“Utusan”

By Virginia J. Pasalo

MY first time in a long time to hear this word, “utusan” (one who takes commands, a slave). Perhaps because it has evolved over time, to “katulong” (househelper) to “kasambahay” (house companion). Google translates kasambahay to “inmate”, which misses the context, but encapsulates the existence of most domestic helpers, because some do live in captivity, in situations that they have not foreseen, abroad.

My friend Arabela Ventenilla Arcinue asked me why kasambahays are dwindling, and why it is so difficult these days to get one. In the Philippines, that is true, because most of the domestic workers prefer working abroad where they get four times or more from what they earn in the Philippines. This, despite the benefits that were provided for in Republic Act No. 10361 otherwise known as “An Act Instituting Policies for the Protection and Welfare of Domestic Workers” (“Domestic Workers Act” or “Batas Kasambahay”). This, despite the perils of working abroad, to a destination whose culture is so different from theirs, and so far away from their families.

The stories of these brave workers are richly textured, so full of drama, and so instructive. There are many faces to these stories, earlier in time, some who worked with Filipino families struggling to live in the United States. To get a glimpse of this life, I suggest you read the story of the life of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a touching tribute to a “slave”, written by Alex Tizon, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the author of Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self.

 

Ants and flies in my coffee cup

You are in my coffee again
telling me tales
of worker ants swimming
in the desert of Saudi Arabia

the last time i saw you
you were telling me
about soldier ants swimming
in a sea of sugar from Luisita

you told me
they were all women
the ones who are eager to swim
where there is no water

you have many stories
about ants being squeezed
in between fingers
stepped on by big feet
and baked by the sun

there is also one
who ran
and died famished
on the road
now being kissed
by four flies

enough of your stories
about ants

i would like to listen
to a story of one fly
that escaped her death
from the gaping mouth
of a big fish.

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