Full Description
International adoptions are both high-profile and controversial, with the celebrity adoptions and critically acclaimed movies such as Casa de los babys of recent years increasing media coverage and influencing public opinion. Neither celebrating nor condemning cross-cultural adoption, Karen Dubinsky considers the political symbolism of children in her examination of adoption and migration controversies in North America, Cuba, and Guatemala.
Babies Without Borders tells the interrelated stories of Cuban children caught in Operation Peter Pan, adopted Black and Native American children who became icons in the Sixties, and Guatemalan children whose 'disappearance' today in transnational adoption networks echoes their fate during the country's brutal civil war. Drawing from extensive research as well as from her critical observations as an adoptive parent, Karen Dubinsky aims to move adoption debates beyond the current dichotomy of 'imperialist kidnap' versus 'humanitarian rescue.' Integrating the personal with the scholarly, Babies Without Borders exposes what happens when children bear the weight of adult political conflicts.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Children and the Stories We Tell About Them
Chapter 2: The National Baby: Creating Monumental Children
From Operation Peter Pan to Elian Gonzalez
Chapter 3: The Hybrid Baby: Domestic Interracial Adoption
Since the 1950s
Chapter 4: The Missing Baby: Transnational Adoption and
The Vanishing Children of Guatemala
Chapter 5: Conclusion: Setting the Agenda for a
Happy Childhood
Selected Bibliography
