Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transnational and Transracial Adoption

376 Pages·2012·2.25 MB·English

by  Laura Briggs

Somebody’s
CHILDREN

Somebody’s
C H I L D R E N
The Politics of
Transracial and
Transnational
Adoption
LAURA BRIGGS
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Durham and London
2012
∫ 2012 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $
Designed by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus
Typeset in Arno Pro by Keystone Typesetting
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear
on the last printed page of this book.
For Jennifer
Who tolerated long absences,
believed in this book,
listened to ideas and drafts,
and is the best editor, critic, friend,
and partner anyone could have

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
PART I
TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION
IN THE UNITED STATES
one African American Children and Adoption, 1950–1975 27
two The Making of the Indian Child Welfare Act, 1922–1978 59
three ‘‘Crack Babies,’’ Race, and Adoption Reform, 1975–2000 94
PART II
TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION
AND LATIN AMERICA
four From Refugees to Madonnas of the Cold War 129
five Uncivil Wars 160
six Latin American Family Values 197
viii contents
PART III
EMERGING FIGHTS OVER THE
POLITICS OF ADOPTION
seven Gay and Lesbian Adoption in the United States 241
epilogue U.S. Immigrants:
The Next Fight over Race, Adoption, and Foster Care? 269
Notes 285
Bibliography 319
Index 353
Acknowledgments
This book is a product of many people, places, and conversations. It has
accrued a ridiculous number of debts, and it’s my pleasure to acknowledge
some of them.
In these hard times in state universities, I am acutely conscious of all
those who have contributed to building the material infrastructure that
makes scholarly research possible. At the University of Arizona (ua),
thanks to the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, the Center
for Latin American Studies, the International Affairs Office, the Southwest
Institute for Research on Women, and the donors of the Magellan Circle
and the Women’s Studies Advisory Committee, who supported my re-
search and conference travel. Thanks too to the many colleagues and
friends at ua who supported this project in myriad ways, from discussions
over shared meals or when hiking and working out, or by generously
reading, listening to, and discussing drafts: Adele Barker, Adela Licona,
Mimi Petro, Liz Oglesby, Linda Green, Tsianina Lomawaima, Ruth Dick-
stein, my colleagues in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies,
the Citizenship and Public Cultures reading group, the Department of
History, and the Institute for lgbt Studies. Some of my best teachers and
colleagues have been, in fact, graduate students—Karin Friedrich, Araceli
Masterson, Lucy Lee Blaney, Wendy Vogt, Lauren Carruth, Wendy Samp-
son, Kate Goldade, Erin Durbin, Mari Galup, and Adrian Flores have all
contributed to this project in ways large and small. Thanks, too, to Ste-