America is in the Heart

Allos discusses life on the farm. He mentions his other brothers—Amado, Luciano, and Macario—who left to live in other towns. After Leon leaves, their father brings Amado back to work on the farm. They work hard to raise money to bring home Macario, a high school student in another province.

After a month-long visit, Macario wants to return to school, but money is low. Allos’s father sells one of the family’s few hectares of corn to send Macario back. While at school, Macario continues to ask for more money and threatens to quit if his father doesn’t send it. His father borrows money to buy more land. However, if he cannot pay back the loan, the family will lose everything.

During a rainstorm, the family’s carabao—a domesticated buffalo used as a work animal—becomes stuck. Amado beats the animal as he tries to free it from the mud. His father arrives, takes the stick, and beats Amado with it. As he runs away, Amado turns to wave goodbye to Allos before leaving the farm permanently.

Later, Allos goes to live with his mother. There, Amado gives him a book. He says that if Allos learns to read it, he will take him to school, which fascinates Allos. Although he has no hope of going to school past the third grade, Allos loves the idea of learning and its possibilities. 

Near the end of the school year, the family goes to a market square to meet Macario. At their mother’s house, Macario says he has three months left in his studies and needs more money. His mother tries to make him understand how poor they are, but his father says he will sell their remaining land. He enters into another dubious usury agreement.

In the summer, the family learns of a peasant revolt in another province against their landlords who grow richer each year while the peasants grow poorer. Others follow; however, the revolts are unorganized and easily—and brutally—put down by the government. Meanwhile, Macario finishes school and becomes a teacher. With the highest salary in town, Macario is able to provide for the family.

Later, a letter arrives stating that the church plans to take the family’s remaining land away from them. Even with Macario’s salary, the family owes the moneylender too much to hold onto any of their land. 

Now that the land is lost, Allos’s father has no choice but to work for other farmers, a humiliation for him. When Allos’s maternal grandmother dies, they are permitted to cultivate her small piece of land, but it is too stony to effectively support crops. The father sends Allos to live with his mother.

In town, Allos works for three months on a highway construction crew. He nearly drowns in the river while working and comes back to consciousness two days later. In what is the beginning of their intellectual life together, Macario comes home and reads Robinson Crusoe to Allos. Meanwhile, Allos helps his mother with her small trading business.

At a market, a young, beautiful girl with two servants walks toward Allos and his mother. The girl calls his mother a “poor woman” and then purposefully knocks a basket of beans off of her table. This is Allos’s first clash with the middle class and their arrogance. He vows never to grovel to them.

One night, Allos’s sister Irene screams with pain in her stomach. After bleeding from her mouth and ears, she dies. In the aftermath, Allos decides he wants to become a doctor.

While cutting coconuts, Allos falls and breaks his arm and leg. While recovering, Marcario reads the New Testament to him. He compares Moses to José Rizal, a 19th century Filipino reformer and national hero executed by the Spanish government for the crime of rebellion. Allos says he wants to be like Moses and Rizal and fight for his family.