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RE-SIGNED SUBJECTS: WOMEN, WORK, AND WORLD IN THE FICTION OF CARLOS BULOSAN AND HISAYE YAMAMOTO
Studies in the Literary Imagination, Spring 2004 by Higashida, Cheryl
Like the woman who marries Leon, Allos's mother, Meteria, is a shadowy presence at the beginning of the book. She quickly materializes, however, as we learn why she is away from Mangusmana, the setting for chapter one: Meteria resides in Binalonan, from which she forays into other villages to barter boggoong (salted fish) for food that she can then sell in the market. Women's vending was delegitimized or rendered invisible by official discourses on work in the Philippines; the U.S. census, for example, consistently underestimated the number of female traders. However, Bulosan makes it clear that Meteria's business is integral to the family's sustenance and, in particular, to financing the education of Allos's older brother Macario.16 In keeping with the desire for education prevalent in the Philippines at the time-a desire fostered by the U.S. regime to create a suitable work force and to squelch nationalist rebellion-Allos's parents are "willing to sacrifice anything and everything to put [his] brother Macario through high school" (14). Allos wishes to emulate his brother, but the narrative frequently illustrates Macario's elitism and his insensitivity to his family's struggles to support him. For example, upon returning home his first words to Allos concern the younger brother's appearance:
Shielded from the harsh living conditions of the rest of his family, Macario sees Allos's long hair as a lack of civilization rather than as a necessity for doing the field work that finances Macario's schooling. While Allos's father accepts the reified consciousness that Macario has developed by "being educated in the American way" (20), his mother tries to challenge Macario when he threatens to leave school unless his parents furnish him with money they do not have: '"We have only one hectare left, son,' said my mother, trying desperately to make my brother understand our poverty with futile movements of her hands" (22). Enmeshed within the daily details of (re)productive work, Meteria understands the immediate impact that losing their land would have on the rest of the family. The futility of her gestures is reinforced by Allos's father, who obviates her protest by telling Macario that they will sell the remaining land. In response, Meteria's "hands leaped frantically from her lap to her mouth and stayed there, stifling the protest. In one fleeting instant, [Allos] saw her handsbig-veined, hard, and bleeding in spots" (22). Like his mother, and unlike his father and brother, Allos perceives the human cost of Macario's education, which Bulosan captures through his description of Meteria's laboring hands, the first of a recurring synechdocal image that appears throughout the book whenever Bulosan conveys the dehumanization of being reduced to a "hand" by the profit motives of U.S. imperialism.'7
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