BINALONAN – September 11 was marked here culturally as Bulosan Day in honor of the eminent national poet and writer Carlos Bulosan, a son of this town.
A municipal ordinance No. 2006-01, was passed on May 29, 2006 by the sangguniang bayan headed by Vice Mayor Myrna Bell C. Uy declaring Sept. 11 and every year thereafter as Carlos Bulosan Day in the entire town where Bulosan was born on Nov. 2. 1911.
Bulosan Day last Monday started with a fun run in the morning, followed by the laying of wreath by town officials at the foot of an eight-foot marker in the obscure barangay of Sto. Nino, where the late writer was born almost 95 years ago.
Bulosan died Sept. 11, 1956 of advanced stage of broncho-pbneumonia while he was in the United States where he went to seek his greener pasture for him to be able to support his impoverished family back home.
Like all Filipinos before him, Bulosan must have thought that America was a land of milk and honey. But it was not an easy life he found in the U.S. which was at that time going through its depression period.
Instead of finding a decent job, he went through difficult years of unemployment, illness and labor unrest while working in the farms of California and fish canneries in Alaska.
A son of poor Ilocano parents, Bulosan first distinguished himself as a man of letters when he published in 1942 a volume of poetry entitled “Letter from America.”
This was followed by another book of poems in 1943, “Voice of Bataan” which was a tribute to the gallant Filipino and America soldiers who died in their defense of Bataan from the Japanese invaders.
In 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took notice of Bulosan’s literally greatness and commissioned him to write an essay entitled “Freedom from Want” and “The Four Freedoms.”
In steering the passage of the ordinance, Vice Mayor Uy said it was about time that the great Carlos Bulosan is given due recognition by his town mates. (PNA)