Positing Hero as a new arrival, Castillo can filter the environment through her eyes. Telling him that America is “Roni’s home”, Hero persuades him to return and the equilibrium is re-established.Īfter exploring the former worlds of Paz and Hero, the pace slows in Milpitas as exterior adventures make way for interior examination. He can only do this in the Philippines, whither he absconds, taking Roni with him. The final drama occurs when Pol decides he wants to practice medicine again. She begins to rebuild her life, helped by a love affair with a make-up artist, Rosalyn. She has nowhere to turn apart from the extended family in Milpitas.įortunately for Hero, the environment is welcoming. Released, she cannot return to her parents due to their political differences. After a decade as a cadre doctor for the guerrillas, she is captured and tortured until her jailors realise her family is connected to the regime. Hero too studied medicine but dropped out to join the New People’s Army in its fight against the Marcos administration. She is quickly dubbed “Hero” by Roni and has a fitting history for the name. Parachuted into this suburban drudgery is another Geronima, Pol’s niece Nimag. Nonetheless, they manage to support a modest lifestyle and a troublemaking seven-year old daughter, Geronima, nicknamed Roni. They both work long hours in low-ranking jobs for which they are overqualified. Here she sets up house in Milpitas along with her surgeon husband, Pol.
She gains a place at university to study nursing which, along with some family connections, allows her to find work in California. The action begins in the 1960s where Paz, a young Filipina, is growing up in a poverty-stricken village in Pangasinan.
America Is Not the Heart offers some genuine insights into love, life and what constitutes a home as well as an absorbing family saga set between the Philippines and the Bay area of San Francisco.
There is much more than the average “Asian expatriate in the US” story to be found in the debut novel by Elaine Castillo.
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