America Is Not the Heart

Set in the late twentieth-century United States, Filipina American author Elaine Castillo’s novel America Is Not the Heart (2018) provides a snapshot of the Filipino experience through the struggles and achievements of a single Filipino immigrant family. The book is in part a response to the 1946 semi-autobiographical novel America Is in the Heart, by Carlos Bulosan, which portrays a young Filipino man who immigrates to the United States. While Bulosan’s novel is mainly about the possibility of establishing a “new” homeland in previously untraversed territory, Castillo’s novel focuses on the indelible ties that immigrants have to their cultural and geographical roots. It has been celebrated for its vivid and accurate characterization of the multiple anxieties and dreams that motivate immigrants in modern-day America.

The novel begins with a prologue, in which an narrator addresses Pacita, or Paz, a girl who grows up destitute in the Philippines. Throughout her young life, Paz dreams of moving to America. Paz makes it to university, and studies to become a nurse. While working her first hospital job, she falls in love with a surgeon named Apolonio, or Pol. Together, they endeavor to move to America; Paz moves first, ending up in a vibrant Filipino suburb of California. Shortly after Pol joins her, they give birth to a daughter, Geronima—Roni for short. Pol gives her the name of his niece, whom he mistakenly believes to be dead.

Next, the story moves to Pol’s niece Geronima. She locates her uncle and moves in with him, Paz, and Roni. Roni christens her cousin “Hero” for accomplishing the remarkable feat, the details of which are known by no one except Hero. The novel backtracks to the time when Hero lived with Pol. Following in his footsteps, she became an aspiring surgeon at medical school. Hero develops a strong bond to the restlessly inquisitive Roni, thinking of her as her little sister. They both befriend Adela and Rosalyn, a grandmother and granddaughter in the area, and slowly merge their family’s gatherings. This slow story of assimilation is punctuated with vignettes of Hero’s former life, in which she was affiliated with the communist New People’s Army and had multiple affairs with men and women. Some of these memories are sources of trauma: it is revealed that Hero was tortured, her bones broken while she languished in prison.

Hero continues to share very little information about her past with her family. She slowly opens up to Rosalyn, eventually, telling her about her stint as a doctor and an agent for the NPA, during which she was imprisoned for two years. Rosalyn develops feelings for Hero, but Hero ignores them, wary of becoming vulnerable. She prefers to have casual sex with multiple partners. During Roni’s eighth birthday party, Hero, overwhelmed by the normalcy of her new domestic life, cannot help but think of her friends from the NPA, many of whom are undoubtedly dead. Rosalyn proposes that she and Hero have sex; after declining several times, citing their age difference, she changes her mind. This marks the beginning of an extremely passionate relationship.

The final section of the book focuses on Hero. Having adjusted to her new life in America, she is starting to heal from the traumas she endured while in the NPA. Rosalyn’s beloved grandfather passes away, and Hero comforts her. Their relationship, which they have kept secretive, starts to get out, and some of their friends abandon them. Rosalyn preemptively moves out of her house, anticipating that her mother will force her out otherwise. Pol, who has spent the past years seeking citizenship, finally gets authorization. However, he decides to move back to the Philippines with Roni rather than start his entire career over from the beginning in America. Hero deeply misses her cousin, and desperately tries to locate Pol to convince him to return. Pol agrees, bringing the entire family much relief. At the end of the novel, Hero tells Rosalyn that she wants to spend her life with her. Roni, Hero, Pol, and Paz eat a traditional Filipino dinner together, signaling a return to their cultural and familial roots.