IN PURSUIT OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: THE FILIPINO-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN SELECTED WORKS BY CARLOS BULOSAN AND BIENVENIDO N. SANTOS

Abstract

The prospect of having a better life has attracted immigrant groups of various ethnicities to the United States for centuries. This American Dream has manifested itself in various works of literature by mainstream American authors and ethnic minorities that include Filipino-Americans. Writings of prominent and also considered as pioneering Filipino-American authors, Carlos Bulosan and Bienvenido N. Santos, reflect the general Filipino immigrant perception of the American Dream and present the journey of Filipino immigrants in the United States in search of the American Dream, encompassing more than half a century, starting during the early twentieth century. The rural life conditions of Filipinos during the American colonization in the early twentieth century and the implanting of the American Dream into the minds of Filipinos through American-based education and stories about greener pastures in America, fueled the hopes and aspirations of Filipinos for a better life, which led to a wave of Filipino immigrants to the United States as presented in the first part of the semi-autobiographical novel, America Is in the Heart (1946) by Carlos Bulosan. Life in the United States did not turn out to be as the myth of the American Dream promised it to be. Filipino immigrants experienced physical struggles, exploitations and discrimination in their pursuit of the American Dream in the United States during the 1920s-1930s, which is explored in the subsequent parts of America Is in the Heart and in the short story “The Romance of Magno Rubio”. Finally, selected works from Scent of Apples: A Collection of Stories (1979), a collection of short stories by Bienvenido N. Santos, depict the effects of the pursuit of the American Dream on Filipino immigrants; their struggle in assimilating and gaining recognition in the United States during and after World War II, their feelings of alienation, displacement, nostalgia and the need to reconnect with other Filipinos and with their past in the Philippines.