Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Finding Fernanda

Finding Fernanda by Erin Siegal

About The Book:
What began as Erin Siegal's 2009 Master's project as a Fellow at the Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism evolved into a complex investigation of $30,000 U.S. dollars, four Guatemalan orphans, one nonprofit evangelical Christian adoption agency, an accused family-run child-trafficking ring, one infant cut from her unconscious mother's womb, two missing sisters, and a nine-member Tennessee family who believed wholeheartedly in Christian love and faith until the dark side of international adoption shattered their trust. Siegal reveals the heart wrenching story of how one poor Guatemalan woman, Mildred Alvarado, ultimately reunited with her kidnapped daughters against all odds and how the American housewife slated to adopt one of those children, Elizabeth Emanuel, accidentally became a reformer dedicated to an ethical adoption system. Finding Fernanda sheds light on the highly politicized landscape of Guatemala's adoption industry, a multi-million dollar trade that was both highly profitable and barely regulated. Children have been stolen, sold, and placed as orphans in corrupt international adoptions to well-intentioned Western parents ever since the industry began in the 1980s, yet the governments of Guatemala and the United States repeatedly proved unwilling and incapable of regulating the baby trade. With help of documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, leaked emails, and key sources inside both the Guatemalan and U.S. governments, Siegal researches traces one compelling case of corruption in detail from start to finish. Along the way, the mechanisms surrounding orphan laundering are illuminated, including the roles of baby-finders, caretakers, judges, government officials, and more. This cadena perpetua, or perpetual chain, involves everyone from Guatemalan judges to U.S. embassy officials. In 2008, Guatemala supplied more children than any other country in the world to adoptive American families. Within the past two weeks, Siegal has received almost 800 new internal documents from the US Embassy in Guatemala from the 1980's on, detailing additional examples of adoption fraud. This exclusive material will be published in a supplementary e-book solely comprised of the government documents. Select cables are already available for download on the book's website.

My Thoughts:
The research on this book is impeccable. It is so hard to read or hear about these kinds of stories. The author brings to light one little girl's story. Though this book is non-fiction, the story moves along so well that the end you go - wow, this is really real. You get mad reading this, making you want to do something, be an activist. And if you find yourself feeling that way, I suggest you pass this book along to all your friends, family, and anyone else you can think of!

About The Author:
A current Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, Erin Siegal was a 2008-2009 Fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is a recipient of the 2010 IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) Freelance Fellowship Award, the 2010 Joan Cook Fellowship from Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS), a 2010 finalist for a Postgraduate Fellowship from the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and was awarded a 2008 Anne O'Hare McCormick Scholarship Award from the Newswomen's Club of New York. Since 2005, Siegal has worked as a photojournalist. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, Rolling Stone, and many other magazines and newspapers. Her clients include Reuters, Human Rights Campaign, the New York Times, the Urban Justice Center, RollingStone.com, the United Nations, and many more. She is currently based in México. Visit the website: http://findingfernanda.com/

Buy this book on Amazon! It just released yesterday!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Happy Palm Sunday

~Hayley