Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart is a story about a Filipino FOB who finds himself in Seattle, facing the
same oppressive labor conditions and racist attitudes as when he arrived in the Philippines. As he reflects on his
life, he realizes that he is still in the same place he was when he arrived, a Filipino FOB. He is older and wiser,
but still bitter and traumatized by the same conditions. He expects a better future in America, but his life is a
carousel, measured by the farms, groves, and canneries he travels on. In part one, Allos recounts the exploitation
of peasants in a southern province, where they were exploited by landlords. He is now aware of the social cases
underlying their less-exalted position in the United States. In the New World, Allos faces even worse privations
than in his native land, where he has no kin or familiar cultural context.
Allos, a Filipino man, faces the betrayal of his expectations due to the "miseducation" of the Filipinos in the
United States. The educational system in the colony was a replica of its own, alienating Filipinos from their
indigenous roots. Allos fears that the hostility he encounters will change him and alienate him from his roots. He
cries out for the resurrection of his childhood and finds solace in the heart, where he has found solace after
numerous incidents of racial violence and days of stifling loneliness. During a trans-Pacific voyage, Allos is in
steerage, the lowest and cheapest inhabitable part of the ship, which reflects the shape of things to come. He
frequents dance-hall venues, often sites of violence, and eventually discovers that he can write. He announces
this in several passages, flashing forward to his Kuya Luciano's death from tuberculosis and writing a letter to
Macario, which he tears out and proclaims to the world.