America Is in the Heart, sometimes subtitled A Personal History,

is a 1946 semi-autobiographical novel written by Filipino

American immigrant poet, fiction writer, short story teller, and
activist, Carlos Bulosan. The novel was one of the earliest
published books that presented the experiences of the immigrant
and working class based on an Asian American point of view and
has been regarded as "[t]he premier text of the Filipino-American
experience." In his introduction, journalist Carey McWilliams, who
wrote a 1939 study about migrant farm labor in California
(Factories in the Field), described America Is in the Heart as a
“social classic” that reflected on the experiences of Filipino
immigrants in America who were searching for the “promises of a
better life”.

Plot
Born in 1913, Bulosan recounts his boyhood in the Philippines.
The early chapters describe his life as a Filipino farmer "plowing
with a carabao". Bulosan was the fourth oldest son of the family.
As a young Filipino, he once lived on the farm tended by his
father, while his mother was separately living in a barrio in
Binalonan, Pangasinan, together with Bulosan's brother and
sister. Their hardships included pawning their land and having to
sell items in order to finish the schooling of his brother Macario.
He had another brother named Leon, a soldier who came back
after fighting in Europe.
Bulosan's narration about his life in the Philippines was followed
by his journey to the United States. He recounted how he
immigrated to America in 1930. He retells the struggles, prejudice,
and injustice he and other Filipinos had endured in the United
States, first while in the Northwestern fisheries then later in
California. These included his experiences as a migrant and
laborer in the rural West.

Themes
Bulosan's America Is in the Heart is one of the few books that
detail the migrant workers' struggles in the United States during
the 1930s through the 1940s, a time when signs like "Dogs and
Filipinos not allowed" were common. The struggles included
"beatings, threats, and ill health". In this book, Bulosan also
narrated his attempts to establish a labor union. Bulosan's book
had been compared to The Grapes of Wrath except that the main
and real characters were brown-skinned. Despite the bitterness
however, Bulosan reveals in the final pages of the book that
because he loved America no one could ever destroy his faith in
his new country. In this personal literature, Bulosan argued that
despite the suffering and abuses he experienced, America was an
unfinished "ideal in which everyone must invest, time and energy,
this outlook leaves us with a feeling of hope for the future instead
of bitter defeat." According to Carlos P. Romulo when he was
interviewed by The New York Times, Bulosan wrote America Is in
the Heart with "bitterness" in his heart and blood yet with the
purpose of contributing "something toward the final fulfillment of
America".
Through America Is in the Heart, Bulosan was able to share a
unique perspective on Asian life in the United States in general,
but particularly that of Filipino-Americans during the first half of
the 20th century. It is a book that encourages people of all races
and genders to ponder and improve their relationships with one
another.

Characters
This semi-autobiographical story is narrated in the first person by
the protagonist, Allos. The wider scope of the story tells of his
emigration from the Philippines, where he was born into a family
of subsistence famers, to America, arriving in Seattle at the age of
seventeen to be sold for five dollars as a laborer. But to set the
scene for the story's larger events (including the fact that, in later
life, both narrator and author were bedridden and read many
books that helped them become activists who wrote about union
efforts and labor), the story begins by describing Allos's youth.

Allos and His Family

The main characters are Allos (the narrator), his father, and his
four brothers. The book's opening scene describes the return of
Allos's brother Leon from fighting in World War I. Allos's father is
in disbelief when they both see Leon walking slowly toward them,
as he had believed his son may have been killed.
The family returns to their farming, and when Leon's wedding day
ends in a tragedy that forces Leon to move to a distant village, the
other brothers must work harder. Amado, Luciano, and Macario
are all older than Allos and all live in different towns at the time.
Amado is the youngest of the four brothers, in grade school and
living with Allos's mother and baby sister at the time of the story's
beginning; Allos's father brings him back to the farm after Leon's
departure. Luciano is completing his three years of military
service with the Philippine Scouts, a native detachment of the US
army. Macario is attending high school in the capital city, and
Allos relates that he is the pride and hope of the family, as they all
wish he would become a school teacher with a steady job who
could work closer to the family.
By focusing on these characters at the beginning of the novel,
Bolusan shows that Allos comes from a rural farming culture that
is male-dominated. This is also shown in the way that Leon and
his new bride are brutally attacked because of an ancient, and
some would say sexist, custom. The pressure for young men to
leave their homeland and seek new opportunities in America
becomes the basis for the story and the exploration of its
implications.