”Finding Fernanda may be the most illuminating book about abuses in international adoptions yet written. This is not just fearless public service journalism, but also a moving, acute, gracefully-written work of story-telling. Erin Siegal is an extraordinary young journalist.” —Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name and The Art of Political Murder

“A quick and engaging read… Her writing is as inviting as her reporting is penetrating…. Fernanda’s story carries us into the darkest regions of the human heart… Erin Siegal has written a saga of seduction and betrayal so sinister that anger pushes you from page to page. Rarely has an investigative reporter unveiled so compelling a narrative of motherhood–from Guatemala to Tennessee.” -Wayne Barrett, author & investigative journalist

“Erin Siegal has woven a lively, well-researched, and cautionary tale that is a must-read…” -Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, Author of New York Times best seller, Carved In Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife

“Siegal peels back layers of deception to reveal a twisting and engrossing saga of two deeply wronged mothers and the girl they both claimed. Her brave account is chilling, and should be required reading for policymakers and anyone who cares about children.” -E. Benjamin Skinner, 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner and author of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern Day Slavery

“Finding Fernanda” is an investigative work of nonfiction. It’s the story of $30,000 U.S. dollars, four Guatemalan “orphans,” one nonprofit evangelical Christian adoption agency, a family-run child-trafficking ring, one infant cut from her unconscious mother’s womb, two tiny 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 blind trust.

It’s also the story of how one poor Guatemalan woman, Mildred Alvarado, reunited with her kidnapped daughters against all odds—and how the trusting American housewife slated to adopt one of those children, Elizabeth Emanuel, accidentally became a reformer dedicated to an ethical adoption system.

The book unfolds amid 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, during the country’s civil war. Both the governments of Guatemala and the United States repeatedly proved unwilling and incapable of regulating the baby trade. Until now, no book has tackled the pervasive human rights violations in international adoption in detail— abuses that continue today in countries around the world that send children abroad in adoption.

With help from documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, leaked emails, and key sources inside both the Guatemalan and U.S. governments, Finding Fernanda 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, and government officials, and more. This cadena perpetua, or perpetual chain, involves everyone from Guatemalan judges to U.S. embassy officials.

Support for this investigation came in part from Columbia University’s Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University, as well as a successful Kickstarter campaign.

For media and press inquiries, please contact Publicity Manager Kathleen Carter Zrelack or Senior Publicist Liza Lucas at Goldberg McDuffie Communications.

___

Erin Siegal is an investigative journalist and photographer. Her writing and photography have been published in outlets including the New York Times, Time magazine, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and more. She has collaborated on projects with NGOs such as the Urban Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations. She is currently an Ethics and Justice Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Reporting at Brandeis University. Finding Fernanda is Siegal’s first book.