Cautiva (Captive) Testimonio de un secuestro

Clara Rojas was a lawyer in her late thirties when she teamed up with her friend Ingrid Betancourt. They were visiting remote districts in the jungle when were seized by Farc rebels. The guerrillas only intended to keep Ingrid but Clara refused to leave her friend. During her 6 years of captivity she gave birth to her son Emmanuel in the middle of the jungle and later was separated from him by the Farc. Once she recovered her freedom Clara and her son were reunited. Clara and Emmanuel live in Colombia.

Clara Rojas is a lawyer and was the campaign director of Ingrid Betancourt’s presidential campaign when they were kidnapped by the FARC in 2002. She gave birth to her son Emmanuel during her captivity but he was taken from her when he was only eight months old. After six years of captivity she was finally liberated. Clara and her son currently live in Bogotá, Colombia.

Translator:

Adriana V. López is the founding editor of Críticas, Publishers Weekly's sister magazine devoted to the Spanish-language publishing world. She is the co-editor of Barcelona Noir, a short story collection for Akashic Books, as well as the editor of Fifteen Candles: 15 Tales of Taffeta, Hairspray, Drunk Uncles and Other Quinceañera Stories (HarperCollins, 2007). Lopez's work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications and book anthologies. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Juicy Mangoes (Simon & Schuster, 2007), Border-Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass & Cultural Shifting (HarperCollins, 2004), and Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Seal Press, 2002). López is a member of PEN America and currently divides her time between New York and Madrid.