America is in the Heart

In the steerage compartment beneath the ship, Allos second-guesses his decision to leave the Philippines. To cheer up, he and some of the other steerage passengers go topside to sit in the sun. This angers the first-class passengers. The peasants are driven below decks again and prohibited to come back up until they pass Hawaii.

There is an outbreak of meningitis on the ship that primarily affects those in steerage. The sickness and confinement are so extreme that Allos feels he will go mad. He meets a boy named Marcelo who is from San Manuel. Their regional bond is familiar enough to comfort Allos. While sneaking into the sunlight for relief, Allos hears a young white woman call them “half-naked savages.” It is a sentiment he will hear often in the United States.

Allos arrives in Seattle with 20 cents. He and Marcelo stay in a hotel that night with other Filipinos. In the morning, Marcelo receives a telegram stating that Luciano died of tuberculosis one week earlier. As he cries, the hotel owner bursts in and asks for payment. They have no money. A man named Jake enters and says he sold the Filipinos to work in the fish canneries in Alaska for five dollars each.