Guatemala’s first billionaire

August 5th, 2014

The average per-capita income in Guatemala may be $5,200, but take a ride around the upscale neighborhoods of Guatemala City or Antigua; dine at a fine restaurant and stay at a luxurious hotel; go on a shopping excursion to Tikal Futura; or get yourself invited to the symphony, or an art opening, or a fancy wedding, and you’ll see that plenty of Guatemalans earn more than that. Way more. This article in Bloomberg tells the tale of one such wealthy person: Mario Lopez Estrada, founder of Guatemala’s ubiquitous mobile phone provider, TIGO, and the country’s first billionaire.

This June, out driving with a friend en route to Lake Atitlan, I saw miles and miles and miles of white wooden fences, much like the ones you might see in horse country in Kentucky. “What’s with the fences?” I asked. My friend answered, “The guy who started TIGO owns all that land. The fence keeps people out.”

And I said: “Wouldn’t it be amazing if that guy turned out to be the Guatemalan equivalent to Bill Gates? A brilliant, smart guy with lots of money, who dedicates a large part of his energy and fortune to promoting education, health, and quality of life for the millions of his fellow Guatemalans who need it. Wouldn’t it be amazing if that guy turned out to be a visionary and a leader, with so much money he couldn’t be corrupted.”

My friend smiled, the indulgent smile of one who has seen it all, and knows better. “Maybe.”

Oh well. I can dream, can’t I?

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Yes. From the Washington Post

August 4th, 2014

From a very good editorial in the Washington Post, by Michael R. Strain, titled The problem isn’t Central America’s child refugees. It’s the countries they come from: “Congress, the president and opinion leaders are haggling over how to deal with the immediate crisis of the children coming to and crossing our border, but are not discussing what we can do to improve the situation in those countries to make them places in which parents want to raise their children, not send them away.”

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Seven years

July 30th, 2014

Seven years and 27 trips to Guatemala later, the Kern family of Missouri finalizes the adoption of their son Hudson, born in Guatemala. Congratulations!!!!

Here’s the link to TV news coverage.

It’s hard for me to understand how living in an orphanage for years while a family waits for you benefits a child. Yet that was the reality for Hudson, and for all the children whose cases stalled after adoptions between Guatemala and the US closed in December 2007.

Reform, yes.  No doubt the adoption system was broken and needed to be fixed. Or shut down permanently. But to allow a small boy to spend seven years in an orphanage when he doesn’t really need to: Why?

Again, congratulations!~

 

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Article on recent influx of young migrants

July 15th, 2014

The recent large influx of young migrants from Guatemala has been the subject of heated debate among adoptive parents on one of the adoption chat boards to which I belong. Someone posted a link to this article by Saul Elbein in The New Republic, “Guatemalans Aren’t Just Fleeing Gangs: The media misses what life there is really like.” The article is one of the best I’ve read anywhere. The piece encapsulates sentiments many of us have heard said by Guatemalans, from all strata of society.

Thanks for reading.

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Book about Guatemala’s armed conflict, “Escaping the Fire”

July 13th, 2014

Related to the Washington Post article about the documentary When the Mountains Tremble, posted on July 7: I recently read a memoir titled Escaping the Fire that I recommend to anyone interested in Guatemala’s armed conflict. It’s a testimonial by an Ixil Evangelical pastor, Tomas Guzaro, as written by an American who has lived with her family for many years in Guatemala’s Ixil region, Terri McComb. David Stoll contributed the book’s Afterward.

The book is fascinating for two reasons: First, because it describes Tomas Guzaro’s evolution from Mayan priest, to leader in the Catholic faith, to Evangelical pastor. (Evangelical churches are everywhere in Guatemala, particularly in areas affected by the armed conflict). And second, because in excruciating detail, Tomas Guzaro recounts the experience of his town of Salquil being caught in the crossfire between the Guatemalan army and leftist guerrillas, and how and why that caused Guzaro to lead 200 fellow Mayas from Salquil to the relative safety of army territory. Here’s the link on Amazon.

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“My Mother, the Rockette”

July 11th, 2014

A few months ago, a friend told me about a phenomenon founded by Ann Img called Listen To Your Mother, in which writers submit essays about any and all facets of motherhood or mothering, and read the pieces aloud on stages in 32 cities across the country. The official description is “A national series of orginal live readings shared locally on stages and globally via social media.”

I submitted an essay about my mom, “My Mother, the Rockette,” and was thrilled when the producers in my region, Kim Thompson Steel and Kirsten Nicholson Patel, chose me to read it for the May 2014 performance at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. The evening’s show, including my reading, is posted on on the Listen To Your Mother YouTube channel.

I urge you to check out the Listen To Your Mother website for information about next year’s auditions. The experience was challenging, positive, and fun from start to finish. Try out if you can! Or look for a live performance. Hope you enjoy!

My Mother, the Rockette on YouTube.

Image credit: Damian Steel

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No samba tonight

July 8th, 2014

We’re weeping for Brazil here. Olivia now is a fan after watching the World Cup in Guatemala, where in the most remote hamlet, tienda, restaurant, or cafe, Guatemalans cheered: “Brasil! Brasil!” Every transistor radio, every TV set, tuned, round the clock, three games a day. FIFA! Futbol! Absolute soccer madness, contagious.

In the photo above, taken during our most recent trip to Guatemala, crowds cluster outside a coffee house in Antigua with a large-screen TV: they’re non-paying customers content to watch the contest from afar.

Can somebody say “Gooooooaaaalllllll!”? We’re converted.

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Filmmaker to amend “When the Mountains Tremble”

July 7th, 2014

I’m probably not the only person who watched and was very affected by Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, “When the Mountains Tremble.” Narrated by Rigoberta Menchu, the film contains graphic scenes of violence and terror as it was inflicted by the Guatemalan military on the people of Guatemala.

This article in the Washington Post describes how filmmaker Yates plans to amend the film to show that a scene showing survivors of a massacre in the town of Batzul, which the film attributes to the military, was actually committed by guerrillas disguised as soldiers.

From the article: “Long viewed as one-sided repression by the brutal governments of the time, the 1960-96 civil war that claimed about 200,000 lives now is being recognized as more complex….

David Stoll, an anthropology professor at Middlebury College who has worked extensively in Guatemala, said that Yates’ original depiction of the Batzul massacre could be attributed to the ‘fog of war.'”

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Guatemala! June 2014

July 6th, 2014

This past June, Olivia, my sister, and I spent three weeks in Guatemala. The first week and a half, we traveled around Lake Atitlan and its environs, and the second week and a  half, we rented a house in Antigua with five other people. And every single day, we ran into, chatted or dined with, members of many adoptive families who were also visiting the beautiful country of their beloved children’s birth. Families from California, Iowa, Ohio, New Mexico, Indiana, New York, Minnesota, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and other states across the map. (Canada, too!)

All of us were there to keep our children connected to their first home, and very often, first families. We shared our histories and stories, our challenges and our hopes. I’m always proud to be a mother through adoption, but never so much as when I share the experience with other adoptive moms, dads, and kids in that extraordinary place: Guatemala.

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The case of Encarnacion Bail Romero ends

July 2nd, 2014

The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case filed by Guatemalan national Encarnacion Bail Romero, regarding the adoption of her biological son by Seth and Melinda Moser, ending a custody battle that has raged for nearly seven years. Reports CBS News from Carthage, Missouri:

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a Carthage, Missouri adoption case.

This appears to be the end of a long case that began when an undocumented woman from Guatemala petitioned to regain her parental rights… The custody battle for Melinda Moser and her family is believed to be over according to attorneys in the case.

Moser is the adoptive mother of 7-year old Jamison Moser and for nearly seven years she’s fought to keep custody.

All the while, Jamison’s biological mother tried to use the courts to regain custody of her son.

A relieved Moser recalls the experiences. “Kind of like people probably that suffer with a terminal illness, you never know which day will be your last. “

Jamison’s biological mother,  Encarnacion Romero, had been arrested during an immigration raid and was later convicted of identity theft.

After leaving federal prison in 2009, Romero filed to overturn the adoption case and won.

The Mosers appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, that reversed the lower court’s decision.

What’s to be said regarding news like this? As adoptive mother, I cried when I read the decision, identifying strongly with the struggle endured by Melinda and Seth Moser. But that doesn’t mean I can’t imagine the pain and loss felt by  Encarnacion Bail Romero. I do.

Nothing about adoption is simple. Especially this time.

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