Carlos Bulosan honored with new translation of his book

BINALONAN, Pangasinan , Philippines  – The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the local government here will pay tribute to a famous son of this town, Carlos Bulosan, on Feb. 19 and 20 by launching the Ilocano translation of his famous book “America is in the Heart” (Adda Iti Puso Ti Amerika), to coincide with the town fiesta here.

The book was translated by writer Manuel Diaz under a grant from the NCCA initiated by its National Committee on Language Translation headed by Dr. Jovy Peregrino, National Committee on Communications head Alfredo Gabot, who is a grandson of Bulosan, and the Sub-Commission for Cultural Dissemination led by Commissioner Elmar Ingles. 

Bulosan is perhaps the most prolific and most popular writer of his time. His works – short stories, essays and poems – have been published in leading magazines of his day, like The New Yorker Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Arizona Quarterly and Westways, among others. 

In 1943, Bulosan submitted a collection of his stories entitled “The Laughter of My Father” to Harcourt Brace & Co. When it came off the press in 1944, the book became an instant hit and was later translated into several languages. 

It was also in 1943 that Bulosan was commissioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and The Saturday Evening Post to write one of the four freedoms for his inauguration.  Bulosan’s essay, “Freedom from Want,” was published by the magazine side by side with “Freedom of Speech” by Booth Tarkington, “Freedom of Worship” by Will Durant and “Freedom from Fear” by Stephen Vincent Benet, and illustrated by famous American artist Norman Rockwell.

Tarkington, Durant and Benet were all Pulitzer Prize winning authors and among the most popular American authors of the 20th century. The fact that Bulosan was commissioned along with the three famous authors is a testament to his literary success.  

Bulosan wrote many stirring stories, poems, essays, plays, and editorials, including “The Romance of Magno Rubio” which has been transformed into an award-winning play; “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow,” “Letter from America,” and “The Voice of Bataan.”

Bulosan chronicled the painful struggles of Filipino workers and other minorities in the US. He captured their often cruel stories with a sensitivity that tugged at the heart of every Filipino. His vivid account of these struggles is carefully woven into his soul-stirring book “America is in the Heart,” first published by Harcourt Brace & Co. in 1946. 

So powerful is Bulosan’s presentation that thousands of copies of the book have been sold, and even up to the present, it is required reading in high schools and colleges in the US.

The University of Washington in Seattle re-issued the book in 1973 with an introduction by American writer Carey Williams. The university is also the repository of all the original works of Bulosan.  

“America is in the Heart” has also been translated into various languages. The book’s sequel, “The Power of the People” or “The Cry and Dedication,” was subsequently published in the US and Canada.  

In his visit to the US in 1993, then President Fidel Ramos paid tribute to Bulosan for his contribution towards the acceptance of Filipinos in America.

Ramos said: “Carlos Bulosan, my neighbor in Pangasinan, arrived in Seattle, Washington poor and unlettered; then worked in canneries, picked fruits and vegetables and did other menial jobs. But he taught himself to be a better person.

“If life is so much better here for minority groups today, they owe a great part of that change to this man – Carlos Bulosan. We may not remember Carlos Bulosan, but his ideals – and his struggles – have survived him.”