the few published works documenting the racial discrimination against Filipino immigrants. It is an important tool in learning about Filipino identity of early Filipino immigrants. Today it continues to be used in classrooms as an important teaching material for Filipino American and Asian American studies.

Bulosan’s works include:
-Letter from America, a book of poems published in 1942
-Chorus for America: Six Philippine Poets
-Voice of Bataan, a book of poems published in 1943
-Laughter of My Father, a bestselling novel published in 1944

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