©1997 by Edessa Ramos
Published as promotional material by the PINTIG Cultural Group
1992, Chicago, USA
Photo from the US Library Archives

Carlos Bulosan: 20^th Century Filipino Hero

He was only 17 years old when he alighted from the crowded and disease-ridden steerage in Seattle during the Depression in 1930. He was born of a family of sharecroppers in Pangasinan, a rural province in the Philippines. Bulosan later met his two brothers in the U.S. Like him, they labored from sunrise to sundown in the fish canneries of Alaska or the apple orchards of Washington state and produce fields of southern California for wages as meager as $2.75 a day, oftentimes exploited by con men, labor negotiators and greedy landlords.

Bulosan finished only three years of schooling in the Philippines, but he taught himself to write stories and poetry from books in the children's section of the Los Angeles public library. He started writing in 1936 and was first published by Poetry in the same year. His first story appeared in The New Yorker in 1942. His other works appeared in several magazines and literary reviews. One of his stories was reprinted in Best American Short Stories of 1945.

Bulosan was commissioned by President Roosevelt to write one of the four freedoms - "freedom from want" - which was illustrated by Norman Rockwell. His deep desire to write began as a child and was crystallized in 1936 when, close to death with tuberculosis in an obscure Los Angeles County hospital, he wrote his enduring novel: America is in the Heart. Carlos Bulosan died in 1956 in Seattle, Washington.

The Legacy of Carlos Bulosan for Subsequent
Generations of Filipinos in America

The stories of early immigrants and migrant workers traveling from poverty-stricken shores to America are stories of deep anguish accompanied by hope. They are testimony to the courage and tenacity of all colored peoples in America who steadfastly resisted the debauchery of our time and the imprisonment of the spirit so often experienced in an alien land. Such was the story of Carlos Bulosan. The novel America is in the Heart is his autobiography. Published in 1946, it represents the story of all Filipinos, of other Asians and immigrants from various lands who came to America in search of a dream.

Filipinos in the 1930's suffered extreme discrimination from mainstream Americans. They were called the most painful racial slurs such as "monkeys", beaten in barrooms and public places, barred by explicit signs from entering certain stores and washrooms, and insulted or beaten when seen in the company of a white woman.

America is in the Heart is an odyssey of heroism and suffering. It is a redefinition of America seen from the eyes of the poor and excluded, but reflected also in their dreams that are anchored to an undefeated belief in her values of democracy and fairness, and, in the words of Bulosan himself, "all in America that is yet to be born and realized."

In 1992, in an unprecedented move in community theater organizing in Chicago, a group of Filipino immigrants established the PINTIG Cultural Group and staged an original adaptation of the timeless novel by Carlos Bulosan. The production, the first in the theater company's series of identity plays, was running for six weeks at the Greenview Arts Center in the north side and enjoyed an audience estimated to have reached 4,000 people. The production later went on tour throughout Midwest America, performing in school auditoriums, chic theaters, and town halls. An estimated total of 3,000 people saw it on tour. The play got rave reviews from theater critics of the prestigious Chicago Sun Times and The Reader.

The Filipino-American community in Chicago regarded PINTIG (a Tagalog word meaning "heartbeat") as an idea whose time has come. It sought to be the cultural voice of the community, communicating the Filipino and Fil-American's hopes and aspirations to the larger, multi-cultural society. PINTIG continues to thrive to this day, supporting the growth of aspiring artists and art appreciators, launching workshops, and providing venues for performances and artwork exhibits. It thrives on volunteer hours and sacrifice, believing that the artist is also a trainor and organizer. It maintains strong links with mainstream art and cultural organizations. PINTIG acts as a firebrand that keeps the rich Filipino culture alive and developing, urging Filipinos to keep intact their sense of national pride and identity even as they build new lives in foreign shores.

Staging America is in the Heart served as a catalyst for PINTIG's community theater organizing. It galvanized a community dazed by years of in-fighting and internal jealousies and transformed it into one that is seriously reflective of its history and collective aspirations. The play brought together a conglomeration of young people, most of whom started out as lost, rebellious and inexperienced, and honed them into fine artists who understand the responsibility to put their art in service of the community.

Inspired by the memory of Carlos Bulosan and all the other manongs (old-timers who came to America in the 1930's), the Filipino community in Chicago and, perhaps the rest of America, found the courage to throw off the cloak of shame from a misunderstood past and bring to light the heroism of the early Filipinos in America. As such, the process of healing, forgiving, and re-shaping the future has begun.