Letters to My Mother

by Ingrid Betancourt, Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt, Mélanie Delloye-Betancourt

On December 1, 2007, during the arrest of several guerillas in Bogota, the Colombian police confiscated a short video clip of political hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Accompanying the video was a twelve-page letter, dated October 24, 2007, written by Betancourt to her mother and family. Kidnapped on February 23, 2002, Betancourt has become an international symbol in the struggle for liberty and the fight against barbarity. Before being captured by the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810971275
• ISBN13: 9780810971271
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

A politician, a fighter, a poet, a mother...

There are two letters. The first is Ingrid Betancourt's letter to HER mother, written in October 2007, then "captured" during the arrest of a FARC rebel in December, 2007. The second letter is that of Ingrid's children to THEIR mother in response. I'd read the US government's official translation excerpted, i.e. omitting most of the family details, shortly after it's release early in the year, and saw Ingrid's eloquence. However, when I read the entire letter, as published (in English) in this book, I recognized the soul of a poet. Because the book includes her original Spanish (along with a French translation), I was reminded once again of (1) how passionate a language Spanish is; and (2) the difficulty of translating such beauty and passion into English.