30
public reception. As his indictment of racist insti-
tutions in a presumably egalitarian United States
of America collided with “the red scare,” Bulosan’s
popularity waned precipitously. The McCarthy-
ism of the 1950s rendered Bulosan a blacklisted
writer, and his works vanished from literary his-
tory for the next two decades. His books now out
of print, Bulosan was forgotten just as quickly as
he had exploded onto the intellectual scene in the
United States. He died in obscurity on a Seattle
street in 1956; his death, attributed to “exposure,”
was compounded by years of physical and psycho-
logical suffering.
In 1972 Epifanio San Juan, Jr., established him-
self as the premier Bulosan scholar by publishing
his landmark study, Carlos Bulosan and the Imagi-
nation of the Class Struggle. This study became
the first of many revolutionary, critical essays on
Bulosan written by San Juan, and it argued for
the importance of remembering (and rereading)
his works. Following San Juan’s study, many of
Bulosan’s lost writings were eventually recovered;
far removed from the fear of political backlash,
contemporary ethnic studies scholars were able
to bring Bulosan’s complex social critiques to
the fore. Bulosan regained his literary notoriety
posthumously, although he is celebrated today for
very different reasons. Once brought to light, the
complexity of his political message transformed
Bulosan’s legacy from a blindly optimistic pa-
triotism to a patriotically charged social activ-
ism. What was initially viewed as a contradiction
between his undying patriotism and his radical
social critique is in fact a marker of his sophisti-
cated understanding of U.S. social politics. He is
remembered today as one of the early fathers of
Filipino-American literature, fiercely determined
to hold America accountable for her promise of
greatness.Bibliography
Bulosan, Carlos. America Is in the Heart. New York:
Harcourt, 1946. Reprint, Seattle: University Wash-
ington Press, 1973.
———. The Laughter of My Father. New York: Har-
court, 1944.
———. On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings of
Carlos Bulosan, edited by E. San Juan, Jr. Philadel-
phia: Temple University Press, 1995.
———. “Writings of Carlos Bulosan.” edited by E.
San Juan, Jr. Amerasia Journal (special issue) 6, no.
1 (May 1979): 1–154.
Evangelista, Susan. Carlos Bulosan and His Poetry:
A Biography and Anthology. Seattle: University
Washington Press, 1985.
San Juan, Epifanio, Jr. Carlos Bulosan and the Imagi-
nation of the Class Struggle. Quezon City: Univer-
sity of the Philippines Press, 1972.
———. “Searching for the Heart of ‘America.’ ” Teach-
ing American Ethnic Literatures: Nineteen Essays.
Edited by John R. Maitino and David R. Peck. Al-
buquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Available online. URL:http://www.boondocksnet.
com/centennial/sctexts/bulosan.html. Posted
Spring 1993.
———. “Violence of Exile, Politics of Desire: Pro-
logue to Carlos Bulosan.” The Philippine Temp-
tation: Dialectics of Philippines–U.S. Literary
Relations, 129–170. Philadelphia: Temple Univer-
sity Press, 1996.
Linda PierceBulosan, Carlos 30