America Is in the Heart: A Personal History (Washington Paperbacks)

AMERICA IS IN THE HEART. First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West. Bulosan does not spare the reader any of the horrors tha accompanied the migrant's life; but his quiet, stoic voice is the most convincing witness to the terrible events he witnessed."People interested in driving from America the scourge of intolerance should read Mr. Bulosan's autobiography. They should read it that they may draw from the anger it will arouse in them the determination to bring to an end the vicious nonsense of racism." -- Saturday Review of Literature"America came to him in a public ward in the Los Angeles County Hospital while around him men died gasping for their last bit of air, and he learned that while America could be cruel it could also be immeasurably kind...For Carlos Bulosan no lifetime could be long enough in which to explain to American that no man could destroy his faith in it again. He wanted to contribute something toward the final fulfillment of America. So he wrote this book that holds the bitterness of his own blood."-- Carlos P. Romulo in the New York TimesCarey McWilliams is editor of The Nation magazine. His abiding interest in the social problems of minority groups has led to an impressive body of work, including Factories in the Field, which appeared a few months after Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and focused public attention on migratory workers in California