Peter Bacho is a writer and teacher best known for his book "Cebu" which won the American Book Award. His book is defined as Filipino American literature because of its explorations in themes such as neocolonialism and Filipino-American identity. Many of Bacho's books deal with the Filipino experience in the United States.
Background
Peter Bacho was born in 1950 in Seattle, Washington, United States. His father was a Filipino immigrant with a fourthgrade education; his mother did not complete high school. As a small child, he lived with his parents in migrant farm worker camps, traveling from harvest to harvest. His youth was spent in central Seattle, in an area of hard lives, tough times, and difficult people. His interest in Asian martial arts and American boxing has its origins in his adolescent days of protecting himself. He has studied martial arts for over thirty years, and he spars in boxing often.
His working class family struggled to make a living in Seattle. As Bacho explained in an interview with International Examiner, it was an “era that was very hostile to people of color.” It was through his childhood experiences that Bacho found his influence for writing and that “these were the stories that needed to be told.”
Education
Peter Bacho received Bachelor of Arts at the Seattle University in 1971. Then he got Juris Doctor degree at the University of Washington in 1974. Finally, he earned Master of Laws in Law and Policy at the University of Washington in 1981.
Career
Bacho went on to be one of few from his generation to earn a college degree. In 1971, he went to law school, graduating four years later and passing the bar exam. This career path doesn’t align with Bacho’s eventual writing career, but in the interview he mentioned that he doesn’t “regret the education that law provided.” Instead of pursuing the traditional path of becoming a lawyer or attorney, Bacho became a teacher in the 1980s. Currently, he teaches in the Liberal Students Program at The Evergreen State College. He is also a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences program at the University of Washington Tacoma.
Bacho is most known for his 1991 book called "Cebu", winner of the American Book Award. As the book explains, it follows Ben Lucero, a Filipino American priest, and his journey to “come to terms with his bifurcated notion of home as well as his own religious commitment.” Through this book, Bacho hoped to bridge the gap and “examine the cultural differences between Filipino and Filipino American cultures.”
There were rumors of "Cebu" being turned into a movie. For Bacho, writing the book was a challenge. As he explained in his interview, writing “is just the writer, his imagination and skill, and a pad of paper and a pen – a very solitary, intimate existence. A writer worries about every sentence, every word. A script, on the other hand, is mostly scene and dialogue, and it is just the starting point, and so many others are involved.” Hopefully, as pursuit of Cebu as a movie will help bring Bacho’s Filipino American narrative to life. His interview with International Examiner included a preview of the trailer for "Cebu."
Since "Cebu", Bacho published his 1996 collection of short stories, "Dark Blue Suit", a work of nonfiction called "Boxing in Black and White", and two other novels. His latest work was a piece of young adult fiction called "Leaving Yesler", released in 2010. Bacho continues to encourage a dialogue about Filipino and Filipino American culture, and influence literature surrounding those often untold stories.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Bacho’s dramatization of the conflict between Filipino and Filipino American cultures conveys the concerns of the post-World War II generation with boldness and skill.