A Story of Slavery in Modern America Vol. Lola

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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/?utm_source=twb
Her name was Eudocia Tomas Pulido. We called her Lola. She was 4 foot 11, with mocha-brown skin and almond eyes that I can still see looking into mine—my first memory. She was 18 years old when my grandfather gave her to my mother as a gift, and when my family moved to the United States, we brought her with us. No other word but slave  encompassed the life she lived. Her days began before everyone else woke and ended after we went to bed. She prepared three meals a day, cleaned the house, waited on my parents, and took care of my four siblings and me. My parents never paid her, and they scolded her constantly. She wasn’t kept in leg irons, but she might as well have been. So many nights, on my way to the bathroom, I’d spot her sleeping in a corner, slumped against a mound of laundry, her fingers clutching a garment she was in the middle of folding

To our American neighbors, we were model immigrants, a poster family. They told us so. My father had a law degree, my mother was on her way to becoming a doctor, and my siblings and I got good grades and always said “please” and “thank you.” We never talked about Lola. Our secret went to the core of who we were and, at least for us kids, who we wanted to be.
I found this interesting and decided to share it with you guys. It's a good read from the perspective of someone whose family owned the slave and the family dynamics between them and Lola.
 
Is no one interested in reading the posthumously released thoughts of a Pulitzer Prize winning author on growing up in a post-ww2 slave owning household in America? 
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Did I mention he's NOT white? 
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 None of our Filipino members feeling the need to chime in on modern day slavery in the Philippines? 
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 No thoughts? 
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I'm not naive, I know slavery continues to exist worldwide but it's just something that still takes you a bit by surprise when you hear about it. It was interesting to see how he viewed her as a member of the family and as a 3rd parent. And when he brought up that Lola was a slave to his mother, how she got upset because she didnt think of Lola as a slave, even though she treated her like one, was interesting as well. 
 
It's reality for folks in the Philippines. My family employed low waged maids as well.

Thats why I am grateful of where I was born. I could have been born to the 90 % poor Filipinos. Instead, out of shear luck, I was born to the 10 % upper class. Its literally winning the lottery.
 
very interesting.

For those who dont know "lola" means grandma
Thanks, that adds to the story. Guess that's why he originally told his white neighbor that she was his grandma, although with Lola and his mom only being 6 years apart there's no way I would've believed that
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