Carlos Bulosan

On November 2, 1911, Carlos Sampayan Bulosan was born in the barrio of Mangusmana, Binalonan, Pangasinan to a farming couple. Living in abject poverty, Bulosan left the Philippines in 1931 to join his two elder brothers who hoped to find better work in the plantation farms of the United States. There, in the midst of the depression and raging racism, Bulosan became a labor organizer who fought for the rights of migrant workers. He wrote well-received short stories and novels that illuminated the deplorable conditions faced by migrants. His most popular work is “America is in the Heart.” A year before his death, Bulosan wrote: “What impelled me to write? The answer is—my grand dream of equality among men and freedom to all. To give a voice to the voiceless 100,000 Filipinos in the United States, Hawaii and Alaska. Above all and ultimately, to translate the desires and aspirations of the whole Filipino people in the Philippines and abroad in terms relevant to contemporary history.”