Description
Book SynopsisWhile adding an engrossing new chapter to the story of the Salvadoran civil war and its long aftermath, Missing Mila, Finding Family deepens our understanding of the issues involved in international adoptions and the desire of birth families to find their disappeared sons and daughters.
Trade Review"The greatest contribution of this book, aside from the fact that the Ward and Escobar/Coto families' stories are compelling in their own right, is the telling of an ultimately courageous narrative about what is possible in the aftermath of atrocious human rights violations in Central America. Not just gangs of torturers, mafias of demobilized militaries, the victories of neoliberalism, and mass migration, but rich, complex lives marked by possibility and - if one can say it without being trite - healing." - Laura Briggs, University of Massachusetts "One of the most remarkable books I've read this year is Missing Mila, Finding Family by Margaret Ward, which leaves me with a strong sense that the adoption debate could be - should be - different. It is also a profoundly particular - and hence human - story about how two families, one Salvadoran, one in the U.S., work through their understanding of a wrenching series of events, including death, adoption, and the loss of a child, and somehow come out the other side with an extraordinary measure of grace...The greatest contribution of this book, though, aside from the fact that the Ward's and Escobar/Coto's families' stories are compelling in their own right, is the telling of an ultimately courageous narrative about what is possible in the aftermath of atrocious human rights violations in Central America." - Laura Briggs, somebodyschildren.com
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue. Dalila's Hammock: San Salvador, El Salvador, February 2005
- Part One. Our Story
- Chapter One. Adoption: Tegucigalpa, Honduras, May–June 1983
- Chapter Two. Rediscovery: Massachusetts, August–December 1997
- Chapter Three. Reunion: Heredia, Costa Rica, December 1997
- Part Two. Their Stories
- Chapter Four. Putting the Pieces Together, 1952–1992
- Interlude. Mi flor favorita/My Favorite Flower
- Chapter Five. Imagining Mila: New Hampshire, Summer 2007
- Interlude. La Guerra verdadera/The True War
- Chapter Six. The Disappeared Children of El Salvador
- Interlude. Perfect World
- Epilogue. One Story
- Appendix I. Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Appendix II. Family Names
- Notes
- References and Suggested Reading
