Labor Studies NOW Speaker Series with Rhacel S. Parreñas

A SLAVE NEXT DOOR: Eudocia Pulido and the Justification of Slavery

In 2017, Alex Tizon confessed in The Atlantic that his family had kept Eudocia Tomas Pulido, known as Lola, as an unpaid servant for 56 years. Many readers were outraged. Yet the historian Vicente Rafael defended the arrangement as Philippine culture, and People magazine portrayed Pulido as a beloved member of the family. Why did so many justify her enslavement? This talk revisits her story through the accounts of relatives Tizon never consulted. It shows how the language of love and family sustains slavery, both in Pulido’s case and for the migrant domestic workers bound to their employers today.

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2026

Time: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Location: On Campus, Location TBD

RSVP HERE