If you had an emotional response to an essay in The Atlantic this week, you aren't alone.
The piece, written by the late Alex Tizon, tells the story of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a woman who worked for his family and raised him. But Tizon reveals this stunning truth: For 56 years, Pulido, known to him as "Lola" — grandmother in Tagalog — was never paid for her work. She was his family's slave.
Join Marnette Federis and other members of the Global Nation Exchange
in a discussion of "My Family's Slave."
Some hailed Tizon for his writing and for telling the story in the first place. Then came the fury. In comments online, many people asked, why didn't he do more to free her, especially once he became an adult? They asked, why do we need to hear this story from Tizon, the oppressor shaping the narrative of the oppressed? Some comments said the remaining family members should be jailed or made to pay reparations to Pulido's remaining family members.
Out of the fury came
defensive responses
It's important to ask, "How does this happen?" And some say it's time to move forward and make sure this never happens again.
Read:
"My Family's Slave" by Alex Tizon for The Atlantic
There's a lot to discuss. Here are five places to start better understanding Pulido's story.
What happened to Pulido was indefensible — on that point, everyone seems to agree. But some readers are questioning Tizon's motives in writing her story. Was he trying to absolve himself? Why did Pulido's story have to come from him, the child of the oppressors?
Tizon died suddenly before the publication of the piece, so we'll never know the true answers to some of these questions. We only have his original story to reflect on.
The
Seattle Times ran an obituary
The paper
issued a retraction this week
Tizon won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 while he was a reporter at the Times.
His wife, Melissa Tizon,
spoke with KUOW in Seattle
Pulido became a slave in the Philippines after World War II, before she was brought to the US with the Tizon family. Filipinos in the Philippines say it's important to know the history and culture of the country in order to understand how a situation like this can happen.
The Philippines is a country that has a long history of colonialism, hundreds of years of oppression by the Spanish and then several decades by the US. The power dynamics and economy of the country is dictated by this colonial past. That past created a system where there are a few very powerful and rich people at the top and a lot of people in poverty at the bottom.
Also:
Here's the backstory on why the US has such close ties to the Philippines
So, it is common for people to have domestic workers in their homes. This includes nannies, housekeepers and people who do your laundry. Even people who are in the working and middle class hire domestic helpers — you don't have to be very wealthy. These workers are part of the landscape, part of the economy.
In that situation, some families might feel like they're actually doing their domestic workers a favor. Not paying a living wage or only paying them with room and board is enough because, well, it's better than nothing. Without other options, domestic workers might internalize some of this thinking and feel indebted to their employer. And because this all happens within the privacy of homes, it's difficult to ensure that domestic workers
are being treated fairly
The dynamic creates a situation rife for abuse.
For more on how this system came to be, read historian Vicente Rafael's breakdown of the
history and culture of the Philippines.
Filipino culture generally includes a very strong sense of duty to family. It's something that children often feel intensely, which prevents them from speaking out against their parents — even when they become adults. In America, Tizon learned about the history of slavery and African Americans. He relates one big fight with his mother in which he used the word "slave" to describe Pulido's situation. But ultimately, he did not do more to free Pulido until after his mother's death, when he was 40 years old — and she was 75.
Writer Jay Caspian Kang
explains this in terms that many children of immigrants might find familiar
You might have seen comments from people in the Philippines or Filipinos abroad that are very defensive. And you might have seen comments from those who say that Filipinos should be open to criticism. There’s a debate happening among pinoys right now that has not happened in a long time around the issue of modern day slavery and the culture that propagates it.
The
comment section of a story in Scout
A screenshot of the comment section on
a story about "My Family's Slave" in Scout magazine
Rappler, a popular Philippines news website, published several reaction pieces.
Lian Buan explains the debate this way
For many Filipinos and Filipino Americans, the question isn't about what the Tizons and The Atlantic should have done, but it's about what comes next. Activists point out that Pulido's story, while exceptional, is one of many. BAYAN USA, a group of progressive Filipino organizations in the United States,
says thousands of migrant workers leave the Philippines each day,
Rappler's Shakira Sison wrote a piece worth reading called, "
We Are All Tizons
Step one is a lesson we might all relate to: "Stop treating your helpers' employment as a favor to them."
From PRI's The World ©2017
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