Smithsonian: 'America Is In The Heart' inspires the immigrants of today

SMITHSONIAN

Most new immigrants had never heard of Carlos Bulosan or the stories of Asian immigrants.

GROWING UP in 1950s-1960s California, our history textbooks would have us believe that the immigrant story was all about Europeans coming to America.

Like many of us, filmmaker Frank Chi discovered the works of Carlos Bulosan in college. We discovered that the history of America we were taught told only half the story.

An Asian-American immigrant who had difficulty finding a sense of belonging, Chi said the Bulosan's most famous work, "America Is In the Heart"— which loosely mirrors Bulosan’s immigration from the Philippines and describes the suffering of migrant laborers in the 1930s — resonated with him, helping him learn how to be an American in his own way.

Now, in a short film released Wednesday (Nov. 29) with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (Smithsonian APA Center), Chi is bringing Bulosan’s words to life.

“There’s a lot of negative portrayals of the families who come to this country from all parts of the world searching for a better life,” Chi said. “Given the times we live in, I wanted to revisit Bulosan this way because we can all use a reminder that there have been other tough times in America, and we have persevered and become stronger as a people, and as a nation.

" ‘America Is In The Heart’ is about what sustains us as a people — in the past, today and forever." 

The film features comedian Hasan Minhaj, activist Ivy Quicho, and writer Junot Díaz reading from “America is in the Heart” set against images of immigrants and their families across the country working, going to school, and serving in the military, among other activities.

Since Bulosan's novel was published in 1946, over 45 million new immigrants have come to the U.S. While the majority of the immigrants came from Latin America, in recent years, the largest number of immigrants are coming from Asia.

In the production of the film, the Smithsonian APA Center reached out to an array of immigrant communities across the country, according to Adriel Luis, curator of digital and emerging media for the center. Luis told NBC that most had not heard of Bulosan’s book, but after reading the passage used in the film, many were inspired.

“Similar to how other historic writers like James Baldwin and Sylvia Plath have been rediscovered by younger generations, Bulosan’s work also continues to resonate beyond just the Filipino American experience of the 1940s,” Luis said. “The Bulosan film also takes a written artifact of that era [and] time, but captures the spirit of hope and determination that is still felt by immigrants today.”

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