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Chapter 40
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in America Is in the Heart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Beauty in Despair
Race and American Identity
Education vs. Ignorance
Poverty
Summary
Analysis
When Carlos returns to Los Angeles, he and José organize a conference among Filipino labor delegates, many of whom are members of his old group of friends and associates. Their goal is “to create a working committee from which [they] could form the nucleus of a broad organization for Filipinos on the Pacific coast.” The conference quickly creates the Committee for the Protection of Filipino Rights (CPFR) and discusses ways to earn Filipinos American citizenship.
The emergence of the CPFR is the realization of Carlos’s dream to unite Filipinos in America under a common banner. Through the proposal for American citizenship, the CPFR also provides a potential solution to the problem of Filipino rootlessness that keeps them on the margins of American society.
Themes
Carlos writes for CPFR as well as for a labor paper spearheaded by Ganzo, and he speaks before American audiences throughout California. After he speaks before the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, a rich white woman invites him to her home and offers to throw a party for the CPFR, but she makes him hide when a visitor arrives. He is embarrassed but finds a strange comfort in her luxurious white rug and fancy house.
Like the socialist newspaper on which he previously worked, the CPFR publications allow Carlos to combine his love and talent for writing with his desire to serve a cause that will better the lives of other people. The work even brings him into the private halls of power: the homes of wealthy white people. However, the fact that the wealthy woman makes Carlos hide shows that even powerful people who are sympathetic to his cause may still be deeply racist.
Themes
Among Carlos’s most important tasks with the CPFR is campaigning for Representative Vito Marcantonio’s bill proposing Filipino citizenship, but the bill goes down in defeat. This breaks Macario’s spirit, as he invested his savings in campaigning for the bill. When Macario becomes ill, a man from Macario’s workplace visits Carlos and threatens to fire Macario unless he returns to work. Carlos attempts to assault the man with a knife, but Macario stops Carlos and tells him to leave. Carlos wants to support his sick brother, but is too weak to perform much manual labor. He sneaks into a white woman’s home, steals her diamond ring, and sells it to a gambler. Macario grows sicker and Carlos resumes writing.
The failure of the Marcantonio bill is a huge blow to Carlos and his compatriots, as its failure suggests that their own labors have been fruitless. In addition, Macario’s debilitating illness enrages Carlos further, and he strikes at white society by swiping a white woman’s ring. A petty act, it nonetheless symbolizes Carlos’s new despair, since Carlos has previously been so opposed to criminal activity. Even in the face of this despair, however, Carlos never stops writing.
Themes
