Latin America was last topic on my list of research. I didn’t plan on picking a topic very in depth, but because I love reading about different people, I figured I could handle one pretty controversial topic. The L.A. Times did a very good job of examining Latin America through their local affairs. The authors did a very good job of explaining the different problems in and around their region. One main point that was brought up several times in the posts was gang violence between the different racial groups in and around Los Angeles. Because I am a very sheltered girl living in a very small town, I have kind of gotten used to not being around talk of gangs or murder, besides on movies of course. As I read about different topics discussing violence, I couldn’t help but be a little shocked at what all was going on in the small world around me. These hate crimes that are happening so close to home could be so easily stopped if people would learn to get along, but I guess that can never completely happen.
Another story about another country all together that really shocked me was one about a Guatemalan child who was kidnapped from her mother and then put up for adoption. The mother was distressed for months, searching every hospital and orphanage she could find for her baby girl. She finally found the girl and convinced the adoption officials to do DNA tests to see if the child was hers. The tests confirmed that the child was hers, and was unlawfully taken from her. The couple that had taken her from her mother so many months ago kidnapped the child for the adoption money. I thought that story was so sad, because that means there are probably many more children who have been taken from their birth parents, only to be put in orphanages with hopes of being adopted.
