This book struck me since page one where Bulosan states, “’I know deep down in my heart,’ he wrote, ‘that I am an exile in America… I feel like a criminal running away from a crime I did not commit. And this crime is that I am a Filipino in America” (VII Bulosan). The reason this passage struck me is because people often feel a weight on their shoulder because of their race and gender; I am not a Filipino so I can’t relate to his personal experiences, but as a Latino boy, I get a sense of what he is saying when he states that he feels like a criminal. Throughout the book we see that Carlos grew up with a rough childhood; when he was little he didn’t even have a childhood because he came from a low-income family, so he had to work hard at a young age in the fields to help his family, yet regardless of what he did people will see him as a “criminal” because of the color of his skin. Sometimes…show more content… I relate to the idea of being a criminal for being Filipino, but in my case sometimes I feel like a criminal for being Mexican—especially since Trump became in charge. Since Trump said that Mexicans are “criminals and rapists,” I often feel uncomfortable going to a store because what is in the back of my mind is that people will think I’m stealing, and I also feel uncomfortable being in an elevator with a woman because that idea of Mexicans being rapists. I can relate to Bulosan’s idea of being a criminal for being Filipino because the color of our skins gives a lot of inaccurate information. I once had a guy at the bar try to call immigration services on me because of the color of my skin—we often feel prisoners to our skins. We can live life without doing anything wrong, but there will always be that fear that someone has a prejudice towards you. We can live an innocent life as hard working people, but we will occasionally run into people who will tell you to “go back to your
