ADOPTION BUREAUCRACIES: EXPERT KNOWLEDGE, DOCUMENTS AND RACE IN THE MAKING OF ADOPTIVE FAMILIES IN CENTRAL MEXICO by Anaid Citlalli Reyes Kipp A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October, 2014 © 2014 Anaid Citlalli Reyes Kipp All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the bureaucratic, legal and administrative practices of the neoliberal state through an ethnographic account of the Mexican government’s recent attempts to regulate and create adoptive families. With the Mexican state’s adherence to international adoption conventions and the recent shift towards the right in Mexican politics, federal and state-level governments have adjusted existing codes to facilitate the “plenary adoption” of poor children by state approved families beginning in the 1990s. The reforms, which define “plenary adoption” as the creation of a new family by extinguishing all the previous kinship ties of the adopted child, mark a move away from earlier “simple adoption” provisions, in which adoption was defined as a contract between two individuals that could be revoked. Paying special attention to the material production of knowledge–as well as the legal and moral discourses that it entails– the dissertation explores how adoption becomes a technology of government with particular racialized effects, and investigates the multiple possibilities of relatedness that are made available or foreclosed through plenary adoption policies and practices. Drawing on twenty consecutive months of ethnographic and archival work (2009- 2011) in an office of the “System for Integral Family Development” or DIF (the state institution in charge of adoptions and social assistance in Mexico), as well as interviews with adoptive parents and birth mothers, the dissertation makes three principal interventions: First, it questions the view of bureaucrats as agents who mediate between already constituted objects to ask how forms of kinship and state power are mutually constituted in the context of child adoption. Second, it provides new insights into the ii mundane processes through which common sense knowledges colonize legal and bureaucratic practices, showing how domains of normalization are central to governmental work and the implementation of law. Finally, it illustrates how the state acquires legitimacy through documentary practices and regimens of expertise that unfold in a context of entrenched and growing inequalities; and how moral and racial idioms emerge and materialize across governmental and familial domains. Faculty Advisor: Deborah Poole Dissertation Committee: Veena Das, Juan Obarrio, Margaret Keck, Katrina Bell McDonald iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My time as a graduate student has been marked by the generosity, guidance, support and friendship of many more people than I can possibly do justice to in these pages. I am especially thankful to my advisor, Deborah Poole, for her sharp insights, endless dedication, wisdom, and insistence on making my work better. Her unique capacity to foster academic rigor in a humorous, enthusiastic, respectful and generous milieu are an inspiration and an example. My gratitude also goes to my internal committee members, Veena Das and Juan Obarrio, who have helped me by challenging my assumptions, offering me continuous avenues to expand my thought and find my own voice as a scholar. Margaret Keck and Katrina Bell McDonald, who served as external readers on my dissertation committee, provided me with poignant commentaries and careful suggestions at my defense, which have been enormously helpful as I made final revisions to the manuscript for submission. Any mistakes and weaknesses, however, are solely mine. I also appreciate that Clara Han and Gabriel Paquette generously accepted to be alternate readers on my defense committee. At Johns Hopkins University I found a uniquely vibrant and creative intellectual community in which to grow both academically and as a person. The Anthropology Department provided me with the tools to develop my intellectual interests in a warm and protective environment. I learned and benefitted immensely from conversations, colloquiums, teaching opportunities and coursework with faculty members inside and outside anthropology, particularly Emma Cervone, Clara Han, Pamela Reynolds, Sidney Mintz, Naveeda Khan, Jane Guyer, Niloofar Haeri, Anand Pandian, Michael Hanchard, iv Paola Marrati, Jane Bennett and William Connolly. Michael Birenbaum Quintero and Laura-Zoe Humphreys offered me fresh insights during their time as postdoctoral fellows. The Anthropology Department Staff, Richard Helman, Clarissa Costley, Melody McDaniels and Vini Meyers, provided gracious support to navigate everyday life as a graduate student. I feel particularly grateful to have met so many wonderful friends and colleagues at the Anthropology Department. During the years, I have come to admire each and every one of the students for their smartness, openness and generosity. I would like to extend my warm and special gratitude to Isaias Rojas Perez, Valeria Procupez, Thomas Cousins, Bican Polat, Maya Ratnam, Vaibhav Saria, Neena Mahadev, Amy Krauss, Lindsey Reynolds, Anila Daulatzai, Roger Begrich, Hester Betlem, Gabika Bockaj, Sylvain Perdigon (and Thaera Bardan), Ross Parsons, and Bhrigupati (and Prerna) Singh. They have shown me the power of friendship and love to nourish both the soul and the intellect. I have also learned very much from Patricia Madariaga Villegas, Aditi Saraf, Fouad Halbouni, Caroline Block, Serra Hakyemez, Sruti Chaganti, Mariam Banahi, Bridget Kustin, Juan Felipe Moreno, Megha Sehdev, Brian Tilley, Gustavo Valdivia Corrales, Chitra Venkataramani, Andrew Brandel, Pooja Satyogi, Victor Kumar, Sameena Mulla, Sidharthan Maunaguru, Amrita Ibrahim, James Williams, Andres Dapuez, and Andrew Bush. I would also like to thank Michael McCarthy, Norah Andrews, Túlio Zille, Amanda Mignonne Smith and Mike Strayer for providing a lively and interdisciplinary space of thought at the Program in Latin American Studies. My graduate studies were made possible thanks to grants from the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), the Department of v Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, and the Ford Foundation-Institute of International Education. I was awarded an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, as well as a Dissertation Research Grant from the National Science Foundation to carry out long-term research for the dissertation. Early research was supported by summer fieldwork grant-awards from the Program in Latin American Studies, the Institute of Global Studies, and the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Johns Hopkins University. The writing process has been eased thanks to funding from The Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Dean’s Prize Freshman Seminar, and Program in Latin American Studies Teaching Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Early drafts of the dissertation chapters were greatly improved by the comments I received during panels at the Canadian Anthropology Society 2014 Conference; Law and Society Association 2014 Annual Meeting; and the American Anthropological Association 2010 and 2013 Annual Meetings. At Johns Hopkins University, I received valuable feedback during presentations at the Program in Latin American Studies 2012 Spring Conference; and the Anthropology Department. I thank Clara Han for her careful comments on the last chapter of the dissertation. Naveeda Khan read early drafts of my dissertation grant proposal, which greatly improved the document. I am especially thankful to Valeria Procupez, Isaias Rojas Perez, Neena Mahadev, Thomas Cousins, Lindsey Reynolds, Bican Polat, Maya Ratnam, Amy Krauss and Serra Hakyemez for their insightful and careful readings of this dissertation at different stages of completion. I would like to thank Veena Das and Clara Han for the generous invitation to publish a version of chapter two in their edited volume Living and Dying in the vi Contemporary World: A Compendium. I am also extremely grateful to Séverine Durin, Maria Eugenia de la O and Santiago Bastos for their insightful comments during a 2011 Workshop at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, Mexico; and for their subsequent invitation to publish a version of chapter four in their edited volume Trabajo Doméstico, Género y Etnicidad. My deepest gratitude goes to all those individuals, families, informants, friends and acquaintances that welcomed me with hospitality in their homes and lives, sharing their personal struggles, feelings and insights with me during my fieldwork in Mexico. Without their openhandedness and involvement the research for this dissertation would not have been possible. Although I cannot thank them personally by name, I feel deeply indebted to the members of the Adoption Department and Albergue staff at the local DIF, adoptive families, NGOs and the Superior Court Archive team for allowing me to take part in their daily lives and learn about their work and worldviews with endless generosity and humor. I feel enormously lucky to have the encouragement of caring friends who have remained close to me, supporting my academic journey with love despite time and distance. Elian Gómez-Azcárate Renero has been a strong and loyal friend that has given me unstinted support throughout the years. Columba González Duarte and Paola Velasco Santos are invaluable colleagues