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B

Bacho, Peter (1950– )
In his novels, short stories, and essays, Peter Bacho
explores the often-overlooked presence and his-
tory of the Manong (older) generation of Filipino
Americans and their children. These Filipino men
came to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s,
mostly from less wealthy and less educated classes
in the Philippines, and worked as migrant labor-
ers up and down the West Coast from central Cal-
ifornia’s farms to Alaska’s salmon canneries. Bacho
draws much of his insight into the perspectives
and dreams of the men in this community from
his own life as the son of a Manong. His work relies
heavily on his own experiences as a Filipino Amer-
ican of a particular generation and community in
Seattle, centering on the assertion of masculinity,
American-centered lives, a conscious reclamation
of a past generation’s heroism, and the compli-
cated history of connections between the United
States and the Philippines.
Bacho was born in Seattle and, after a few years
of moving around the West Coast with his fam-
ily, grew up in a black and Filipino-American
neighborhood in Seattle where his sense of com-
munity and home still lies. He went on to gradu-
ate summa cum laude from Seattle University
and also earned a law degree from the University
of Washington. He has worked as an attorney, a
teacher, and a journalist, mainly in Washington
and California.

In his American Book Award–winning first

novel, Cebu (1992), Bacho writes the story of

Ben Lucero, a young Filipino-American priest

who confronts his family’s past in the turbulent

history of the Philippines. The story begins with

Ben’s return to the island of Cebu in the Philip-

pines to bury his mother. His trip connects him

to the histories of Spanish Catholicism and colo-

nialism, U.S. military interventions, Japanese oc-

cupation, and the various national struggles that

made the Philippines the diverse nation it is today.

In Cebu, Ben contacts Aunt Clara, a close friend

of his mother, who relates his mother’s life before

she immigrated to the United States as the wife of

an American soldier named Albert Lucero. When

Ben returns to the United States, this newly found

knowledge helps him understand his own place as

a priest in his Seattle community.

In addition to essays on Filipino-American

history and on boxing in various magazines and

anthologies, Bacho has written a short-story cycle,

DARK BLUE SUIT AND OTHER STORIES (1997), and an-

other novel, Nelson’s Run (2002).

Paul Lai

Barbarians Are Coming, The David

Wong Louie (2000)

This first novel by DAVID WONG LOUIE is a first-

person narrative chronicling the experiences of a