Excavating the Bulosan Ruins: What is at Stake in Re-Discovering the Anti-Imperialist Writing in the Age of US Global Terrorism?

E. Jr.  San Juan

doi:http://doi.org/

Abstract

Based on research in the unpublished papers of Sanora Babb at the Harry RansomCenter, University of Texas, this essay uncovers new information about Bulosan’srelations with Sanora and her sister Dorothy Babb, the two American women whovirtually “made” him into a writer. Given his intimacy with both women, activein leftwing and Communist Party activities in Los Angeles during the formativeyears of Bulosan’s life, as well as his association with leftist union leaders inSeattle, Bulosan’s radical affiliations are no longer in doubt, even without FBIdocumentation. Apocryphal Bulosan manuscripts such as All the Conspirators arebound to emerge since the whole colonial and neocolonial contexts of Bulosan’sgenealogy are usually ignored by those applying an immigrant-success-storyframework (practically all would-be Bulosan experts). Hence the need to revalidatethe focus on his full-length novel The Cry and the Dedication and his links withAmado V. Hernandez and the progressive national-popular movement (Huks) inthe Philippines as a US colony and neocolony.

Keywords

Framework of intelligibility for Bulosan’s ethico-political project, Immigrant assimilationist paradigm in Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Sanora Babb archive – Harry Ransom Center Library at the University of Texas,

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

Excavating the Bulosan Ruins: What is at Stake in Re-Discovering the Anti-Imperialist Writing in the Age of US Global Terrorism?

E. Jr. San Juan: Philippine Cultural Studies Center

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