Cristel Ruiz
Dr. White
LITR 4333
April 22, 2002 

Research Journal on the Filipino American Literary Heritage, 

Focusing on Carlos Bulosan

Introduction

“According to indigenous folklore, the people that we know today as Filipinos arose froma single bamboo reed,” (Likha 1) thus beginning an intricate and fascinating history of the people of the Philippines.  Included in the Asian American Diaspora, Pilipino colonial history makes them one of the most “westernized” people in Asia and creates a diversity understood only through the context of their national history and immigration patterns.  Beginning this project, I chose Filipino (Americans) as my focus in an attempt to relate the seeming obscurity of American Immigrant Literature to myself and my family.  Though of European-American heritage, I married into a Filipino/German family with a recent immigrant history through my father-in-law, Albert Toledo Ruiz.  In researching the history of the Filipino literary tradition in America, I realized the lack of historical context in which to place the writers and their work, and in doing so decided to devote part of my research journal to a history of the Philippines, as well as a small glossary of terms which I will be using throughout the journal.  Finding specific information about the authors proved challenging as discrepancies abound, but Carlos Bulosan is the focus of my Author Study section.  Following the author study, rather than list and analyze sources outside of their context, I will discuss the Filipino Immigration History as well as their Immigrant Literary history, using several articles and websites, and I will end my research journal with excerpts from an e-mail and phone interview with Albert T. Ruiz.

A History of the Philippines

The Republic of the Philippines is divided into 72 provinces and 61 chartered cities. Its history consists of various colonial governments following the initial settling of the land by Malay people about 30000 years ago.  The following is an outline of historical dates (quoted from http://www.regit.com/regitour/philipin/about/history.htm   with additional information added by C. Ruiz):

• 50,000 B.C - 150 B.C, Negroid and Malay People migrate to the Philippines.

• 1150 - 1475, Islam reaches the Philippines via Borneo.

• 1521, Ferdinand Magellan lands on Samar, claiming the land for Spain. He brings the Catholicism to the archipelago and is killed in a battle with Lapu-lapu, chieftain of Mactan Island, Cebu.

• 1543, The archipelago is named Las Philipinas in honor of King Philip II of Spain.

• 1565, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrives and 333 years of Spanish colonial rule begin.

• 1898, The U.S declares war against Spain and attacks Manila Bay with heavily armed ships. The American government collaborates with Emilio Aguinaldo and promises American support for Pilipino independence. On June 12, the Philippines is proclaimed independent from Spain by Aguinaldo. Spain sells the Philippines to the U.S for $20 million.

• 1901, Aguinaldo is captured and takes an oath of allegiance to the U.S. A civil government is established with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor - General.

• 1907, The first congressional election is held.

• 1916, The Jones Law promises independence and the establishment of a stable government. Manuel Quezon is elected President of the Senate and Sergio Osmena, speaker of the House of Representative.

• 1917, The first Philippine cabinet under the American regime is organized.

• 1934, U.S President Roosevelt approves the Philippines Independence Law. It provides for the establishment of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under a constitution to be drafted by a constitution convention.

• 1935, The constitution is approved by the Constitutional Convention and Roosevelt and ratified by the Philippine electorate. According to the Tydings-McDuffie Act, the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth and Manuel Quezon is the Philippines’ first elected President.

• 1941, Quezon and Osmena are re-elected in the Philippines 2nd Presidential election. Japanese bombers attack the Philippines and force Douglas MacArthur, the Commander of the U.S Armed Forces in the Far East to retreat to Bataan. President Quezon moves to Corregidor. MacArthur declares Manila an open city, virtually capitulating to the Japanese

• 1942, The Japanese occupy the Philippines, impose martial law and install their educational system. President Quezon and the war cabinet leave for the U.S. The Hukbalahap, an anti-Japanese guerilla unit is formed. The cruel Death March of 36,000 American and Filipino soldiers follows the surrender of Bataan.

• 1943, A puppet government is inaugurated with Jose P. Laurel as president.

• 1944, MacArthur, Osmeno and American troops land in Leyte, redeeming his promise, "I shall return."  The Commonwealth government is re-established.

• 1945, American troops regain Manila. MacArthur cedes Malacanang Palace to Osmena and announces the liberation of the Philippines.

• 1946, The U.S administration declares the Philippines independent. Manuel Roxas becomes the first President of the Republic; Elpidio Quirino is elected the Vice President.

• 1965, Ferdinand Marcos wins the presidential election.

• 1972, Marcos declares Martial Law, Senator Benigo Aquino Jr. and other opposition leaders are arrested. A curfew is imposed and Congress is suspended.  (Marcos sites “Growing lawlessness and open rebellion by the communist rebels as his justification.)

• 1980, Aquino is released from jail and leaves for the US for heart surgery.

• 1983, Aquino is assassinated at a Philippines airport on August 21. Demonstrations and waves of protest roll over the country.

• 1986. February 25, Aquino’s widow, Corazon runs in a "snap" election against Marcos. Corazon wins but Marcos tries to rig the vote counting. Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Fidel Ramos stage a coup d’etat. The rebellion is given support by Archbishop Jaime, Cardinal Sin, and "people power". Marcos flees for Honolulu.

• 1989, The most serious coup d’etat against the Aquino administration is staged by rebel soldiers and fails.

• 1992, Fidel V. Ramos is elected the President.

•  Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the current President.

Separated into four distinct periods, the Pre-Spanish (or Pre-Colonial) Period, the Spanish Period, the American Period, and the Post-Independence Period, Pilipino history is a series of colonial ventures ending with a broken and weary country after World War II that is still trying to regain the economic stability compromised by Marcos during his Martial Law Period.  (“Until the 1960’s, the Philippines was economically among the most developed countries in Southeast Asia; [in 1991], it [was] the second poorest country in the region” from “A Brief History from a Filipino Perspective”.)  Many Americans, myself included, know little about the history of the American ties with the Philippines, and even less about the history of the Filipino Immigration and Literary History within the United States, so this journal is to explore the information available and enlighten us.

Information collected from:

“Philippines.” Reprinted from the US State Department Background Notes, 1999, on http://www.worldrover.com/history/philippines_history.html

“A Brief History of the Philippines from a Filipino Perspective.”  Health Alert Special Issue, pages 116-117 as reprinted on http://www.tribo.org/history/history3.html

“Republic of the Philippines.”  Map.  Likha Pilipino Folk Ensemble. http://www.likha.org/history/philippines.html

Glossary

Author Study: Carlos Bulosan  

America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling on a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate – We are America!

Carlos Bulosan from America Is in the Heart as quoted on http://www.stanford.edu/~jsangria/bulosan/main.htm

            Finding information on author Carlos Bulosan proved challenging, indicating to me that we know much less than we realize about writers from different ethnic backgrounds.  While many articles exist detailing sections of his life, many details contradict each other and call into question the writers’ accuracy.  For example, depending on the source, Carlos Bulosan was born in either 1903, 1911 (the date of birth from his baptismal record), or 1913, in Binalonan, Pangasinan Province, Philippines.  Born into a poor family, some accounts tell of his three years of formal schooling during which formed the seeds of desire for his immigration to America, through the Americanized education system present in the Philippines.  Other accounts, such as Elaine Kim’s Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context, state that “Bulosan had almost completed secondary school in the Philippines before he accumulated enough money for the steerage passage” (46).  From either perspective, though, Bulosan grew up in a poor family with little hope for economic advancement outside of sending its boys to America to earn money to send home to the family.  On July 22, 1930, Bulosan arrived in Seattle, Washington, amid the Great Depression (de Leon).  Here, again, the stories diverge, with some critics following Bulosan’s journey through his narrator in America Is in the Heart, who leaves Seattle immediately in almost indentured servitude to work grueling hours in a fish cannery in Alaska, with others claiming that the story’s initial sequences were depictions of other Filipino men arriving in America and not the actual experiences of Bulosan.  Little is definitively known about Bulosan’s life from 1930 through 1936, when Bulosan was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent two years at Los Angeles County Hospital (de Leon).  During his hospitalization, Bulosan “began to read voraciously, educating himself and gradually becoming a writer” (de Leon).  Upon leaving the hospital, Bulosan began his writing career, with his major works including:

            Letter from America (poetry)                                   1942

            Chorus from America (poetry)                    1942

            The Voice of Bataan (poetry)                                  1943 (in honor of the men who died there)

            The Laughter of My Father (short stories)     1944

            America Is in the Heart (memoir)               1946

Bulosan also wrote “Freedom from Want,” published in the Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943, in response to “President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s January 1941 speech on the “Four Freedoms” (Kim 45).  In 1944, Bulosan’s The Laughter of My Father was misunderstood by most American critics when it was first published, and through his anger at their misinterpretation of his modernized Pilipino folktales, he began writing America Is in the Heart.   Though received initially with great success and being touted as “‘the definitive text of the first-generation Filipino immigrant experience’” (Libretti 135), America Is in the Heart was said to be his “swan song” because after its publication, Bulosan was virtually forgotten by the America of which he longed to be a part.  His writing is said to have been “‘a testament of one who longed to become part of America.’  At the same time, it is more than that: it is the chronicle of loneliness and compassion by a member of an oppressed and exploited minority on behalf of all the oppressed who might home to contribute to ‘a better society and a more enlightened mankind’” (Kim 57).  His detailed descriptions of migrant workers and the deplorable conditions in which they were forced to work, due to discrimination and racism, shows America from a darker side, though Bulosan still valued the concept of America and his idealism of America as the beautiful white woman, strong but able to care for the outcast.  His writing contained a less technical style than that of other ethnic writers of his time, but Bulosan’s message contains so much truth that looking beyond the simplistic writing style affords the reader a glimpse into the world of Filipino immigrants.

In 1950, Bulosan was offered a job editing a union’s yearbook in Seattle, so he moved there in the hopes of feeling more productive.  During the 1950’s, Bulosan was blacklisted as a Communist (or Communist sympathizer, because, again, the sources disagree on his party affiliation) and began to work with Union organizers to help the plight of the impoverished Filipinos of the migrant farm workers and canneries.  There he met Josephine Patrick, with whom he was to spend the last years of his life (except for 1952-1953 when he was hospitalized again, this time for a cancerous kidney, which had to be removed) (de Leon).  Patrick described Bulosan in a 1999 newspaper interview, saying “‘He was very beautiful,’ [. . .] adding that at about 5 feet 4 inches and 96 pounds, she and Bulosan were about the same size.  ‘He was small and delicate and he had a very soft voice.  He danced even with his stiff leg, and he was funny; he had a marvelous sense of humor’” (de Leon).  In the end, Bulosan, plagued his entire life by ill health, died on September 11, 1956, in Seattle, of pneumonia.  His friends attempted to publish his self-estimated “million words that remained unpublished” (de Leon), but not until later were more of Bulosan’s words published.  His posthumously published works include:

Sound of Falling Light: Letters in Exile (correspondence)                     1960

The Power of the People (a novel)                                                 1977

The Philippines Is in the Heart (short stories)                              1979

If You Want to Know What We Are (short stories, essays, poetry)         1973

Bulosan once told Patrick: “ ‘I want to interpret the soul of the Filipinos in this country,’ […] ‘What really compelled me to write was to try to understand this country, to find a place in it not only for myself but for my people’” (de Leon).  I believe he did just that.

Works Cited

de Leon, Ferdinand M.  “Revisiting the life and legacy of pioneering Filipino writer Carlos Bulosan.”  Seattle Times 8 August 1999: Lifestyle Section.  Reflections of Asia http://www.reflectionsof asia.com/carlosbulosan.htm

Kim, Elaine H.  Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context.  Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1982.

Libretti, Tim.  “First and Third Worlds in U.S. Literature: Rethinking Carlos Bulosan.”  MELUS 23.4 (Wint 1998): 135-55.

Filipino Immigration and Immigrant Literature

            Filipino immigration began as early as 1906, with “as many as 150,000 Filipinos migrat[ing] to the United States” between 1906 and 1946 (Hebbar).  Most of the early immigrants settled in California and Hawaii to work on Hawaiian sugar plantations or common labor jobs, which were done by the newest immigrants (Hebbar).  Another wave of immigrants came to the United States after World War II, numbering about 30,000 of whom most were “World War II veterans and their families” (Hebbar).  The third major wave of immigrants arrived between 1965 and 1984, numbering 630,000.  Though the Republic of the Philippines was a U.S. protectorate for many years, the status of Filipino immigrants varied widely from before World War II when discrimination and racial stereotyping ran rampant, even though the 1934 Tydings -McDuffie Independence Act elevated the status of these immigrants from “aliens” to “nationals” (Hebbar).  While Filipinos immigrated for many reasons, “the United States’ 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the later political and economic uncertainty created by the Marcos regime in the Philippines are two factors which increased Filipino immigration” between 1965-1984 (Hebbar).  Hebbar continues, saying: “the Filipino American population is the fastest growing Asian American group in the United States, and statistics illustrate that this community will surpass the numbers of Japanese and Chinese Americans combined in the next decade” (Hebbar).

            From this amazing immigration story comes a rich literary history in which the Filipino community, with its short time in the United States and diverse population, has managed to produce a vast collection of literary works.  From the early writers of the twentieth century, such as Carlos Bulosan, P.C. Morantte, Jose Garcia Villa, Bienvenido N. Sanchez, N.V.M. Gonzalez, to more modern authors of Pilipino descent, such as Ninotchka Rosca, Ephifanio San Juan, Linda

Ty-Casper, Michelle Skinner, Jessica Hagedorn, and Peter Bacho, the field of Filipino Immigrant Literature is challenging many traditional Asian American Studies programs to create a new canon of texts with which to work.  The diversity of backgrounds of these authors also challenges the idea of a single type of Filipino author, with many attempting to capture the past to share with the future.  Social class as well as education form different perceptions of the Filipino experience and these and other issues can be explored in more depth at http://www.filipinoamericanlit.com.

Works Cited

Hebbar, Reshmi.  “Filipino American Literature.” Emory University.

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Filipino.htm

Interview with Albert T. Ruiz

            When I spoke with Al about allowing me to interview him for a school project, he seemed surprised, but happy.  I have enjoyed getting to know Al and Clara in the almost five years I have been married to their son.  Clara is from a German American farming family from Missouri and met Al when they were neighbors during the curfews following the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, where they lived.  Al was gracious enough to answer my questions and e-mail them to me due to the distance.  We followed up with a phone conversation.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time talking with Al and I learned a lot about his family background which I hope to pass on to my son as he gets older.

When did you decide to leave the Philippines and why did you choose the US? 

  I left the Philippines in Dec. 1960.  I joined the US Navy.  It was an opportunity to travel and better job opportunities.  (Al stayed in the Navy for 4 years before returning to the Philippines to attend the University of the East in Manila, using the GI Bill.  He attended school for 2 ½ years before immigrating to the United States through Memphis, where his brother lived.)

How did your family react to your decision?

  They were happy for me because that’s what I wanted to do, come to the States and that is the only way I could.  To come as an immigrant takes a long time to get the papers processed and approved, sometimes for as much as ten years.

(Al was the 9^th of eleven children and the youngest boy.  He has 5 brothers and 5 sisters, some of whom now live in the Unites States and Canada.)

What were your biggest challenges upon entering the US? My biggest challenge was getting over the chickenpox.  ( I am just kidding) However I did get the chickenpox when I came to the States because I had never had it before.  Really my biggest challenge was spending three months in boot camp (San Diego) in a different country.  Although we (the Filipinos) are a different nationality we go through the same training as the others in the military.  I was homesick; the training was hard and had to learn a new and different culture.  The one problem I had was the discrimination of the whites against the black people at that time.  Because my nationality is dark the white people were not as friendly and the black people did not like us either.  So we kind of stayed together as a group when we first arrived until later we make friends.

We talked a bit more in depth about this and Al mentioned the difficulty in the military and civilian life of Filipinos trying to find their place in American society.  The segregation and discrimination of the 1960’s was challenging to the Filipinos—which bathroom should they use?  Al said, “We weren’t white, but we weren’t ‘colored’ either and the blacks didn’t like us to use their bathrooms, so we started using the white ones after a while.”

Did you ever consider going back to the Philippines?

  At one time.  But I have family of my own here now and some of my relatives from the Philippines have immigrated here and live on the West Coast.  However, I do like to go home for a visit.

When you had children, what aspects of Filipino life/heritage did you want to pass on?

     Respect for the elderly.

Did owning you own business play a part in you American Dream?  Yes

I asked Al about his choice to become a hairstylist when he came to the US after college and he said that when he arrived in Memphis, after his brother had petitioned for his migration, that it was May and he was unable to continue taking classes (he had to wait for the Fall).  His brother suggested barber school, which Al laughed at, but once enrolled, he liked it so much that he never quit.  Within a year, he had built his own business (with a partner, I believe).  I thought that was such a great model of the American Dream come true.

When did you become a US citizen?  Why? 

I became a citizen in 1974, three months before Brandon was born.  I became [a citizen] to have all the privileges of an American citizen, such as the right to vote.

What aspect of American life did/do you enjoy most? 

  Freedom of life, like women here are free to choose their men or vice or versa.  When I was in the Philippines, our culture was very similar to the Spanish.  (Remember the Spanish were before the Americans ever came).  The young girls/women had to have a chaperone and the marriages were usually arranged or had to be approved by the parents.

I enjoy the food here because there are so many different kinds because so many different cultures have come here.  I am able to own a car and house.  In the Philippines only those people who are well off have a car or own their own home.  Many share their home with several generations. 

  Also when I was in the US Navy I was stationed on board the USS Enterprise as a steward. The USS Enterprise went around the world.  While I was in the Navy I traveled to countries in Europe (Spain, France, Greece, Italy) in the Far East (Japan) also to Beirut, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Australia and saw many different cultures. 

Clara interjected a comment that she thought it was interesting that the Philippines is the only country that the US lets their citizens (Filipino) serve in the armed forces without becoming an American citizen.  Al continued on that topic and said that many of the men who serve their four-year terms in the Navy return home to the Philippines to take advantage of the GI Bill to attend college (as he did after his time in the Navy), and that they receive the full retirement benefits of the military, just as any American Citizen would.  Also, with the exchange rate in the Philippines (52 pesos to $1), the men “live like Kings!”

What were your family’s feelings when you married Clara?  I never really knew because I was in the States and they were in the Philippines but I am sure they were happy for me.

My mother wanted me to settle down so she was very happy when we had children.

What kinds of books do you enjoy reading?

  Sports-especially basketball, football, and fishing.

  The 1920’s gangster books.

  I also enjoy any Western movie.

Dr. White, just for you, I asked Al about having a Spanish surname in a country struggling with postcolonial problems.  He said:

“Our family has a lot of Spanish on my Father’s side.  “Toledo” is also a Spanish name, (which is his mother’s maiden name) but my mother’s family has less Spanish than my father’s.  In the Philippines, the truly “native” surnames also carry with them a different physical appearance: smaller, darker skinned, “pure” Pilipinos.  Discrimination in the Philippines, though, is not based on background, but dialect.”  Al told me that Tagolog, the Philippine language, has over 72 dialects spoken on the islands. 

I really enjoyed my interview with Albert Toledo Ruiz, my father-in-law, and thank him for allowing me to ask so many questions!

Conclusion

            In beginning my research on Filipino culture and immigration in America, I did not realize the rich literary tradition they had established here.  I also had no idea that the immigration of Filipinos was so large.  I guess that by not knowing these things, I was losing out on a lot of the culture to which I am now linked.  I can see this topic being a wonderful subject for a thesis, especially with all of the contemporary writers to study.  I would be interested to see the feminist perspective of Filipinas in the last few years.  I truly enjoyed doing this research journal and hope to have more time after graduation to follow up on reading some of the authors I have “discovered.”