"I will be a writer and make all of you live again in my words." (Tem's Reflection)

It is very easy for me to come into a class thinking I am well-versed with a topic that I am so passionate about. However, Christine’s class always finds a way to create insightful dialogue with the people around me so that there are multiple ways for me to gain knowledge. The overarching topic of race, labor, and migration are so compelling to me that every time I step into class, I do so with an open mind so I can absorb everyone’s contributions.

Starting from the first few weeks of the class, I knew very little about Marxist ideals and literature. The different articles pertaining to wages and labor gave me a solid foundation of what I needed to know for the literary works in the course. It never occurred to me that capitalism has a way of taking a minimalist approach in paying their workers the minimum amount just to survive and work another day. This is a powerful concept because it resonates with a lot of past and previous labor.

With that foundation, I was already hooked with Kindred as it is an Octavia Butler work. I found this book to be a quick read and just reinforced everything I learned about slavery. Butler’s sci-fi approach makes it intriguing to analyze as temporality plays a key part in the story. A slave narrative like this book made me realize the horrors of being a person of color returning to a past of physically and mental abuse. While we have make leaps progressively, we are still far from where we can be in terms of our “post-racial” society.

Something I am unfamiliar with was the coolie how the need for their labor was in part due to post-slavery. I knew very little about the Asian labor, specifically Chinese, other than they helped built the railroads. The dynamics of de-gendering and feminizing their labor reminds me of M. Butterfly. This confusion of the sexes made it easy for capitalists to oppress the labor of the coolie. One thing that helped me with this particular section is my political thought background and the Lockean notion of property. Understanding that while one’s own work means one is deserving of the fruits of that labor was not the case, especially for the Chinamen.

On a contemporary standpoint, understanding the bracero program and the primary Latino workforce made me recognize that our fight is still going. In my organization, I always emphasize that the UFW would not be powerful if the Filipino and Latino workers were not in solidarity with each other. While our histories are different (being a little brown brother vs. alienation), the paths will always intertwine. NAFTA, globalization, neoliberalism, the core/periphery…all of these attribute the unfair practices and exploitation of the immigrants toiling over the land and the workers in Central America.

As for Bulosan…well I can write a whole paper on that. ;)

One of the most powerful-est things I've learned is that literature like the proletarian novels we've read...give a voice to the voiceless. When words and stories can be preserved and retold again, that's where people can reflect and build off the past. Even if memories become a commodity like in Sleep Dealer, you can't truly put a price on the past.