Binalonan Mayor: Watch show on Great Fil-Am Bulosan on Sept. 11

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BINALONAN – The mayor of this burgeoning town has been persuading the people in and outside of here to buy tickets for a stage show about the life and works of the famous son of Pangasinan who became a literary icon in the United States of America.

“Sino si Carlos Bulosan? Because we’re anchoring the identity of Binalonan on Carlos Bulosan” he exhorted the people here in a consultative meeting held at the legislative hall.

NOVELIST AND AUTHOR CARLOS BULOSAN.

 Photo Credit: pusoseattle.wordpress.com

Bulosan was born at  Barangay Mangusmana Sto. Niño here but migrated when he was 17 years old on July 22, 1930 to the United States and died there with Bronchopneumonia in September 11, 1956 at Seattle Washington.

He, who is barely known by people in Pangasinan, became a leading poet, novelist, and book author in the U.S because of his renowned works like America is in the Heart and Freedom from Want that help enriched the United States' literature.

When Bulosan was 30 years old President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requested him to write an essay about America and its “Freedom From Want.” It was published in the prestigious Saturday Evening Post  where the Post commissioned painting icon Norman Roxwell to illustrate the Filipino-American’s article.

“He only finished Grade 3 but he was an exceptional writer,” quipped by Guico to Northern Watch Newspaper before the start of his consultation with various organizations like the academe, village officials and senior citizens how each of the P250 ticket can be sold to as many people for the September 11 to 13, 2017 three times a day show to be held at the town’s fully air conditioned swanky gymnasium.

Bulosan, with his superior essays, read one book a day when he was hospitalized for two years after a lung surgery at the Los Angeles County Hospital and declared to friends he would read ten thousand books before the tubercular ailment snatch his life.

Guico, a third generation member of the  political family here, was hell bent to educate his people  on Bulosan, even plan to sell the tickets in an installment basis and give a discount to the early buyers just for them to watch the stage play.

He said that the local government unit plan to bankroll the show for free but the Commission on Audit immediately shot down his intention.

Guico said that the family owned WCC Aeronautical & Technological College could raise between P120, 000 to 150,000 for the payment of the show to be played by actors from Pampanga notwithstanding the sponsorship he could chalked up from the governor, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, and other corporations.

Bulosan, then 13 years old, locked horns and stared poverty in the eyes as he wandered looking for menial jobs in Baguio City in the first quarter of the 1900s without eating for days and sleeping on rags at some corners of the public market of the American designed Pines City.

Then he worked as helper of fishermen in Lingayen, Pangasinan and a passenger of a dysentery infested ship from Manila to Seattle, Washington that claimed the lives of some of those dirty and hapless passengers who sought fortune in a country that plunged in the Great Depression that began in the stock market crash in October 24, 1929.

The resiliency of Bulosan to the cruelties of the Americans, where he saw how the Caucasians shot to death Filipinos, and his exemplary feats in the U.S made him an inspiration to people all over the world as seen on his work America is in the Heart.

Other articles and novels of the son of this town and a great Pangasinense were The Laughter of My Father, The Cry and the Dedication, My Father's Tragedy, The Romance of Magno Rubio,  If You Want To Know What We Are and my My Father goes to Court.

In 2004 then New York City’s Councilman John Liu declared November 2 as Bulosan Day in the Apple City.

“I was told by some people that in California, Carlos Bulosan is part of the course in Asian American Studies. I’m hoping it is not just concentrated in California but also elsewhere in the United States. Carlos is part of our history so it should be taught in American universities,” said by the icon’s nephew retired U.S Navy Serviceman Sonny Sampayan.
The repository of the original works of Bulosan can be found at the library of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.