One of the Faces Behind Trafficked Domestic Workers: Lola Eudocia Tomas Pulido

October 13, 2020

Guest blogger: Frances Asha, law student, University of San Francisco:

“Lola” is an affectionate, respectful title for grandmothers and other older Filipina women. Eudocia Tomas Pulido was lovingly called “Lola” by the children of the family she served: the Tizons.[1] Eudocia at 18 was offered food and shelter by a widowed man in exchange for caring for his daughter, then age 12, for life.[2] Young Eudocia, a poor girl in a rural village in the Philippines, was trying to avoid marrying a farmer twice her age and had few options.[3] When the daughter had grown up, got married, and had kids, Eudocia went with her wherever she moved and cared for her family. [4] Eventually, the married couple wanted to move to the United States and in order to convince Eudocia to go, they promised her an allowance which she could send back to her family living in poverty.[5] They had lied.

In the United States, Lola Eudocia was never paid for her work, still slept in couches and hallways, was yelled at frequently, occasionally hit, and worked every day from sunrise till everyone was asleep.[6] Thanks to her hours of unpaid labor, the Tizons got free childcare which allowed them to earn advanced degrees and increase their income.[7] When Lola Eudocia’s immigration papers expired and she wasn’t eligible for permanent resident status like the Tizon family, she still wasn’t sent home to the Philippines nor was she able to visit to attend a family funeral.[8] She was kept a secret because the parents were afraid of their own deportation and because they still wanted to maintain her as their servant; she was unlikely to return to them should she travel to the Philippines. Eudocia worked for a total of 56 years and in that time utilized the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to legalize and became a citizen in October 1998 (with the help of one of the Tizon adult chilren). She passed away in her 80s in the United States while being cared for by one of the grown Tizon sons.[9]

Lola Eudocia’s story is just one of the estimated 11.5 million migrant domestic workers worldwide[10]: just one of the domestic workers who become integral parts of families’ lives, part of a family’s success by lessening the burdens of housework and child rearing, and taking on the role of a beloved caretaker to children who will fondly remember being tucked into bed by them. The relationships formed in these contexts are complex, riddled with both abuse and care. Workers who do such important work deserve better.

[1] Rachel Martin, In Telling Lola’s Story, A Journalist Reveals A Family Secret, NPR (May 16, 2017), https://www.npr.org/2017/05/16/528515935/in-lolas-story-a-journalist-reveals-a-family-secret.

[2] Alex Tizon, My Family’s Slave, The Atlantic (June 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Infographic: Migrant domestic workers – Facts everyone should know, United Nations Women (Sept. 9, 2016), https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2016/9/infographic-migrant-domestic-workers.