The World Around You

I’m not sure what this says about Alabama’s Department of Human Resources, but the Justice Department has been called in to investigate a case involving a Guatemalan teen mom. AP reports,

ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — The state took an 11-month-old boy away from his teenaged Guatemalan mother without offering an explanation in her native language, advocates for the young woman say.

Dr. Ernie Hendrix, who is trying to help 17-year-old Marta Alonzo, said the Department of Human Resources repeatedly ignored her civil rights and failed to let her know what was going on in a language she could understand.

Alonzo said she wants to regain custody of the boy and return home to Guatemala. The state has indicated it may put the child up for adoption.

“That baby came out of me. I had it. He’s mine and nobody should have taken him from me,” Alonzo said in a story published Thursday in The Birmingham News.

The state denies it did anything wrong, but the Justice Department is investigating.

Alonzo is from the Guatemalan village of Xabaj (pronounced “Shabah”) and speaks K’iche’ Maya, a Mayan language. She is learning Spanish and English.

So did Alabama DHR bother to find out what language she spoke? No, they just assumed she spoke Spanish and conducted the proceedings in that language. Their response when they find out she was not a native Spanish-speaker? “We believe in this case that Spanish was an appropriate language,” said Mike Gibson, a spokesman for the state welfare agency. It’s nice to know they think the wrong language was “appropriate”. Why? Because “everyone knows” they speak spanish in Guatemala? It’s enough that the error was made, but to defend themselves on those grounds is ridiculous.