Rachel Nolan is the author of the new book Until I Find You: Disappeared Children and Coercive Adoptions in Guatemala. She is a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine and an assistant professor of international history at Boston University.
Q: What inspired you to write Until I Find You?
A: What inspired me to write the book was a combination of academic interest in Guatemalan history and a simple question: how did so many children come to be adopted from this small Central American country?
As with so many book projects, that initial curiosity took me in many unexpected directions.
Q: The writer Francisco Goldman said of the book, “Nolan’s meticulous research and her beautifully lucid, empathetic writing show how the seemingly benign event of the foreign adoption of an innocent child leaves behind an invisible trail of personal, economic, political, and essentially imperial horrors.” What do you think of that description?
A: This was a lovely observation from Francisco Goldman, whose book—Who Killed the Bishop? The Art of Political Murder—was one of the very first that I read about Guatemala. Goldman helped get me hooked on Guatemalan past and present.
I appreciate that he captured that the book is about not just history or foreign relations but tries to capture the emotional impact of adoptions, when possible, from archives and interviews.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that particularly surprised you?
A: I researched the book with difficulty, I must say. The big question was whether I would have access to archives of adoption files at all in order to be able to write this.
Eventually, I gained access to both state adoption files and some private adoption files. But because much of the documentation seems to have been falsified, it was important to conduct many interviews as well.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The book’s title is taken from a Truth Commission report concerning crimes committed against minors during the Guatemalan internal armed conflict, 1960-1996. The title of that report was Hasta Encontrarte, "Until I Find You."
That in turn was taken from the testimony of a mother who was still searching for her forcibly disappeared child.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am slowly beginning work on the history of deportations from the U.S. to Latin America.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: No, but many thanks for reading my book!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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