America is in the Heart

As Allos reflects on the brutality and tenderness of Filipino Americans, he wonders how much responsibility American society shares in shaping this community. He travels to Seattle again and commits his first deliberately dishonest act: he steals the sheets from a cheap hotel and sells them. He feels no guilt. Allos witnesses a picket line and is given 25 cents to hold a sign and march. The strike is soon called off, and he does not think of it again for a while. Near Chinatown, a man gives him a ticket and an address for a shelter that will give him free food and lodging.

Though Allos struggles to sleep in the room with all of the other men, the food is satisfying. One night, a man caresses his legs, and Allos runs into the street. He boards a train to California, but gets off at Klamath Falls, Oregon. In a restaurant, two detectives enter, grab him, and interrogate him. When Allos says he is Filipino, they beat him badly. To Allos, it all seems completely senseless. In the morning, the detectives force him to walk to the California border where they abandon him. After three days of walking, Allos catches a train to San Francisco, en route to the small town of Guadalupe.

There, he meets a man named Cortez who connects him with a farm crew for the cauliflower picking season. The work is hard but not unbearable. One night, a worker named Benigno invites him to the bunkhouse for an evening of fun. They pin him down while a Mexican woman tends to him sexually. When it ends, Allos runs from the house, ashamed. 

Allos returns to Lompoc when the season ends. He joins a lettuce crew and stays on to pick winter peas. There, he reunites with Amado who is increasingly involved in crime. One night while working in the kitchen at the Opal Café, a businessman mocks Allos for reading books. When he protests that he reads them to escape from the lurid reality of the town, the man hits him with a bottle. After he threatens the man with a knife, his boss Mr. Opal fires Allos, who then goes into the street screaming that he will kill the white man.

In a letter from his cousin in the Philippines, Allos reads that his father is dead. This is a turning point for Allos, who now believes that love is an illusion. He agrees to give in to hate as a way to teach America a lesson for its harsh treatment of him. Increasingly, he accompanies his friend Max to commit robberies. While in San Luis Obispo, Max shoots a man who slept with his wife. Terrified, Allos takes a train to New Mexico.

In Santa Fe, Allos receives a letter from Amado, who is serving a six-month jail sentence in Santa Barbara for his involvement in a Lompoc robbery. After returning to California, Allos calls Macario to ask for legal advice and is shocked to learn that Filipinos cannot practice law in the state.

When Amado gets out of jail, Allos gives him money to start a restaurant. Though the restaurant is successful for a while, it eventually closes. Meanwhile, Allos learns something valuable from watching Amado: he takes pleasure, first and foremost, in his friends.

In Pismo Beach, Allos lives with a friend named Mariano in a cabin. When one of their companions dies of tuberculosis, Mariano burns the cabin down, and Allos returns to Seattle. There, he finds Julio who gives him a lesson in gambling and picking pockets. Allos says he wants to work, not steal.

The next day, Allos takes a bus to Los Angeles, then a train to San Francisco. Although he has money to rent a room, all of the hotels refuse him. He goes to a clubhouse and plays a game called Pi-Q, winning money through skill and cheating. Allos reflects that he has become hard and uncaring. He returns to Stockton and writes a long letter to Macario. In a giddy flush, he realizes that he can write understandable English. Now, at last, he can express himself in writing. Allos claims that no one will ever silence him again. 

Full of conviction over his writing, Allos walks to the house where Max said he shot his wife’s lover. There, he meets Pascual, a socialist and a lawyer, who founded a newspaper committed to truth in journalism. As Allos walks the streets with Pascual, the lawyer encourages him to write news stories about everything he sees. Slowly, Allos hones his writing skills. Pascual sees writing as an act of fighting, and his conviction is infectious. When Pascual has a stroke and his legs become paralyzed, José and Allos take over his editorial work.

One day, Pascual’s wife tells Allos and José that the pea pickers are on strike in Pismo Beach. Authorities arrest José for participating in the strike but release him shortly thereafter.

Pascual’s condition worsens every day. On his deathbed, he tells Allos that he and José must always write for the workers in an effort to improve their situation. After Pascual dies, Allos takes a bus to Los Angeles where he learns that Macario and his friend Nick started a literary magazine with a man named Felix. They spend long nights talking about the promises and perils of America, which they view as a great land of opportunity that will grind them to dust if they let it.