Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in America Is in the Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Beauty in Despair
Race and American Identity
Education vs. Ignorance
Poverty
Summary
Analysis
Carlos makes Macario’s dictum that “the old world will die” his new guiding thought. He points out José’s imprisonment, Pascual’s death, and Macario’s new dedication to America as markers of his “intellectual awakening.” He helps distribute copies of the inaugural issue of The New Tide magazine, but the magazine soon folds despite a valiant effort from Nick and Felix to save it.
After years of struggling to find his place in the American social landscape, Carlos now dedicates himself to the goal of building a better, more just America for himself and other non-white immigrants. Again, Carlos has found a surprising form of hope that rises out of a desperate situation.
Themes
Although the magazine does not succeed, the dedication its founders displayed for their higher ideals inspires Carlos “toward an intellectual clarification and a positive social attitude.” Moreover, working on the magazine draws Carlos deeper into the labor movement, and when he learns of the independent Filipino Workers’ Association union, he decides to form a new branch of the union with José and Gazamen in Lompoc.
From this moment onwards, the union movement becomes not just an activity for Carlos, but also an intellectual calling. The drive to organize workers relies on a foundation of justice, opportunity, and equality for all people regardless of their race. These higher ideals inspire Carlos like nothing he has previously experienced in his life.
Themes
Soon thereafter, there is a scramble for power among the Association’s national officers. Many Filipino workers have embraced the trade union movement because “low wages and other labor discriminations” are “the direct causes that [instigate] the persecutions against them.” Lettuce workers in Salinas successfully strike for better wages, but arsonists destroy their general headquarters.
Despite its tumultuous existence, the Filipino Workers’ Association gives a much-needed avenue through which Filipinos can voice their collective grievances. By connecting their precarious labor conditions to the broader social racism they experience, the workers successfully identify the systematic injustices they must fight.
Themes
José and Carlos make the Association’s new, temporary general headquarters in Lompoc and begin a new membership campaign. Carlos recognizes how vegetable companies split up Mexican and Filipino sugar beet pickers in an effort to dissuade unionization and keep the two groups antagonistic towards each other. This type of “fascism,” he notes, impedes the labor movement everywhere.
Carlos understands that by dividing employees along racial lines, employers can also stifle any cross-racial union alliances. Thus, showing different ethnic workers that they share a common antagonist becomes a key element in Carlos’s union campaigning.
Themes
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José and Carlos organize a meeting between representatives from the Mexican and Filipino workers, but union-busters arrive and break up the meeting. Carlos and José flee and hide out in a manure barn. When the coast is clear, they flee the barn and walk five miles south to the town of Camarillo. Carlos admires the mountains nearby because they remind him of his home village in the Philippines, and he describes the natural surroundings to José.
Bulosan continues his theme of contrasting great despair with great beauty. After fleeing from violent union busters and literally hiding in waste, Carlos is nonetheless still able to appreciate the beauty of the nearby mountain ranges.
Themes
On their way to Ventura, police arrest José and Carlos, and they spend three days in jail before returning to Lompoc. They learn that a white woman named Helen has been agitating with striking Filipino workers there. She is secretly a professional strike-breaker, but despite Carlos’s suspicions about her, she convinces José to let her join their labor activities.
The character of Helen is a rarity in Bulosan’s story: she is an American woman who does not nurture Carlos, but instead sows chaos and hatred in his life. Perhaps because American women have been so supportive of him before this point, Carlos ends up working with her even though he senses that she’s not trustworthy.
Themes
