Guatemalan Adoption

 

BY JUDITH BECK_ETT

esléa Newman became a
Ltrailblazer as an author of

books for LGBT families
when she wrote Heather Has Two

' Mommies, published in 1989 by

Alyson Publications. Still a best
seller, her book was the first
depicting a child growing up with
same-sex parents. Often the object
of “book banning” and controversy,
it continues to spark debate and
bring our LBGT families out of the

closet and into the public forum.

Newman must also be
credited with paving the way for
the writing and publication ofa
rich and growing selection of
books depicting positive LGBT
images for our children, including
Saturday Is Patty Day, Gloria Goes
To Gay Pride, and Be/indals
Bouquet. With the writing of
Felicia ’s Favorite Story, she turns
her attention to lesbianadoption.

She’s a talented and pro-
lific writer who has published
books and short stories for adults
as well (see our interview with
Lesléa Newman in the May 2002
OITM).

Felicia 's Favorite Story is
a gentle little book. Every page is
illustrated with Adriana Romo’s
soft pastel watercolors. It is a bed-
time story, the lovingly told story
of how Felicia was adopted. We
learn that Mama Nessa, who was
born in New York, and Mama
Linda, born in Puerto Rico, loved
each other so much that they’want-
ed to “find someone else who can
share our love and be part of our
family.”

Newman_’s way of bring-
ing out this information makes the
book fun to read. Mama Linda tells
the story of Felicia’s adoption by
asking her questions. For instance,
when Mama Nessa asks, “So who
do you think became a part of our
family?” Felicia guesses, “A
giraffe?  A mouse?” Since this is
Felicia’s favorite story, we can
assume that her playful answers are
a game she loves as much as she
loves the tale of her adoption from
Guatemala. ‘

Newman’s book is pub-
lished by Two Lives Publishing, a
new publishing house launched in
2001 by Bobbie Combs and Sally
Lindsay in RidleylPark,
Pennsylvania. Both women have
extensive experience in the pub-
lishing field. They became aware
ofthe growing need for children’s
books depicting positive images of
gay and lesbian parents when they
attempted to start a family of their
Own. No longer lovers, they contin-
116 to work together to publish the
books they couldn’t find when they
needed them.

Because I am a birth
mother, and I had to surrender my

L

 

daughter for adoption when.l was
homeless, my perspective on adop-
tion might be different from theirs
or Newman’s or even that of illus-
trator Romo, who was born in
Chile. This perspective led me to
do some research on Guatemalan
adoption.

Guatemala is a tiny
Central American country of 12
million people. Sixty percent of the‘
population is indigenous, mainly
Mayan in descent. Seventy percent
of the rural population is illiterate
and lives in extreme poverty. The
children are undereducated and
undernourished and have little
opportunity to improve their situa-
tion. It is to the women of this pop-
ulation that most adopted infants
are born. '

In 1960, the indigenous
Guatemalan Revolutionary
National Unity Movement (URNG)
began a guerilla war that lasted for
thirty-six years. Over 200,000 peo-
ple were “disappeared” during the
conflict. The long war resulted in a

breakdown of indigenous commu- ’

nities and family life. _

Some orphaned children
were treated as “war booty” and
sold abroad or used as servants.
Government officials abducted oth-
ers to punish “subversives.” Many
children ended up in orphanages.
Adoption began as an effort to
quickly place orphaned and aban-
doned children in homes.

Mayra Gutierrez was a
Guatemalan women’s rights activist

’ and professor at the University of '

San Carlos where she founded a
gender studies program. In 1999,
she presented visiting UN officials
with a report on her research on the
illegal adoption market in
Guatemala. Her report received
considerable publicity only days
before she was reported missing on
April 7, 2000. Her family insists
she was “disappeared” because of
her activism including her role in
exposing illegal adoption.
That same year, the
United Nations Children’s Fund
sent Special Rapporteur
Ms.'Ophelia Calcetas-Santos to
Guatemala on a 12-day fact-finding
mission. Calcetas-Santos concluded
that the sale of children and infants
for adoption exists on a large scale
in Guatemala. Guatemala is the
fourth largest “exporter” of chil-
dren in the world with 1,332 inter-
country adoptions in 1998. Sixty-
two percent of these infants and
children came to the United States,
the largest receiver.
Legal adoption is the

exception. Criminal offenses
include the falsifying of docu-

elicia’ avo o Tllste Sweet Side of 

ments, the kidnapping of children,‘
and the buying and selling of chil-
dren and infants for profit, usually
in the range of $20,000'to $25,000,
most of which goes to lawyers.

In Newman’s book,
Mama Linda tells Felicia:
“Sometimes  when a woman has
a baby, she isn’t able to take care
ofthe child. So she does the most
loving thing she can do:‘ she allows
the child to be adopted by parents
who can take care of a baby and
want a child to love.”

But the hard truth
revealed in the United Nations
report is somewhat different.
Hospital employees falsify records,
social workers declare infants
abandoned, and lawyers buy
infants still in the womb. Birth cer-
tificates are issued in the name of
the adoptive parents, eliminating
the need for the adoption process.
A large percentage of infantsare,
born to prostitutes, some of whom
are only children themselves.

A small percentage of
infants come from families living
in extreme poverty who surrender
them for economic reasons. This
could be F elicia’s story.

In Heather Has Two
Mommies, Newman wrote honestly,
simply, and accurately about the
alternative insemination that results
in I-Ieather’s birth: “Afler the doc-
tor examined Jane to make sure
that she was healthy, she putsome
spenn into Jane’s vagina. The
spenn swam up into Jane’s womb.

- Ifthere was an egg waiting there,

the sperm and the egg would meet,
and the baby would start to grow.”

I believe it is possible to
write a book for children about
adoption that truthfully answers the
questions a child asks about her
identity and cultural heritage. I I
wonder whether this information
would be appropriate for a pre-
school child. And if so, would it
still be Felicia’s favorite story?

In 1988, I located my _
then-twenty-five-year-old daughter.
Today I have the privilege and joy
of knowing my three-year—o1d
grandchild. Felicia 3* Favorite Story

I will find a place on her bookshelf

because we need these books, even
when they tell only the sweet side
of a hard truth. Kudos to Newman
and Two Lives Publishing for pro-
ducing another book that reflects
the cultural diversity of our many
families. V

Judith Beckett is a birth mother,
grandmother, nurse, writer, and
feminist lesbian who lives in .
Bradford.

 
     
       
     
   
 
   

 

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