I remember visiting Mamay PH Lolit Andrada Lledo at the former office of Pilipino Workers Center (PWC). We talked for hours about the unpaid extra hours of caregivers, of how some employers would not let them eat their meals with patis and bagoong, of how the caregivers felt degraded.
All I had with me at that moment was my knowledge of how two institutions and organizations have helped transform working conditions through passing laws: one was the slave working conditions of the Thai garment workers who were rescued and made whole by Asian American Justice Los Angeles (formerly Asian American Legal Center), UCLA Labor Center and working with the District Attorney’s offices to file complaints on egregious violators. I shared them all with Lolit.
She listened. She acted.
But more than that, she organized the caregivers until they formed their own organization. She always believed in their organizational strength. It took years, approaching a decade and today, the Caregivers’ Bill of Rights exists in California because of this wonderful woman and the conscientious selfless caregivers who believe they have dignity under the empowering leadership of Aquilina Soriano Versoza – quiet, subtle, strong and motivating.
Lolit helped make that happen. Rest in power, Lolit Lledo Mamay PH you are now with the Angels. Please look after us until we join you!
Photos taken by me on Nov. 21, 2014, at PWC standing with then Pres. Obama as he approved an executive order for DACA. “Expansion. In November 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama announced changes to DACA which would expand it to include undocumented immigrants who entered the country prior to 2010, eliminate the requirement that applicants be younger than 31 years old, and lengthen the renewable deferral period to two years.”
My deepest condolences Ivy Marie Lledo and Dong Lledo
https://www.kcet.org/history-society/lolita-lledo-fighting-for-democracy-in-the-philippines-and-l-a