Analysis of Peter Bacho’s Cebu

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on June 9, 2026

Peter Bacho was born in Seattle in 1950, the son of immigrants from Cebu, the Philippines. His first novel, Cebu, won the 1992 American Book Award.

Cebu is a quintessentially Filipino-American novel that explores culture clash, family history, identity, and faith. The fast-paced book focuses on the life of Ben Lucero, an American-born Filipino priest from Seattle, his life-changing trip to Cebu after the death of his mother, and the rippling repercussions this visit has on his identity, relationships, spirituality, and vocation upon his return to the United States. Upending the model of the white explorer confronting the “heart of darkness” in the Far East, Bacho portrays a Filipino American returning “home” to realize just how un-Filipino he truly is; in this way Bacho also complicates the balikbayan (homecoming) narrative. To Ben, the Philippines is exotic and at times incomprehensible; it disorients him and makes him question every aspect of his life. Beginning with his crisis of faith when confronted with Filipino folk religious practices (via the crucifixion of Carlito), Ben’s disorientation culminates in an affair with Ellen Labrado (his aunt’s assistant), which results in his exposure as a priestly fraud. While attempting to administer last rites to a dying victim on the streets of Manila, he is admonished by the victim’s rejection: “Get me a real priest, Benny.” Ben runs back to Seattle, then considers suicide when hearing from his aunt Clara that Ellen died from an abortion (presumably of his child); he reaffirms his faith and commitment to the priesthood only to have his renewed belief in his vocation tested by gang warfare between rival Filipino groups. Ben’s decision to deny absolution to an Ilocano gang member (who accuses him of not being a “real Filipino”) results in his own gamble with God.

While dualities such as mothers/sons, body/soul, sin/forgiveness, God/fate are central to the novel, the interrelated themes central to the contemporary Filipino/American experience are at its true core: “Flips” (American-born Filipinos) against “FOBs” (“fresh off the boat,” or recent immigrants); Filipino regionalism, manifested in inherited distrust and tension between Tagalog, Ilocano and Cebuano immigrants; and barkada, the transformation of provincial pride and brotherhood into gang warfare in the United States. Each of these issues hinges on the idea of utang, or obligation. Gang members are involved in an endless cycle of violence to defend honor and avenge dishonor; moreover, Ben’s life is circumscribed by obligations. Remedios promised God that her firstborn (Ben) would become a priest; Tia Clara promised to watch over Ben, and Ben promised his mother to bury her in Cebu. These obligations set in motion the volatile chain of events that change Ben’s life.

Bacho uses foils to explore aspects of gender, sexuality, and points of view. Cebu opens with the surreal wartime exploits of Remedios, Ben’s religious, devoted mother, and Clara, Remedios’s agnostic, slightly sinister best friend, while Ben’s foil throughout the novel is his childhood friend, Teddy—a ladies’ man and small-time criminal. With each pair, Bacho traces their long history, and muses on how their relationships thrive despite glaring philosophical differences and life choices. These four characters are the most developed; however, Bacho’s depictions of women like Ellen and Sugar (Teddy’s girlfriend) are one-dimensional—partly because his real focus is the relationship between Ben and Teddy.

Despite its American Book Award, Cebu has garnered little critical attention. One reason may be that the novel does not fit neatly into the prevailing models of Asian-American novels as narratives of “immigration and settlement” as noted by Oscar Campomanes; he contends that Filipino-American literature should be read as one of “exile and emergence” (Campomanes, 51). Another factor may be that Bacho’s graphic representation of tensions and problems in Filipino diasporic communities may cause some readers to dismiss this book as a negative portrayal of the culture and to accuse it of promulgating racism towards recent Filipino immigrants or the Philippines in general. Feminist readers might object to the rather underdeveloped female characters, other than Clara and Remedios; nevertheless, Bacho’s social commentary, combined with his innovative plot and unforgettable characters, makes for an important chronicle of the contemporary Filipino-American experience.

Sources

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Campomanes, Oscar. “Filipinos in the US and Their Literature of Exile.” In Reading the Literatures of Asian America, edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Amy Ling, 49–78. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 1992.

Carbo, Nick, ed. Returning a Borrowed Tongue: An Anthology of Filipino and Filipino American Poetry. Minneapolis, Minn.: Coffee House Press, 1995.

Casper, Leonard. “Cebu,” Pacific Affairs 65, no. 3 (Fall 1992): 438–439.

“Cebu,” Publishers Weekly 238, no. 43 (September 27, 1991): 42.

Francia, Luis, and Eric Gamalinda, eds. Flippin: Filipinos on America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

Gonzalez, N. V. M., and Oscar Campomanes. “Filipino American Literature.” In An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature, edited by King-Kok Chueng, 62–124. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Kim, Elaine. Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982.

Tabios, Eileen, and Nick Carbo. Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers. San Francisco, Calif.: Aunt Lute, 2000.