Press
Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform (PEAR) has posted a review by PEAR board member David Kruchkow on their website. An excerpt: “What Siegal has done with Finding Fernanda that makes her book a must-read is take a purely journalistic approach to the story she presents. She reports on what she learned without passing judgment. The reader can draw his own conclusions about motives, about who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and the conclusions become devastatingly obvious. Stories like this are by their nature very convoluted, and Siegal does an amazing job of making the twists and...
The Miami Herald says that Finding Fernanda is “comprised of heavy-duty investigative reporting and compelling personal testimony.” Here’s an excerpt from their great review: “But the book — comprised of heavy-duty investigative reporting and compelling personal testimony — also examines another mystery: How could so many people in Guatemala and the United States turn a blind eye for so long to an industry that, far from being motivated by the altruistic urge to unite needy children with loving families, has become a world where adults dole out children like cards from a deck and view their young lives as little...
The premier of the Tiny Spark: Igniting Debate about the Business of Doing Good podcast, sponsored by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, features an interview with adoptive mother Jennifer Hemsley as well as with myself. It’s a moving show, and the comments on the Tiny Spark website reflect that. Listen online or download it here: http://www.tinyspark.org/podcasts/adoption/ The Madeline Brand show on Los Angeles NPR station KPCC also did an interview with Tiny Spark founder & host Amy Costello– you can listen to her talk about the show’s premier here: http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine-brand/2011/11/29/21550/the-unintended-consequences-of-international-adopt/...
A lengthy new review in this week’s Christian Science Monitor says of Finding Fernanda, “…Reads like a mystery novel, but the facts it reveals are hauntingly true… Siegal does a fantastic job of breaking down a complicated story… “Finding Fernanda” is a gripping read that offers glimpses of hope in what was an otherwise heartbreaking system.” You can read the full review here: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2011/1128/Finding-Fernanda...
“I never meant to write a book; the story simply demanded it.” The New Yorker has a blog post up featuring 16 behind-the-scenes photos taken during the reporting of Finding Fernanda. Mildred Alvarado and one of her daughters during an interview, Villa Nueva, Guatemala, 2010. Read the full piece here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/11/finding-fernanda-erin-siegal.html...
Hayely Kolb, blogger at the Hanging off the Wire blog, says the following about Finding Fernanda: “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,...
On September 29, 2011, EJ Graff’s blog over at The American Prospect’s website has an entry today entitled “Adoption Fraud in Guatemala” that talks about Finding Fernanda, and the US Embassy Guatemala cables I’ve obtained. An excerpt: Last week, I discussed some of the fraud and corruption that haunt international adoption. If you’re interested, you should know about Erin Siegal, author of the forthcoming Finding Fernanda, which explores kidnapping, fraud, and endemic corruption in adoptions from Guatemala. For years, that country was one of the top “sending” countries in international adoption—and the one most widely considered to be riddled with fraud....
An August 19, 2011 piece in the Atlantic Magazine’s Atlantic Wire mentions “Finding Fernanda” in its first paragraph. Oddly, the write-up, which is about how the Karen Abigail case has made waves in the US adoption community, has a photo of Olga López– NOT Loyda Rodríguez, mother of “Karen Abigail”– at the top. Oops. Perhaps all Guatemalan women look similar enough to the Atlantic Wire? Hard to believe they don’t factcheck their blog… An excerpt from the piece, “Guatemalan Court Order Rattles Foreign Adoption Community,” by Adam Martin: “The story about a young, missing Guatemalan girl whose mother searched for her for...
“Finding Fernanda” is mentioned in print article for the CBS affiliate station KCTV’s August 5, 2011 article, “Parents Ordered to Return Adoptive Daughters.” Oddly enough, the station also poached an image to use on air from this site, complete with yellow Photoshopping! An upcoming book entitled Finding Fernanda, about adoption fraud in Guatemala, includes information on the case involving the Liberty couple. The author, Erin Siegal, wrote that the agency that facilitated the adoption in question is Celebrate Children International, based in Florida. Siegal cited emails and other documents between an agency employee and the adoptive family suggesting that questions about...
“What Stolen Children Mean for Adoption,” by KJ Dell Antonia, August 5, 2o11. …As for Anyali, the Guatemalan child now known as Karen Abigail (whose story is far from finished), her adoptive parents have been accused of knowing for years that their daughter was at least suspected of being stolen from her mother. If that’s true, it sounds unforgivable. But consider that, according to journalist Erin Siegal, whose forthcoming book Finding Fernanda chronicles another case of a stolen Guatemalan child, Anyali’s adoptive mother was told that if she pursued the question of why Anyali’s DNA did not match that of the woman...
As of May 26, 2011, a feature and photos are up on EverySecondChild.org, a website focused on photojournalism and childhood poverty. “Finding Fernanda” is in good company; the site also features the work of noted photojournalists including Marcus Bleasdale, Brenda Ann Kenneally, and Stephanie Sinclair. Full link: http://www.everysecondchild.org/?p=104 ...
There’s a profile that mentions about Finding Fernanda in this month’s issue of Re:(d), the alumni magazine of Parsons School of Design (May 2, 2011). A photographic image captures a moment, but for Erin Siegal, what endures is her loyalty to the people she photographs. “I never want to betray my subjects,” explains Siegal, who has photographed for Rolling Stone, Time magazine, the New York Times, and Reuters. “So when I realized that I didn’t have full control over how my images were used, I decided to become a photojournalist and create messages combining words and pictures.” A recipient of the 2008 Anne O’Hare McCormick...
There’s a new interview by Erin Arvedlund up over at the Newswomen’s Club of New York blog, talking about Kickstarter and how Finding Fernanda came to be, August 20, 2010. Club members Erin Siegal and Erin Arvedlund recently took some time to talk about Siegal’s use of an innovative tool called Kickstarter.com to raise money for her book, “Finding Fernanda,” due out in 2011. Siegal was a recipient of the club-affiliated Anne O’Hare McCormick Award scholarship in 2008. Arvedlund: Tell us, why are you using Kickstarter? Siegal: Last year, I graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and embarked on a quest to write a book based...
There’s a mention over at The Hey Hot Shot! blog of the Jen Bekman Gallery. The possibilities being offered by micro-philanthropy sites like Kickstarter, ProjectSite et al to artists, writers and others of compelling vision is one of the certain bright spots in an otherwise depressing terrain of arts-related budget cuts. By providing a carefully vetted platform for individuals to make their pitch, show what work they’ve done so far, and offer up a carefully devised plan of attack, crowd-sourcing funds for artists’ projects has become a very successful strategy to realize the fulfillment of otherwise hard-to-reach goals. One of our earliest Hot...
