"My Family's Slave"

It is heartbreaking. Very much so for Lola and for the children who witnessed her abuse. What struck me powerfully about Lola is that she turned much of her mistreatment into love ...codependent to some degree which was unavoidable due to the circumstances. But through the lens of the author, she showed genuine love for his undeserving mother and certainly for the children.
 
Wow a very sad story, it did remind me of books I have read about slavery of afro-american in the early history of the United States.
 
What was truly heartbreaking about this is that the woman herself didn't seem to realize that there was something very wrong with her situation.
 
Sunny said:
What was truly heartbreaking about this is that the woman herself didn't seem to realize that there was something very wrong with her situation.
Click to expand...
I think she did after coming stateside, but was trapped, helpless, completely isolated, terrified of having to figure out how to be on her own, and believed she had nowhere to turn. Sounds a lot like most victims of domestic violence.
 
I could not make it through the whole article: Too long, too slow, for me. However, I did read about half of the article.

My thoughts: It's tough to take a completely different culture and try to compartmentalize it within the morals and beliefs we, as native born US Citizens have. Yes, Lola was a slave, for the most part. Yes, the author's parents were pigs, and phonies, as the same applied to their treatment of Lola.

Thing is, this practice involving Lola, is commonplace in the Philippines, apparently. While that doesn't excuse its horrendous existence, it does explain everyone's behavior under the system.

I feel sorry for Lola, but I wonder how more horrible her life might have been had she stayed in her village in the Philippines.
 
The caste system in India is alive and well; it is more hidden than it used to be
I did some reading on it 10-12 years ago The caste system has subsets...If I recall correctly there are three classes of the unclean.
and many other classes make up the strata of Indian Society.
There was/is an unsanctioned attempt to keep the lower classes in the rural so they will not be visible to those pesky foreigners that like to take pictures.
PBS ran a program about five years ago-I would tell you about it, but it would probably violate the rules of this site.

"Slum Dog Millionaire" was right on the money.

Give the topic a goggle
 
I read the whole story. It kind of made me feel sad for the lady. One of the best things this country ever did was to do away with slavery, which our forefathers never should have allowed in the first place.

Slavery actually contradicted parts of the Constitution, including the Preamble. What were they thinking; that the Constitution applied only to white people?

Well written, IMO. I was glad to read that she was returned to her homeland.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top