Carlos Bulosan And the Tragedy He Wrote


This photo reminds me of the stories of Carlos Bulosan -- his fabled prose of Philippine countryside, later to be defined as his love letters to his homeland. I was once holding a book of Bulosan with his photograph on it and one of my sisters then said he looked like the comedian "Bayani Casimiro". I did not respond but then I asked myself: Can a picture tell the tragic life one had lived or the funny side of our being?

The story I'm referring to was Bulosan's "My Father's Tragedy". All about that extension of Filipino male machismo which happens, oftentimes, to be the prize bird. Somehow Filipino men were depicted in illustrations, old photos, from Spanish time down to the early years of the 20th century, holding their fighting cocks. (sorry for the term if the language seems to be indiscreet) If the medieval rulers of Europe and Arabia had falconry, nomadic tribesmen of the Asian Steppe hunt with their trained eagles, Filipino males have their "talisain", "bulik", "sabong", etc.

Bulosan opened with a first-person narrative; "It was one of those lean years of our lives. Our rice field was destroyed by locusts that came from the neighboring towns.." As the story goes on, it was all about the prized bird that his father kept and that was then slaughtered by his mother to feed the hungry family with a sickly child, in that lean years mentioned. Ending the narrative, was when his father found out, he was actually eating his own "bulik". Tragic indeed to the father but more of a hilarious scene to those reading.

Back in high school, we debated on Prosper Merimee - "Mateo Falcone". and was exasperated by Maupassant's "The Necklace" but we also read Anding Roces' "My Brother's Peculiar Chicken". We never tackled Bulosan although he was there in the collection of materials. I got intrigued with one tittle - "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow"...I never realized that somebody so broken could write something so beautiful.

And the photo? Look at the man, he wears no slippers but he still beams with pride and you probably know why.

~ Pasig City 

First Edition of "Laughter of My Father" by Carlos Bulosan. 1944. One of his popular works


 
The opening lines of the last chapter -- "America Is In the Heart"

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