My Family's Slave By Alex Tizon (1960-2017)

Journalist Alex Tizon and Lola in 2008.

Courtesy of the Tizon family

Tizon struggled with this dark part of his family's past his entire life and was finally able to put Lola's experience into his own words. But the author died unexpectedly of natural causes at the age of 57 on March 23.

Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg tells NPR's Rachel Martin that Lola came to live with the Tizons after Alex's grandfather gave her to Alex's mother as a gift.

"This is all back in the Philippines. Lola came with them to America, stayed with them as in essence the family slave and then Alex essentially — and I use this word advisedly — but Alex inherited her from his dying mother," Goldberg says.

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Courtesy of The Atlantic

"人人心中都有可歌可泣的故事(epic story)。"--Alex Tizon (1960-2017)：

In 'Lola's Story,' A Journalist Reveals A Family Secret

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Tizon died suddenly at 57 soon after he finished his story about Lola, writing: "I was 11, a typical American kid, before I realized she was my family's slave."

NPR.ORG