I have intersecting spaces with Lolit as THE clinic as board member, while she worked there; I was a SIPA board member, and she worked there; I am PWC supporter while serving as LA City Civil Service Commissioner, I am a writer for Asian Journalist here in CA, while she was a journalist in the Philippines.
Vincent Van Gogh once said, “There maybe a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passerby only see a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.”
But, not Lolit, folks visit her and they sit by her to get warmed up by the burning flames of her heart, in her own words, fired up by the sacrifices of her comrades who gave up their futures for democracy to be restored in the Philippines.
I was one of those who sat by the fireplace of her heart, decades ago, when she was stoking the fire with new stories of caregivers who are not allowed to eat their patis and bagoong with their rice, vegetables and fish. Stories of caregivers who stay awake through the night and not paid. I shared with her the stories of the Thai garment workers 1995, rescued by then Asian American Legal Center, now Asian Americans Advancing Justice in LA, who filed a case against the slaveowners, modern garment manufacturers. I referred Lolit to the UCLA Labor Center, to seek help from the LA County District Attorney and to pass legislation for bill of rights for these caregivers.
Lolit listened, and each time I went to visit her, she has new stories of how they were organizing the caregivers, the coalitions they were forming, even recruiting me to join them in their trip to Sacramento seeking dialogues with Assemblypersons and to pass bills for better working conditions. Fast forward today, we are all warmed up by Lolit’s passion of loving each one of us, each and every one of us with light in our hearts. That was what she saw and that bright light she stoked with stories of better humanity.
To me, she led without being in the limelight, she led with humility opening up to others to lead, she led with a full recognition of her self-value-a mother, a wife, a community organizer.
She personified grace, a heart that was alive with love and a talent that she spared nothing and all to share to serve and to connect with others.
May we be the grace, the flaming hearts of love that she lit in us to see the humanity in the caregivers, in the household help, in the workers, that when folks approach us, they are warmed up by the fires burning in our hearts with love and concern for others.
I was hesitant to attend as I fell down and bruised my left ear, quite swollen and a headache after.
But, I was driven to pay homage to a selfless, quiet without touting her own successes, but what @Pilipino Workers Center is doing and is gaining wins.This event could not be reenacted. I wanted to feel the collective energies.
It took collective determination of Aquilina Soriano Versoza who had to fly a day early, rebook flights, and a four hour wait for the plane to be fixed, and finally the team of PWC arrived at dawn, in time to attend Lolit’s memorial.
Loving another takes sacrifices and actions. I applied that theme and got the energy to drive myself.
Gauging from those who came, from the physical attendance of the State Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower, Bill Gallegos, Angelica Salas, Steve Angeles and family, worker leaders, media folks like Fe Koons and myself, Sokie Yee’s boundless energies of emceeing while leading an over capacity hall spilling to the patio, to the attendees on zoom of over a thousand, you sensed Lolit was highly respected, loved, and valued.
It comes from her highest sense of self-value, choosing consciously to live, despite being a political prisoner under the dark Marcos dictatorship of jailing opposition without due process and without charges. Other activists succumbed to despair and untimely death. She survived choosing to live for her then 6 month old infant and the love of her life, Dong Lledo.
After 3 months, she was released and she chose to rebuild her personal life after sacrificing her future for the movement to restore democracy in the Philippines, away from finishing her medical degree, and after being her school’s valedictorian, both in elementary and in high school.
She then pursued a Master’s in Industrial Relations degree from University of the Philippines and emigrated to join her family in California.
She worked for T.H.E. Clinic, SIPA, then, she was recruited to help organize the caregivers and domestic workers who were paid slave wages and treated like indentured servants, unable to eat their patis, bagoong, rice and fish at lunch.
Hearing these unfair working conditions, not known as these were hidden in private rich folks’ homes, including not getting overtime, Lolit became a masterful builder of lives. She listened well, encouraging them to have dignity in their lives, while assisting these undocumented workers to have green cards.
She helped organize them to believe in themselves, as she believed in herself and the collective power of organized workers.
Fast forward, decades later, these caregivers are now paid overtime, and receive living wages they can subsist on.
Speaker after speaker, without any prior coordination or planning, these speakers spoke of her humility, her smarts in learning the US labor laws, her non-stop ability to share the caregivers’ stories, her joyful singing, her broad smiles and her love of family and ordinary folks, made extraordinary in her presence, of being a bright light in this darkness of oppression.
She saw them all, and beyond their hurts as suffering caregivers, she saw their potentials to take charge, to design and to lead their lives, as others.
Mabuhay ka Lolit! Presente!! The world is better than you found it, because of what you selflessly did!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159865745989584&id=540889583
My condolences to Ivy, Sierra, Dong and grandchildren, especially Little Burrito.-@Prosy Delacruz