IP Final Paper #1

Eric Dulay
IP 411
12-6-07

When the need of workers to work the fields of America business, the Ilokano people from the Philippines were one of the many that they looked at. They knew that these people were hard workers and dedicated to the land. As the people came, the lifestyles and culture came along with it. Granted, the Ilokano people needed to adapt to the new land. So, Ilokano writing has its place in American writing in general, and in Hawaii writing in particular.
Most of the experiences of people coming over to work the fields of Hawaii and California were from the writings of Carlos Bulosan. He is for the people and has a Marxist type of view and later into communism. His writing called If You Want To Know Who We Are describes the situation during the plantation era and the harsh treatment that the workers had to endure. He describes the working men of this poem as the people that are hard working men that dream of great riches and achieving their goals. In the second part of the poem he is telling of the unfairness that the owners are giving to the people. He is very frank about his causes in this poem because he states, “if you want to know who we are --------- WE ARE THE REVOLUTION!”
I would say that that My Education by Carlos Bulosan is a very good account of his experience in America and finding his roots. In the reading he is very expressive that the hopes that are presented by the American dream aren’t a reality. He was working in a farm land before coming to the country and when he came he was force to do it again. He worked the fields of the grapes and other fruit fields. He also worked in the canneries. He noticed that that the way Americans looked at immigrants was that they were second rate and not to be taken seriously. And yet he was still trying to find his roots. It wasn’t until he realized that he needed to understand the America and its own ideas. He started reading the books of famous American writers like Falkner and Hemmingway but found he did not like the readings as much. He then started to read up on the Russian history and the Marxist readings and the socialist points of views that were presented. He then started to realize that the American dream was something that was present but not seen in every eye. He writes in his diary something that was very strong and it went, “’ Now I believe that all of us in America must be bound together by a common faith and work towards one goal…’”
Overall I believe that the Ilokano writing has it’s place in American writing in general, and in Hawaii writing in particular because of the immigration that was brought to America and the historical part of that makes it engraved in stone. It also affects the history in Hawaii because in our society today we have a good percentage of Filipinos here and we have a great amount of writers.