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Help Eudocia Pulido's Family

Like many people, I haven’t been able to get the recent article in The Atlantic, “My Family’s Slave,” out of my mind. But Eudocia Tomas Pulido or "Lola" as she is referred to in the story, is only distantly related to me (my maternal grandfather Leonido Pulido was her cousin). So despite my anger after reading it, I’ve been able to do my thing each day. But her close relatives, her sister, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews in the Philippines have not. The article was the first they’d heard of the horror that she went through in the years when she was missing and isolated from her family. They’re still crying “heavy tears” while mourning her all over again, knowing what they know now about what happened to her.

Having relatives work far away or overseas is nothing new to Filipinos, who are known for making enormous sacrifices for the greater good of their families. Even workers that send “only” $100 a month provide amazing opportunities for generations of loved ones back home. That money puts food on the table, pays medical bills, takes care of elderly relatives, keeps farms going, puts kids through school who then grow up to better their families as well. They take pride in being able to do that for the people they love, though it is at the expense of time and memories with the same people. With Cosiang, as Eudocia is known to our relatives, this wasn’t the case because she couldn’t. And it must also be said that it’s not the case with many overseas Filipino and non-Filipino workers, many of whom do not get parts of their story told in a major American news outlet.

I don’t have a time machine, otherwise I would head back to the 1950’s, and tell her to go home. She would be able to create something new for herself, something that didn’t involve suffering abuse and working unimaginable hours while a little part of her soul died each day. For decades. I have no doubt in my mind that Lola Cosiang loved the people she spent her lifetime with. That is the terrible beauty of the actual article. Not the evocative wordsmithing, which is to be expected from anyone who has won a Pulitzer, but the fact that it is actually a story of unconditional love. Hers. So I keep thinking that while we can’t do anything about her life, maybe in the telling of her story we can grant her lifelong wish, which was to be able to help the family she left behind in Mayantoc. For people who make the difficult decision to spend their lives working abroad, trying to improve their lives while sending money home, there is a dignity and honor in that sacrifice. Lola Cosiang was denied that in her life. I’m hoping that with my network of friends and possibly strangers who were also affected strongly by her story, that we can at least give it to her in death. That her legacy will be that and the conversation now happening about "protecting other Lolas," instead of a brief moment as a horrible news story. We can also grant her final wish, that her final resting place be next to the parents she never saw again-- her parents are buried elsewhere and there is a financial cost to moving their graves.     

I’m not going into what the article left out, or romanticized, or just plain got wrong. But I will say that the part about her relatives in the Philippines receiving like $200 each week was not even remotely accurate. That statement is like saying Hurricane Katrina was a light breeze. So if you have something to donate to her family, anything, that would be wonderful. Or maybe you want to donate to a larger organization fighting human trafficking overall instead. That would be great too. Her nieces describe her as one of the sweetest, most loving people they’ve ever known. So I think anything good that comes out of her life story would mean a lot. Thank you.

Organizer

Marissa Rivera
Organizer
Marlton, NJ

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