America Is Not The Heart

AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART

by Elaine Castillo

 

Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2019, Center For Fiction Longlist 2018

 

Date Read: July 15, 2023

 

Hero, an unlikely name for a woman broken by her past, finds herself in Milpitas starting life over as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines. She spent 10 years in the Philippines as a doctor to insurgents fighting for freedom from their oppressive government. Now in Milpitas, living with her aunt and uncle, Hero works in a restaurant.

 

The beauty of America Is Not The Heart is the cultural references and rituals that are unfamiliar to those not of Filipino ancestry. The customs, language, food and connection are texturally rich and filling. How extended family is considered family is heart-warming and makes me jealous that I don’t have those same kind of extended connections. I’m also jealous that we don’t have the same kind of rituals to pass the many holidays and celebrations of life.

 

I also appreciated Castillo’s exploration of being gay in a culture that doesn’t accept that as a normal part of loving. Roslyn worming her way into Hero’s heart was beautiful in the way they both healed each other in ways neither expected. But that’s what love is. Filling in the cracks of the soul with sunshine. Castillo portrays that brilliantly.

 

From Hero’s broken thumbs and spiritual healing to the loss of a patriarch of the family and birthdays, Christmas and New Years, I felt treated to all the celebratory food and warmth of love and acceptance. Hero’s connection to Roni, who is technically her cousin, and her fighting for her uncle Pol to bring her back from the Philippines felt fraught and desperate, just as I would be under similar circumstances.

 

The hard, back-breaking work performed by all of these characters – nursing, restaurant work, security, beauticians – showed just how desperately everyone wanted to make it. More disconcerting is the education or former profession doesn’t matter. Pol, once a decorated surgeon, works as a security guard and has no hope of working in medicine in the U.S. Yet, regardless of how hard they work, it is never quite enough. 

 

A rich, complex and satisfying read.

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