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Author, Poet, and Worker: The World of Carlos Bulosan

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  • Generations of Community Unionism: 80 Years of Filipino Cannery Worker Organizing

    In response to violence, discrimination, and exploitative working conditions, Filipino Americans on the West Coast developed their own civil rights-based unionism. The union's membership was largely Filipino and Asian Americans who worked seasonal labor routes up and down the Coast, particularly Alaskeros—workers who journeyed to work in Alaska canneries. Over the course of its history, the union became a central community institution and served as a tool to fight for better wages, better working conditions, a weapon against labor contractors, and a vehicle for pursuing civil rights. In existence today as Region 37 of the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, the union still represents cannery workers.

    Founded in 1933 as the Filipino Labor Union, it soon became the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 18257 of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), representing cannery workers and farm workers. Over the years, the union changed its affiliation with international unions and national labor federations to suit the political attitudes of its officers and members. In 1937, it became Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (UCAPWA-CIO). In 1950, Local 7 affiliated with the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) and subsequently became ILWU, Local 37. Finally, in the 1980s, after a merger of the Longshoremen's Union with the Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacific, the union changed its name again to IBU/ILWU, Region 37, the name it is known by today.

    The union has persisted since its founding in 1933, but its work has never been easy. Early efforts to organize farm workers, in which Carlos Bulosan was involved, failed in the face of employer and vigilante violence. In 1936, agents of labor contractors assassinated the union's founding president Virgil Duyungan and secretary Aurelio Simon. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. government attempted to break the union and deport its leftist leaders, including Chris Mensalvas, Ernesto Mangaoang, and Ponce Torres, close friends of Bulosan. As publicity director for Local 37, Bulosan chronicled the deportation battle in the union’s 1952 Yearbook. Legal fights to defend the officers under attack consumed much of the union’s resources during this era, and internal dissent between left wing and more conservative members led to internal rifts that left the union in a weakened—but still active—state through the 1960s.

    During the 1970s the canneries saw an influx of new laborers -new Filipino immigrants, young Filipino Americans and non-Filipino men and women. The new generation became dissatisfied with working conditions and the lack of support by Local 37's leadership, which was often corrupt. Inspired by new U.S. social movements, Third World liberation struggles, Carlos Bulosan, and the union’s history of leftwing leadership, the activists pursued civil rights lawsuits against the canneries through a new organization outside the union, the Alaska Cannery Workers Association. Additionally, they sought to reform Local 37 from within, organizing the union’s rank and file and seeking office. Internationally minded, the new reformers also organized through the ILWU against the regime of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

    The reform struggle came to a head in 1981 when the union president, funded by the Marcos regime, orchestrated the assassination of union reform officers Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes. In response, fellow reformers rushed to fill the leadership gap, electing a new slate of leaders who still lead the union to this day. Forming a Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes, they pushed for an investigation of the murders and eventually proved Marcos' role in the assassination. A U.S. court found the dictator guilty, the first time a foreign head of state was found criminally liable in a U.S. court of law.

    The Cultural Front: Bulosan and Proletarian Literature

    Contrary to portrayals of Carlos Bulosan as partially illiterate upon arriving in the United States, there is evidence that Bulosan harbored aspirations of becoming a writer from a young age. It has been noted, for example, that he published poetry in his high school newspaper in the Philippines.

    The earliest published work by Bulosan in the U.S. appeared in 1932, less than two years after his arrival. Four poems - "Alien Wind," "Destiny," "Greenery," and "Immortality" - are included in the 1932 book California Poets: An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries under the name "Carl Bulosan." They exhibit themes that came to characterize Bulosan's later work, in particular motifs of the natural world, and in the poem "Destiny," the fraught struggle for a better world: "a better isle, a better sea."

    book cover
    John Fante. Ask the Dust
    book cover
    Louis Adamic. Dynamite:
    The Story of Class Violence in America
    book cover
    Carey McWilliams. Factories in the Fields
    book cover
    Four poems believed to be
    among the first Bulosan published
    in the United States.
    Henry Harrison. California Poets:
    An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries.
    New York.
    , 1932. 103-105.

    As Bulosan became immersed in farmworker labor organizing in the 1930s, his work reflected his new commitments. In 1934, along with a group of Filipino labor radicals, including his new friend Chris Mensalvas, Bulosan published a short-lived magazine of proletarian literature, The New Tide. The journal, Bulosan later recounted in America is in the Heart, sought to "interpret the struggles and aspirations of the workers, the fight of sincere intellectuals against fascism and racial oppression in concrete national terms." Bulosan had arrived as a left-wing writer/activist.

    Living in Los Angeles, Bulosan became involved with a "cultural front" of left-wing intellectuals, many with Communist Party connections, centered at the Stanley Rose Bookshop in Hollywood. Authors like John Fante, Carey McWilliams, and Louis Adamic frequented the store, allowing Bulosan a place to hone his craft and find publishing outlets. When Bulosan underwent an extended hospital stay from 1936 to 1938, two such writer/activists, the sisters Dorothy and Sanora Babb, visited Bulosan regularly, helping to sustain him during a difficult time.


    Photograph of Carlos Bulosan and his close friend Dorothy Babb. Bulosan based the characters Alice and Eileen Odell in America is in the Heart on Dorothy and her sister Sanora. He also dedicated several of his books to her. Image Source: Nikki Alfar, “Dear D/Dear Carlos,” Our Own Voice, February 2008, http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2008a-1.shtml.

    Photograph of Sanora Babb, c. 1930s. From website Frank Babb: Author and Adventurer, "Sanora Babb and Ken Burn’s PBS 'Dust Bowl'" (http://www.frankbabb.com/sanora-babb-and-ken-burns-pbs-dust-bowl/#.VGKlxGcm_II) The original photograph is most likely from the Sanora Babb Papers, Harry Ransome Center at the University of Texas at Austin, See: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/babb/intro/

  • Mga Henerasiyon ng Maka-Unyong Komunidad: 80 Taon ng Pagkakaisa ng mga Alaskeros

    Dahil sa karahasan, diskriminasiyon at pagsasamantala sa kalagayang pang-trabaho, ang mga Pilipinong-Amerikano taga-Kanlurang Baybayin ay nagtatag ng sariling unyon na binabase sa karapatang-pangmamamayan. Ang mga manggagawang Pilipino at Asyano-Amerikano, lalo na ang mga Alaskeros, ay ang karamihan sa mga kasapi ng unyong ito. Saanman sa kasaysayan nito, naging pangunahing institusiyon pangkomunidad ang unyon. Ipinaglaban ng unyon para sa mas mataas na sahod, mas mabuting kalagayang pang-trabaho, ang komunidad. Ipinaglaban din ng unyon laban sa mga kontratista, ang mga karapatang-pangmamamayan. Ito na ang Region 37 ng Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, na hanggang ngayon ay kinakatawan ng mga manggagawa ng mga kanariya.

    Itinatag noong 1933 ang dating Filipino Labor Union, at di nagtagal ito'y naging Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 18257 ng American Federation of Labor (AFL), ang siyang kumakatawan ng mga magsasaka at mga trabahador ng kanariya.

    Sa loob ng ilan mga taon, binago ng unyon ang kanilang pagkikipag-ugnay sa mga ibang unyong pandaigdig at sa mga pambayang kalipunang pang-trabaho, upang maging angkop sa pagtingin ng mga kasalukuyang opisyal at kasapi. Noong 1937, ito’y naging Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 ng United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (UCAPWA-CIO). Noong 1950, kinaugnay ng Local 7 ang International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), at ito'y naging ILWU, Local 37. Sa katapusan, noong dekadang 1980, pagkatapos ng pagkaka-isa ng Longshoremen's Union at ng Inlandboatme'’s Union of the Pacific, binago nila ang kanilang pangalan, at ito'y naging IBU/ILWU, Region 37—ang kanilang pangalang kinikilala ngayon.

    Mula noong 1933 nang itinatag ang unyon, ito'y nanatili, nguni't hindi ganoong kadali ang kanilang trabaho. Hindi nagtagumpay ang mga unang pagsisikap, na isinangkot si Carlos Bulosan, upang magka-isa ang mga magsasaka dahil sa karahasan ng mga amo at "vigilante." Noong 1936, pinatay nang pataksil ang unang pangulo ng unyon, si Virgil Duyungan at ang sekretariyang si Aurelio Simon, ng kinatawan ng mga kontratista. Mula noong katapusan ng dekadang 1940 at simula ng dekadang 1950, sa kalagitnaan ng Cold War, sinabukang buwagin ng pamahalaang U.S. ang unyon at ideporta ang mga lider na maka-kaliwa, tulad nina Chris Mensalvas, Ernesto Mangaoang, at ni Ponce Torres. Ang tatlong ito ay matalik na kaibigan ni Carlos Bulosan. Bilang direktor ng pahayag para sa Local 37, irinekord niya sa 1952 Yearbook ng unyon ang kasaysayan ng pagtatalo ng kanilang pagdedeporta. Dahil dito, karamihan ng salapi ay naubos dahil sa labang pambatas. Hindi sumang-ayon ang mga maka-kaliwa at ang mga mas makalumang kasapi ng unyon. Tuloy pang-aktibo hanggang sa dekadang 1960 ang unyon subali't ito'y naging mahina sa kani-kanilang mga relasyon sa loob nito.

    book cover
    John Fante. Ask the Dust
    book cover
    Louis Adamic. Dynamite:
    The Story of Class Violence in America
    book cover
    Carey McWilliams. Factories in the Fields
    book cover
    Four poems believed to be
    among the first Bulosan published
    in the United States.
    Henry Harrison. California Poets:
    An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries.
    New York.
    , 1932. 103-105.

    Noong dekadang 1970, dumating ang mga bagong manggagawa sa mga kanariya—mga bagong Pilipino na imigrante, mga batang Pilipinong-Amerikano, at mga batang lalaki at babae na hindi-Pilipino. Hindi sapat ang pagtutulong ng mga pinuno ng Local 37, at ang mahirap na kalagayang pangtrabaho ay nakakabigay-galit sa mga bagong henerasiyon ng manggagawa. Madalas, hindi mapagkakatiwalaan ang mga pinuno ng Local 37. Binigyan-sigla ang pagkikilos sosyal sa U.S., ang mga suliranin ng pagpapalaya ng Third World, si Carlos Bulosan, at ang kasaysayan ng maka-kaliwang pinuno ng unyon. Ipinaglaban ng mga aktibista ang karapatan pangmamamayan laban sa mga kanariya sa pamamagitan ng bagong samahan sa labas ng unyon—ang Alaska Cannery Worker Association. Ibig din nilang ipagpabuti ang Local 37 galing sa loob, kaya inayos nila ang mga antas ng mga pinuno at tumakbo bilang pinuno. Dahil makadaigdig ang kanilang pansin, sariling nakipag-isa ang mga bagong aktibista sa pamamagitan ng ILWU laban sa pamahalaan ng Pilipinong diktador na si Ferdinand Marcos.

    Ang laban para sa pagpapabuti ay, sa wakas, naging laganap noong 1981, nang ipinagpatay pataksil ng pangulo ng unyon kina Silme Domingo at Gene Viernes—mga opisyal pang-reporma ng unyon—ang pamahalaang diktador ni Marcos. Ang reaksyon ng mga kasamahang-repormista ay sugurin ang puwang sa kinakailangang pinuno. Sila pa rin ang nagpapatakbo ng unyon hanggang ngayon. Itinatag nila ang "Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes," pinilit nila ang inbestigasiyon sa kanilang pagpatay. Sa wakas, napatunayan nila ang kasalanan ni Marcos kaugnay sa mga sadyang pagpatay pataksil nina Domingo at Viernes. Idineklera may kasalanan si Marcos ng Korte ng U.S.— ang unang pangyayari na ang dayuhang pangulo ng ibang bansa ay idineklerang may sala sa korte ng batas sa Estados Unidos.

    Ang Hinaharap ng Kultura: Si Bulosan at ang Panitakang Pang-klaseng Manggagawa

    Labag sa mga paglalarawan kay Carlos Bulosan bilang isang mala mapagbasa noong kaniyang pagdating sa Estados Unidos, meron katunayan na, habang bata pa siya, meron siyang inaasam na maging manunulat. Halimbawa, nilathala niya ang kaniyang mga tula sa diyaryo ng kaniyang haiyskul doon sa Pilipinas.

    Ang pinakaunang kasulatang nilathala ni Bulosan sa Estados Unidos ay makikita noong 1932, halos dalawang taon pagkatapos ng kaniyang pagdating. Hinandog ni Bulosan at binahagi sa librong, California Poets: An Anthology of 244 Contemporaries [Ang mga Manunulat ng California: Ang Antolohiya ng 244 Kasalukuyang Manunulat], ang apat na tula— "Alien Wind," "Destiny," "Greenery," at, "Immortality." Itinatanghal nila ang mga paksang naging katangian ng mga huling kasulatan ni Bulosan. Tunay na itinatanghal ang paksang kalikasan, at, sa loob ng tula, "Destiny," ang malubhang pagsisikap para sa mas mabuting daigdig: "a better isle, a better sea" [mas mabuting pulo, mas mabuting karagatan.]

    Habang naging mas malalim si Bulosan sa pagkakaisa ng mga magsasaka noong dekadang 1930, itinatanghal ng kaniyang kasulatan ang bago niyang ninanais. Noong 1934, nilathala ni Bulosan ang maikling pahayagan ng literaturang pang-proletaryado, The New Tide [Ang Panibagong Alon], kasama ang grupo ng mga Pilipinong maka-trabahong radikal, kabahagi si Chris Mensalves. Ang layunin ng dyornal na ito ay para “magsalin ng mga pagsisikap at mga pag-aasa ng mga manggagawa, ang paglaban ng mga taus-pusong intelektwal laban sa pasismo at pang-aapi batay sa kalahian sa pamamagitan ng makonkretong pangyayari sa sambayanan,” ayon kay Bulosan sa America Is in the Heart matapos ang ilang taon. Si Bulosan ay naging tunay na maka-kaliwang manunulat at aktibista.

    Habang nakatira sa Los Angeles, si Bulosan naging kahalok sa "hinaharap ng kultura" ng mga maka-kaliwang intelektwal, na may mga kaugnay sa Lapiang Komunista, na nakagitna sa Stanley Rose Bookshop, doon sa Hollywood. Madalas papunta-punta ang mga manunulat katulad nila John Fante, Carey McWilliams, at Louis Adamic sa tindahang aklatang ito. Nagbibigay ito ng lugar kay Bulosan para maging dalubhasa sa pagsusulat at nang makahanap ng mga tagalathala. Ang dalawang mga aktibista/manunulat na ito, ang mga magkapatid na babaeng sina Dorothy at Sanora Babb, ay madalas na nagbibisita kay Bulosan bilang suportahan at tulungan siya noong kaniyang pagtira nang matagal sa ospital mula 1936 hanggang 1938.


    Photograph of Carlos Bulosan and his close friend Dorothy Babb. Bulosan based the characters Alice and Eileen Odell in America is in the Heart on Dorothy and her sister Sanora. He also dedicated several of his books to her. Image Source: Nikki Alfar, “Dear D/Dear Carlos,” Our Own Voice, February 2008, http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2008a-1.shtml.

    Photograph of Sanora Babb, c. 1930s. From website Frank Babb: Author and Adventurer, "Sanora Babb and Ken Burn’s PBS 'Dust Bowl'" (http://www.frankbabb.com/sanora-babb-and-ken-burns-pbs-dust-bowl/#.VGKlxGcm_II) The original photograph is most likely from the Sanora Babb Papers, Harry Ransome Center at the University of Texas at Austin, See: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/babb/intro/

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