On the Presence of Filipinos in the United States by E. San Juan, Jr.

In his latest book, On the Presence of Filipinos in the United States, San Juan clearly demonstrates that history is a weapon in the ideological battle between those who want to change society and those who want to maintain its basic features. This book, a compilation of four essays (with graphics by Reev Lopez Solis), spans over 100 years beginning with the U.S. colonial conquest of the Philippine islands in 1898 and continuing to the present neocolonial moment marked by the brutality of the United States' second front on the "global war on terror." While these essays focus on the distinct and historic struggles of Filipinos inside the United States, San Juan connects this collective political project to the unfinished task of a liberated and nationally democratic Philippine homeland. This is the greatest strength of the book.

Throughout his historical examination, San Juan chronicles a vast time period with an unapologetic critique of capitalism as a historical reality that necessitates exploitation. This exploitation has resulted in the reproduction of poverty for many Filipinos in the United States and the constrained development in the Philippines. The book's introduction and first chapter are powerful reminders that the unequal international division of labor imposed by United States imperialism creates an industrial reserve army of mass unemployment, a phenomenon seen not only in the Philippines but also throughout Latin America. Therefore, San Juan 's critical analysis of Filipinos dispersed in the United States (not as a result of a romantic quest to achieve the American Dream but more accurately because of the American Nightmare created throughout the Third World ) is a crucial project in light of the amplified anti-immigrant sentiments that have materialized in the United States.

About the Author
Epifanio San Juan, Jr. is a Filipino cultural critic and public intellectual. His works span a broad spectrum of fields and disciplines, from cultural studies, comparative literary scholarship, ethnic and racial studies, postcolonial theory, semiotics to philosophical inquiries in historical materialism.

San Juan applies a Gramscian approach and a critical Marxist optic on cultural events and texts in the Philippine historical process of national liberation. He is also notable for being the first Filipino male intellectual to have engaged with feminist discourse in his "Filipina Insurgency: Writing Against Patriarchy" (Giraffe Books, 1999). In 1999, San Juan received the Centennial Award for Achievement in Literature from the Cultural Center of the Philippines because of his contributions to Filipino and Filipino American Studies.

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114 pages
Published 2008 by Sarimanok Publishers (first published 2006)
ISBN-13: 978-09-6-516801-4