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Defining Diego is the story of one Guatemalan adoptee and his mother, a reporter who documented their journey from his earliest steps, as they try to understand how international adoption boomed and busted, and what it all means for families like theirs, with feet in two worlds.

When Laurie Stern set out to adopt a baby from Guatemala in 1999, she thought the process would be pretty straightforward. Lots of people were doing it.

But the adoption was held up just as she went to Guatemala to get her son, Diego. That began a journey of discovery. What unfolds is the story of why international adoption peaked — and then collapsed — in Guatemala. It is also the story of how Diego, now 24, learned to be a Maya man with deep roots both in his birth village and Minnesota, where he still lives.

Now, Diego has questions about his adoption, too — like why tiny Guatemala was such a popular choice for many adoptive parents in the U.S. and Europe in the early 2000s. As one of more than 50,000 Guatemalan adoptees, Diego’s still figuring out what it means to be Guatemalan, American, indigenous Tzutujil, and an adoptee raised by white parents in St. Paul, Minnesota.

At its heart, Defining Diego is a deeply personal narrative: of a mother and son grappling with big questions about identity and health, and the meaning of home and family. Using 20+ years of the family’s archive recordings, we hear Diego grow up — and begin his own journey of self-discovery

Defining Diego is part of The Binge - subscribe to listen to all episodes, all at once, ad-free right now. 

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A Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts.

All Relative: Defining Diego

She had a million-dollar smile and a trail of dead men behind her— who was Sandra Bridewell? Host and investigative report Cooper Moll exposes the secrets of the 'black widow' on Fatal Beauty - the latest true crime series to drop on The Binge. 

 

Search for Fatal Beauty wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes right now, completely ad-free.

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The Dark Trail of Sandra Bridewell - Dead Husbands & Stolen Identities

Aa Tiko' travels to a meet up of Guatemalan adoptees in Washington D.C., though he’s a little unsure of what he’ll find there. He talks to three different adoptees from two different continents about their lives, and how they manage to live in two worlds. While hesitant at first, Aa Tiko' begins to see himself as part of the larger adoptee community.
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Defining Diego | Adoptee Voices

Aa Tiko' takes us on a journey through Guatemalan history — from the Spanish invasion to the rise of the banana industry and eventually the Guatemalan Civil War — to understand how indigenous communities have resisted oppression again and again. And we see Dolores not as translator but as storyteller, sharing her own family’s history and her hopes for Aa Tiko'.
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Defining Diego | What Brought Me Here

A birth family reunion in 2022 helps Diego piece together more parts of his identity, but it also sparks new questions that he struggles to process — especially as he and Laurie grapple with what it means to take a baby from one culture and raise him in another.
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Defining Diego | 8. Becoming Aa Tiko’

It’s 2022, and Diego has a mission: to reclaim his Guatemalan citizenship. But on the ground in Guatemala City, he finds that his identity as an adoptee is still complicated, even 23 years later.

Diego asks his birth mother if he can meet his birth father, Cristobal — but it’s unclear if that will actually happen.
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Defining Diego | 7. What's On Paper

We hear from a family whose adoption was in-progress when the Guatemalan government shut everything down.

A few years after his fateful diagnosis, Diego is a surly teenager. The family’s figuring out a way forward. Laurie takes Diego back to Guatemala, where he learns about the meanings behind his birth names — Xicay and Petzey. Diego asks Isabel more questions about his birth father, Cristobal.
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Defining Diego | 6. Resist and Release

When Diego turns 12, he’s diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and his entire world turns inside out. The family goes into survival mode. Sick and angry Diego acts out — and Laurie and Dan struggle with how to parent him.
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Defining Diego | 5. When Everything Changed

The international adoption racket is surging — and it’s gotten way out of control. All over the world, ugly stories begin to surface: of stolen children, shady adoption lawyers, and birth mothers pressured to give up their children. So in 2008, under increasing pressure from human rights activists, the Guatemalan government shuts the whole thing down.

And on a trip to Guatemala, Diego’s curiosity is sparked by seeing a photograph of his birth father for the first time.
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Defining Diego | 4. The Fall of International Adoption

Adoption has become a booming industry — the price is soaring, and Guatemala has become a top exporter of babies for adoption, second only to China. But when making families becomes secondary to making money, the cost to Guatemalan birth mothers is incalculable — and babies are treated more like products than people.

Meanwhile, on a trip back to his birth village, six-year-old Diego receives tragic news — and Laurie and her husband Dan face a tough decision.
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Defining Diego | 3. Baby Boom

Laurie takes three-year-old Diego back to Guatemala for the first time since his adoption. While Diego bonds with his birth mother Isabel, Laurie starts talking with birth mothers all over the country. Many are young, live in poverty, or are survivors of the Guatemalan civil war. 

Despite how much adoption costs for families in the U.S., Laurie begins to realize how little birth mothers receive in exchange.

Meanwhile, Diego is growing up as an indigenous Mayan kid in St. Paul, Minnesota — loving hockey, hating Spanish lessons, and navigating what it means to have family in two places.
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Defining Diego | 2. Where I'm From

The baby business has used shame and secrecy as tools for decades. But a new generation of parents are removing stigma by leaning into a model that centers love, science, and determination. How can the lessons of the past shape the way forward for the fertility industry?

Have feedback about the show? Email us at biohacked@threeuncannyfour.com. Follow our host on Twitter @TJRaphael. 
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BioHacked | 12. A Future Without Shame

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