By Lina Vanegas
I am a transracial and transnational displaced person. I was separated from my country, language, and culture and taken to Michigan, which has no connection to me or my ancestors. I was taken there to create a family for strangers who had the privilege and resources to buy me. I had family in Colombia and I was far from being a true orphan. I was bought in Bogota, Colombia and sold to a white couple living in the Midwest in 1976.
I use the word “displaced” intentionally, because the word “adopted” does not define my lived experience in an accurate way. The word “adopted” is language that was created by the child welfare-industrial complex, also known as the adoption industry. I do not subscribe to any of the constraints or barriers that they attempt to put onto my life with their language choices. Using the word “displaced” defines the intentional separation from my family by the child welfare-industrial complex.
My lived experience has informed who I am and has inspired and motivated the work that I do online and in the world. It is very rare that adopted and displaced people’s lived experiences are seen, heard, validated, centered, and believed, so my mission is to do that online, on my podcast, Rescripting The Narrative, and in the work that I do as a social worker and with the organization Adoptees for Choice.
Currently, the voices on adoption that are centered, listened to, and amplified come from adoptive parents and the child welfare-industrial complex. The message that they proclaim is that we are lucky and chosen and should therefore be grateful for being given a better life. This is a very well-crafted marketing campaign; it is propaganda. This adoption propaganda narrative ignores our reality, which is that our lives began in trauma, grief, and loss when we were separated from our mothers and families. Adoption must be recognized as an adverse childhood experience (ACE), as it puts us at risk for addiction, homelessness, suicidal despair, suicide attempts, death by suicide, eating disorders, self harm, anxiety, depression, identity issues, and more. Adoptees are four times more likely to attempt suicide than non-adopted people.