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I see in a lot of the pictures that some of the babies and toddlers are lighter and some are darker. Why such a big difference? I really don't mind the dark or light and have NO preference of skin color but it's just on my mind. When I think of Guatemala, I think of a dark skin color but yet I see so many light babies as well. Any reason why?
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There are many racial backgrounds in Guatemala just as in the US (for example). My son happens to be of Mayan or Indigenous descent and he is extremely fair skinned. He has thick, straight black hair, and here in the upper midwest, he is sometimes mistaken for Native American.
Those who are darker skinned may have more hispanic or even african racial background. In addition, genetics play a huge factor...I am the original white girl with very fair skin, while my mom is darker toned and tans well. Just the luck of the genetic draw.
Hope that helps,
Kelley
Thanks Kelley ..that does make sense. I guess I was just thinking Guatemala as Hispanic only, not like a melting pot like the USA!!!!! And looking through the adorable pictures, I couldn't help to think how some looked caucasion and some like you said Hispanic or Native American.
Thanks!
Hi
My son (Quechua from Peru) is indigenous or what we could say is related to our native american population..
He was very fair skinned up until maybe age 3 or 4 and once he got out in the sun more then his skin color changed to a medium brown..esp during the summer..
Our daughter from Guatemala had blue gray eyes which have turned to a lovely light brown..she is definately more Spanish/European with brownish hair that is thin..noone ever asks me if she is adopted..but with our son I would get 'is he yours' and 'your husband must be very dark' etc..
There are many ethnicities in Guatemala..there is a Korean population, people of Chinese ancestry as well..Afro-Carribean ancestry, indigenous Mayan, Spanish from Spain and Arab and don't forget the German's who settled in CA and SA....it does seem that a fair majority of kids adopted are Mayan or mestizo (blend of Spanish/Hispanic and Mayan), but there are a few like my daughter and others who definately don't look Mayan..when we were in Peru there was a couple adopting a blonde hair blue eyed girl..German..from Peru..
so you never know! All of the children are just stunning and that is one reason I love Guatemala!
My daughter was lighter when she was an infant. The older my daughter got the darker she got. I wish I had gorgeous skin like hers!
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I was very surprised that my daughter Lia was so light skinned . . . I'm olive skinned and she's fairer skinned than me. She's more like her Irish daddy! She also has medium brown/red hair and greenish/brown eyes. I was expecting a tanner skinned, black hair, black eye latin beauty! But she is absolutely beautiful in her own right. She also has the lovely almond shaped, oriental looking eyes that are definitely Guatamalan. I'll never know everything about her ethnic background, but I'm thinking she might also have some German or English in there, along with the mayan and hispanic.
I think all of our babies are georgous!
Tristan is Mayan, he looks just like an Indian. My mother is Cherokee Indian so many people just look at her than look down at him. I love Guatemalan babies they are the most beautiful people with that beautiful brown skin & that hair!!!! Oh I wish I could look like that.
My wife and I adopted our son from Guatemala almost 14 years ago. We were assuming he'd be brown. We decided that we were not going to hide the fact that he is adopted from him or anyone else. It would be kind of hard to do that. I have some Mexican in me, and my skin is on the beige side. My wife is a red-headed, blue-eyed, Irish girl, butts make fun of how white she is. So it would be hard to explain how a beige man and a butt-white woman could have a brown child. We would proudly, if not a bit Joan Crawford-ishly, embrace that our son is special. He is chosen, in a randomly assigned, wait-in-line sort of way. So we get the notification that we are next on the list, then a few weeks later we get the notification that we are parents, picture of our baby to come soon. You get what you get and you don't through a fit. After a week that seemed like an eternity, we get a small wallet sized picture of our son. Full head of straight, black hair that seems to have a blond halo around it, blue eyes, and butt-white skin. HUH? Waiter, this isn't what I ordered. Must be a trick of the light, a cheap disposable camera, a poorly calibrated photo printer. But no, we went down to Guatemala for our first visit and his foster mom brings in this baby boy with very very dark red hair, blue eyes, and freckly, butt-white skin. He looked like he could be our old-fashioned-way son. Over the course of the next nine months, his hair, eyes, and skin darkened. Nearly fourteen years later, he is now beige, like me, but still a few freckles on his cheeks. He has dark olive-green eyes that look either brown or military-green depending on the light. And thick, black hair that still looks hawk-red, if the sun shines through it just right. We still don't hide the fact that he is adopted, he is proud to be "one of the chosen ones", but looking at us, his mom and dad, the majority of his friends still don't believe that he is adopted or from Guatemala.
All of the previous posters are right.
There are many ethnicities in Guatemala. Most of the adoptable babies are at least partly from the indigenous (Indian) population, because the Mayans are the most likely group in the country to be low-income and unable to support their children. The reasons are obvious. Most Mayan families speak an ancient language that is NOT Spanish. Guatemala doesn't have free public schools, so the children grow up not speaking Spanish and illiterate in both Spanish and their native language. This limits their ability to get good jobs when they grow up, so the girls often become housekeepers and the boys often wind up doing physical labor, such as yard work or car repair. In Latin America, it has long been traditional for girls to be raised without any sex education. It has also been traditional for boys to be told that their value will be measured by how many children they father. And since the religious authorities generally oppose the use of contraceptives, the result has been a lot of unplanned pregnancies, both in married and unmarried women. And these large young families often cannot support all their children, because they don't have the education needed to get good jobs. One or more of the children may be placed for adoption, simply so that others in the family will have enough food. And the cycle continues, over the decades.
Now, how do other ethnicities get into the mix? I hate to say it, but when young Mayan girls go to work as maids in affluent families of European origin, whether Spanish or German or whatever, they often become the victims of sexual assault by male members of the families. And, of course, love matches sometimes occur. The European families do not embrace their newest family member, when a pregnancy occurs; in fact, a pregnant Mayan girl may lose her job, because the European families, traditionally, don't want "brown" babies. Babies of mixed ancestry, like these, may well have reddish or even blonde hair and white or pale tan skin. And of course, some European girls may become pregnant by European young men, outside of marriage, which upsets their parents. The children of these White young people are also placed for adoption, to avoid scandal.
To add to the mix, most Latin countries have small but significant populations of Black and Asian people. The Blacks originated in Africa and came to the Caribbean or directly to Latin America, in some cases as slaves, but also as free men and women. Over the years, some of them intermarried with, or had children with, the White and indigenous people. The Asians came for a variety of reasons, often related to work, and they eventually intermarried with, or had children with, the White, Black, and indigenous population. Traits related to any of these groups may appear in an adopted child from almost anywhere in Latin America -- things like curly hair instead of straight, blonde or brown hair instead of black, almond shaped eyes, hazel eyes, dark brown or milk white skin. The fact is that Latin American countries, in general, have far more diversity than most people realize, and interracial relationships have occurred so commonly that it is often difficult to pinpoint what race any given person is. Whoever said, "There is only one race -- the human race" may have gotten the idea by looking at people from Latin America.
Sharon
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