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Sunday, June 25, 2006
Late Pangasinense writer remembered
By Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre
BINALONAN -- Carlos S. Bulosan was born in Barangay Sto. Niño on Nov. 2, 1911. He went to Seattle in the US on July 22, 1930. He was 17 years old then. Then he accepted low-paying jobs to survive in America.
He died on Sept. 11, 1956 in Seattle of bronchopneumonia and was buried in Queen Anne Hill in Seattle.
"Bulosan, whose works and life would inspire later generations of young Asian Americans rediscovering their heritage and history, died in Seattle forgotten and discarded by an America that had briefly embraced him."
Thus wrote Ferdinand M. de Leon in the Aug. 8, 1999 issue of the Seattle Times under the title "Revisiting the life and legacy of pioneering Filipino writer Carlos Bulosan."
Bulosan may have been gone for a long time but on the contrary, he is not at all forgotten, especially by his town mates in Binalonan.
Binalonan Vice Mayor Myrna Bell Uy, who is also the Municipal Council presiding officer, said in a recent interview that September 11, the death anniversary of Bulosan, has been declared as a special working holiday in Binalonan.
On May 29, 2006, the council passed Municipal Ordinance 2006-01 "declaring September 11 of every year as Carlos S. Bulosan Day."
Observance of this special day will start this year said Uy.
The municipal ordinance was authored by Councilor Francis Melvile Tinio, chairman of the Municipal Council committees on education and culture and on ordinances and legal matters.
"History would hardly obliterate the contributions made by one of the illustrious sons of Binalonan. The outstanding accomplishments of Carlos S. Bulosan had made every Binalonian as an instant icon in the world of arts and literature," the ordinance states.
Uy said the declaration of a special day to remember Bulosan is the town's way of recognizing and paying tribute to the writer's accomplishments.
In his article, De Leon described Bulosan as a "literary phenomenon".
He further wrote: "His (Bulosan) life was the stuff of Horatio Alger fables: poor young immigrant, through pluck and perseverance, finds success beyond his dreams in the New World. His first book of fiction, The Laughter of My Father," a collection of short stories inspired by Philippine folk tales, became a surprise wartime bestseller and was translated into several foreign languages; The New Yorker and Harper's published more of his stories and essays. Critics hailed him as a welcome new voice."
De Leon said Bulosan counted writers Carl Sandburg and William Saroyan among his friends. And he was handpicked by President Franklin Roosevelt to write one of the four essays in "The Four Freedoms," a popular wartime collection that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. All these from an impoverished and sickly youth who barely had an education and spoke little English when he went to the US in 1930.
That he was a Filipino writing about the hardships and prejudice experienced by his countrymen in their adopted country made his success even more unlikely, de Leon added.
De Leon said Bulosan became a poster boy for all the promises of America while chronicling the ways America breaks those very same promises.
Bulosan wrote two volumes of poetry in 1942, the "Letter from America" and "Chorus from America", and "The Voice of Bataan in 1943" to honor his countrymen who fought and died in the war.
In 1946, he wrote "America in My Heart" chronicling their impoverished life in the Philippines which motivated him to go to America, and his hardships in a foreign land. (Sunnex)
(June 25, 2006 issue)
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