Mamalita by Jessica O'Dwyer

Author:Jessica O'Dwyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2010-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

“Even for us, adoption was difficult,” Teresa said the following morning, as we bumped over the cobblestones in her black SUV. The windows were so darkly tinted I could barely see Olivia at the curb, waving goodbye from Aracely’s arms.

Teresa had driven in from the capital to pick me up. She was thirty-five, apple-cheeked and curvy, with short, corkscrew hair and merry eyes. A gold wedding band and a Timex watch were her only jewelry. Her white polo reminded me of California. I liked her immediately.

Teresa continued: “Lucas was an abandonment, with no birth certificate, no family. No birth mother to give her signature. The social worker in Family Court could not write her report without this information. It took almost two years.”

I stared at her in the driver’s seat, stunned by the good fortune of having met her. Only a minute percentage of Guatemalans legally adopted children, and fewer still were English-speaking Ladinos who adopted Mayas. I had heard one statistic that stated only ten such cases were completed each year, and the person who told me the number believed it was exaggerated.

“How did you finally succeed?” I asked.

“The second year, we went in before Christmas with a bottle of wine and good chocolate. Lucas was ours after New Year’s.” Teresa shifted gears to climb the hill out of Antigua. “This was the only way.”

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