Carlos Bulosan

Carlos Bulosan was born in the village of Mangusmana in the Philippines on November 24, 1913. A novelist, poet, and activist, Bulosan emigrated to the United States when he was seventeen.

In 1943, his essay “The Freedom From Want” accompanied the Norman Rockwell painting of the same name in The Saturday Evening Post. He is known most widely for America Is In the Heart (Harcourt, Brace and Co. Inc., 1946) his semi-autobiographical novel, though he authored multiple plays, short stories, poems, and novels, including The Laughter of My Father (Harcourt, Brace, 1944) and The Cry and the Dedication (Temple University Press, 1995), which was published posthumously.

Through his work and writings as an anti-colonial activist and labor organizer, Bulosan became a central figure in Filipino American history. He died on September 11, 1956, in Seattle.