Vasquez​ ​1 ​ ​Nayeli​ ​Vasquez WR​ ​1​ ​(64855) 1​ ​September​ ​2017 My​ ​Family's​ ​Slave She​ ​was​ ​brought​ ​in​ ​by​ ​a​ ​relative,​ ​Lieutenant​ ​Tom,​ ​fooled​ ​she​ ​could​ ​have​ ​food​ ​and​ ​shelter only​ ​if​ ​she​ ​would​ ​commit​ ​to​ ​the​ ​safekeeping​ ​of​ ​Lt.​ ​Tom’s​ ​daughter.​ ​Little​ ​did​ ​she​ ​know,​ ​she would​ ​be​ ​trapped​ ​as​ ​a​ ​servant;​ ​cooking,​ ​grooming,​ ​moping​​ ​​etc.​​ ​​for​ ​the​ ​rest​ ​of​ ​her​ ​life.​ ​Alex Tizon,​ ​a​ ​journalism​ ​professor​ ​at​ ​the​ ​University​ ​of​ ​Oregon,​ ​was​ ​greatly​ ​revered​ ​and​ ​admired. Throughout​ ​​ ​his​ ​time,​ ​he​ ​shared​ ​a​ ​Pulitzer​ ​Prize​ ​in​ ​1997​ ​and​ ​served​ ​as​ ​the​ ​Seattle​ ​Bureau​ ​Chief of​ ​​The​ ​Los​ ​Angeles​ ​Times.​​ ​He​ ​was​ ​galvanized​ ​to​ ​believe​ ​that​ ​all​ ​people​ ​had​ ​within​ ​them​ ​an “epic”​ ​story.​ ​In​ ​the​ ​article​ ​“My​ ​Family's​ ​Slave”,​ ​Alex​ ​Tizon,​ ​child​ ​of​ ​three,​ ​is​ ​adequately​ ​raised by​ ​his​ ​family's​ ​long​ ​time​ ​“slave”,​ ​Eudocia​ ​Tomas​ ​Pulido,​ ​otherwise​ ​known​ ​as​ ​Lola.​ ​Lola,​ ​4​ ​feet 11​ ​inches​ ​with​ ​mocha-brown​ ​skin​ ​and​ ​almond​ ​eyes,​ ​is​ ​brought​ ​in​ ​by​ ​Tyson's​ ​grandfather, Lieutenant​ ​Tomas​ ​Asuncion,​ ​as​ ​a​ ​gift​ ​to​ ​Tizon’s​ ​mother​ ​at​ ​the​ ​age​ ​of​ ​twelve.​ ​Lola​ ​fed,​ ​groomed, and​ ​dressed​ ​his​ ​mother​ ​and​ ​fanned​ ​her​ ​to​ ​sleep​ ​at​ ​night.​ ​Despite​ ​Lolas​ ​great​ ​qualities​ ​and attentiveness,​ ​she​ ​was​ ​taken​ ​for​ ​granted​ ​and​ ​treated​ ​crudely,​ ​taking​ ​blame​ ​of​ ​other​ ​people's actions.​ ​Through​ ​Tizon’s​ ​eyes,​ ​Lola​ ​is​ ​more​ ​of​ ​a​ ​mom​ ​than​ ​his​ ​real​ ​mom​ ​was.​ ​As​ ​he​ ​mentions, “when​ ​I​ ​was​ ​sick​ ​and​ ​too​ ​weak​ ​to​ ​eat,​ ​she​ ​chewed​ ​my​ ​food​ ​for​ ​me​ ​and​ ​put​ ​the​ ​small​ ​pieces​ ​in​ ​my mouth​ ​to​ ​swallow.”​ ​In​ ​“My​ ​Family's​ ​Slave”,​ ​author​ ​Alex​ ​Tizon​ ​uses​ ​description​ ​to​ ​build​ ​imagery which​ ​allows​ ​the​ ​audience​ ​to​ ​feel​ ​first​ ​hand​ ​how​ ​life​ ​was​ ​for​ ​Lola​ ​and​ ​also​ ​employs​ ​shifting Vasquez​ ​2 tones​ ​which​ ​permits​ ​the​ ​audience​ ​to​ ​experience​ ​his​ ​feelings​ ​about​ ​her,​ ​helping​ ​to​ ​achieve​ ​his purpose​ ​of​ ​exposing​ ​his​ ​family’s​ ​cruelty​ ​toward​ ​Lola​ ​and​ ​at​ ​the​ ​same​ ​time​ ​honoring​ ​her. To​ ​grasp​ ​a​ ​first​ ​hand​ ​perspective​ ​of​ ​how​ ​the​ ​outset​ ​of​ ​Lola’s​ ​life​ ​was,​ ​Tizon​ ​uses​ ​literary devices​ ​such​ ​as​ ​imagery,​ ​allowing​ ​the​ ​audience​ ​to​ ​paint​ ​a​ ​vivid​ ​picture.​ ​In​ ​addition,​ ​with​ ​the​ ​use of​ ​pathos​ ​Tizon​ ​guides​ ​the​ ​audience​ ​to​ ​respect​ ​and​ ​sympathize​ ​for​ ​Lola​ ​when​ ​she​ ​is​ ​being physically​ ​and​ ​verbally​ ​abused​ ​by​ ​Tizon’s​ ​parents.​ ​Often,​ ​a​ ​slave's​ ​daily​ ​routine​ ​would​ ​consist​ ​of starting​ ​early​ ​before​ ​everyone​ ​woke​ ​and​ ​completing​ ​their​ ​tasks​ ​after​ ​everyone​ ​we ...

1. Vasquez 1
Nayeli Vasquez
WR 1 (64855)
1 September 2017
My Family's Slave
She was brought in by a relative, Lieutenant Tom, fooled she
could have food and shelter
only if she would commit to the safekeeping of Lt. Tom’s
daughter. Little did she know, she
would be trapped as a servant; cooking, grooming, moping etc.
for the rest of her life. Alex
Tizon, a journalism professor at the University of Oregon, was
greatly revered and admired.
Throughout his time, he shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 and
served as the Seattle Bureau Chief
of The Los Angeles Times. He was galvanized to believe that all
people had within them an
“epic” story. In the article “My Family's Slave”, Alex Tizon,
child of three, is adequately raised

2. by his family's long time “slave”, Eudocia Tomas Pulido,
otherwise known as Lola. Lola, 4 feet
11 inches with mocha-brown skin and almond eyes, is brought
in by Tyson's grandfather,
Lieutenant Tomas Asuncion, as a gift to Tizon’s mother at the
age of twelve. Lola fed, groomed,
and dressed his mother and fanned her to sleep at night. Despite
Lolas great qualities and
attentiveness, she was taken for granted and treated crudely,
taking blame of other people's
actions. Through Tizon’s eyes, Lola is more of a mom than his
real mom was. As he mentions,
“when I was sick and too weak to eat, she chewed my food for
me and put the small pieces in my
mouth to swallow.” In “My Family's Slave”, author Alex Tizon
uses description to build imagery
which allows the audience to feel first hand how life was for
Lola and also employs shifting
Vasquez 2
tones which permits the audience to experience his feelings
about her, helping to achieve his
purpose of exposing his family’s cruelty toward Lola and at the

3. same time honoring her.
To grasp a first hand perspective of how the outset of Lola’s
life was, Tizon uses literary
devices such as imagery, allowing the audience to paint a vivid
picture. In addition, with the use
of pathos Tizon guides the audience to respect and sympathize
for Lola when she is being
physically and verbally abused by Tizon’s parents. Often, a
slave's daily routine would consist of
starting early before everyone woke and completing their tasks
after everyone went to bed. When
Lola was first brought as a gift to Tizon’s mother, who was 12
years old at the time, Lola would
feed, groom, and dress his mother, and at night would ever-so-
lightly fan her to sleep. One
afternoon when Lt. Tom arrived home, he caught Tizon’s
mother in a lie. Furiously, he ordered
her to stand on the table. In return, she cowardly told him Lola
would serve her punishment,
dreading of what he might do. Lola, speechless, never would of
thought Tizon’s mother would
do such a thing, looking at her pleadingly; however, deferential
and obedient as always, quietly
walked over to the table and snagged onto the edge. Tizons

4. grandfather raised his belt and
delivered 12 excruciating lashes, punctuating each one with a
word. Viciously he yelled, “You.
Do. Not. Lie. To. Me. You. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me.” Lola made
no sound. Despite drudgery as a
result of her hard work, Lola incessantly accepted the callous
manner she was treated in.
In continuation, Tizon’s father came home one night to find his
younger sister, Ling, had
missed dinner. He ragingly barked at Lola assuming she didn't
try feeding her despite the fact
that she had the intention to. Lola implored she did try to get
her to eat. In response, “Dad stood
over her and glared. Her feeble defense only made him angrier,
and he punched her just below
the shoulder. Lola ran out of the room and I could hear her
wailing an animal cry” (Tizon). The
Vasquez 3
author’s use of hyperbole, juxtaposing her cry and one of an
animal, provides a more profound
understanding of the misery faced in the household. More
forward, in another occasion, after

5. Tizon had the most monumental argument with his mother in
regards to Lola, her mother’s fear
of Lola stealing the children from her only grew worse.
Repleted with jealousy, she made Lola
pay for it. “Mom drove her harder. Tormenting her by saying, “I
hope you're happy now that
your kids hate me.” … Later she’d take Lola into a bedroom for
a talk, and Lola would walk out
with puffy eyes.” With this being said, Tizon effectively
demonstrates description to build
imagery to vividly express the torment Lola experienced as well
as the contempt his parents
expressed by verbally and physically abusing the only person
who did everything around the
house. With the brutal injustice Lola endured, Tizon’s ability to
provide the audience with clear
description proves his purpose of exposing his family's cruelty
and animosity upon Lola.
Tizon’s use of tone carries the audience through his feelings
about Lola which assist his
purpose of honoring Lola, yet at the same time expressing his
guilt of not doing enough when he
had the chance. On May 12, 1964 when the Tizon family had
arrived in Los Angeles, Tizon

6. begins to say how Lola had been in his mother's life for 21
years. He then goes on to mention, “
In many ways she was more of a parent to me than either my
mother or my father. Hers was the
first face I saw in the morning and the last one I saw at night…
As a toddler, I refused to go to
sleep unless Lola was holding me, or at least nearby.” In this
situation, his tone is intense with
feelings and is also loving because as a reader you can visualize
how much Tizon appreciates her
and identify how much more of a mother figure she is. For
example, Tizon goes on by speaking
highly about Lola, “The woman who used to hum melodies as
she rocked me to sleep, and when
I got older would dress and feed me and walk me to school in
the mornings and pick me up in
Vasquez 4
the afternoons.” Moreover, when his father assumes Lola did
not feed his younger sibling, Tizon
has the urge to utter “Ling said she wasn't hungry”. Here,
Tizon’s tone is defensive and frank.

7. Showing his love for Lola, he would stand up for her to his
frightful parents and protect the only
person who does everything for him. In addition, he achieves
his purpose of honoring her by
showing the public how different he is to the rest of his family.
He is the only one in the article
who takes a stand for her in this example in addition to when he
takes a stand against his mother
in an argument involving Lola going to see a dentist. Lola had
been 50 years old and had not
once gone to see a dentist for Tizon’s mom didn’t want to deal
with the disruption and the
expense. As a comeback to his mother’s refutation he
frustratedly says “... she would know all
about being a phony, … if she stopped feeling sorry for herself
for one minute she'd see that Lola
could barely eat because her goddamn teeth were rotting out of
her goddamn head…” With this
being said, Tizon is extremely frenetic with the fact that his
mother forbids to see Lola as a real
person and proceeds to make Lola pay for taking “away” her
kids from her, attaining his purpose
of honoring his great friend.
Furthermore, the author reaches his motive by expressing his

8. guilt he has through the use
of tone. In the beginning when Tizon begins to realize what
Lola’s title of the house is, he draws
a parallel in slave characters on TV and in movies. He proceeds
to tell a snippet of a movie
called The Man Who Shot LIberty Valance where John Wayne
plays Tom and has a servant
named Pompey. Pompey both fears and loves Tom and
eventually mourns his death when Tom
dies. In a guilty tone Tizon states, “ I remember thinking: Lola
is Pompey, Pompey is Lola.” In
this example Tizon feels culpable that the one parallel he could
draw Lola with is in a movie
where John Wayne has his own servant. Seeing the mistreatment
Pompey goes into is the same
Vasquez 5
treatment Lola goes through in their household. In another
example, when Tizon and his family
moved to North of Seattle they lived across a street from the
Misslers where he met his best
friend, Billy. In a short dialogue between Billy and Tizon, Billy
asks “Why is she always

9. working?” In response Tizon says, “She likes to work.” Billy
asks one more question “ Your dad
and mom-why do they always yell at her?” In an answerable
way Tizon replies “Her hearing isn't
so good…” In this place Tizon admits it gave him doubts of
what kind of people they were and
what kind of place he came from. Moreover, he confesses “I
was ashamed of it all, including my
complicity.” Tizon shows a great amount of guilt he has in a
way us readers cannot understand.
His guilt and feeling ashamed of what his parents have done and
what he could have done to
prevent such things have overwhelmed his sense of insecurity
reaching his primary cause of
exposing his family's secret yet honoring what he did, by being
an outcast, is wrong.
“‘Lola’s Story’ (June), by the Filipino American journalist Alex
Tizon, quickly became
the most read story on TheAtlantic.com and garnered many
emotional responses from people
around the United States and around the world, particularly in
the Philippines” (The Atlantic 8).
In the following months the Atlantic replied to letters regarding
this story in “The Conversation”

10. (September) one of which was buy Vincent Raf
Vasquez 6
Work Cited
Tizon, Alex. “My Family's Slave.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media
Company, 5 July 2017,
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-
story/524490/. 11 September
2017.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-
story/524490/