Coming Out of the Fog of War and Adoption Trauma: Central American Adoptees and Social Media Support Groups

Authors

  • Nathan Rossi Northwestern University

Keywords:

affective networks, Facebook, Central America, Latinx media studies, adoption, digital meaning making

Abstract

By looking at the intersections between social media networking, affect theory, and digital meaning making, this article considers the ways in which children adopted from El Salvador and Guatemala to the United States during a period of war and political instability have used support groups on Facebook to build community and find acceptance for their hybrid identities. Drawing on 16 interviews with now young adult adoptees, I establish how Central American adoptees use online community building as an aid in suturing online and offline worlds in their efforts to create visibility and belonging for transnational/racial adoptees. Still, I argue that these are contested spaces, which may be better suited for individual rather than collective healing.

Author Biography

Nathan Rossi, Northwestern University

Nathan Rossi is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. He recently received his PhD in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation project considered the ways in which transnational/racial adoptees from Central America use documentary, social media, and digital technologies in the negotiation of cultural identity and to bring attention to untold histories of the Salvadoran and Guatemalan Civil Wars. His work can be found in Latino Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and Flow: A Forum on Culture and Media.

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Published

2023-08-29

Issue

Vol. 17 (2023)

Section

Articles

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