Portfolio at NYU

Posted 10.04.05
Desire for extending families

By Jason Boog

Newsday
June 15, 2005

Minerva Rivera's spacious backyard is a jumble of toys that include plastic Big Wheels bikes, rubber balls, beach pails and overturned tricycles.

Over the course of about two decades, 38 children have played with these toys and others while living in Rivera's three-story Long Island City home.

Following a divorce seven years ago, Rivera, 46, has raised a non-conventional family that has included three biological daughters, four adopted kids and dozens of foster children.

A Bronx native, Rivera spent most of her childhood in foster care.

"I grew up poor, but decent," explained the single mother.

Last month, Rivera won the city's Golden Heart Award, a yearly honor given by New York City's Administration of Children's Services agency to an "exceptional foster parent."

Officials are now looking for more prospective parents like Rivera.

In April, the federal Administration for Children and Families helped launch a national public service campaign that includes Spanish-language print, television and radio advertisements to convince more Latino parents to adopt.

The national initiative is the Spanish-language version of a campaign launched last year to make prospective parents aware of the estimated 118,000 children currently awaiting adoption in foster care systems across the country.

Barbara Rincon is a program director of the New York Council On Adoptable Children, a grassroots organization that is a partner in the national campaign.

"We believe that every child is adoptable; it's just a matter of finding the right family," Rincon said.

She noted that out of the nearly 18,000 children waiting for adoption in New York City, approximately 4,500 - or 25 percent - are Latino.

One of Rivera's biological daughters, Minerva, 17, remembers when the first foster child entered her family 10 years ago.

"I was happy, because I got a little brother," the teenager said. "After that, kids started coming and going, and I got used to it."

Since then, the Rivera household has cared for youngsters from various backgrounds, including Puerto Rican, Dominican, African-American and Haitian. Rivera, of Puerto Rican descent, works hard to keep all the children practiced in Spanish, rattling off dual translations every day.

She supports the family with a home business, a graphic design company selling greeting cards, backpacks and T-shirts, among other things.

Last year, Rivera adopted Marquita, now 18. The teenager with Puerto Rican and black heritage struggled during her first difficult years of high school but found a more stable environment when she became one of Rivera's foster children three years ago.

"I was scared, to be really honest," Marquita Rivera said. "I never really went to a home with so many kids. I loosened up a bit."

Now she helps her adoptive mother care for the 10 children currently living in the house. The children range from 4 to 18 years old.

Many Latino teenagers in the foster care system aren't as fortunate as Marquita Rivera.

Bryant German has lived in and out of the foster care system since he was 3. Now 15, he was born to a Dominican family in the Bronx, but in recent years lost complete contact with his relatives.

German is currently seeking adoption, a difficult maneuver for most teenagers in the foster care system.

"I'm smart and adoring," German said he tells perspective parents. "I listen, and I can cook eggs, sunnyside up."

German lives in Children's Village, a 150-year-old residential program in Westchester County that supports approximately 1,000 children, mostly from the New York metropolitan area, who come from troubled families or are part of the foster care system.

"Young Latino children are not difficult to find homes for," Rincon said. "It's the older ones, particularly boys, that are difficult."

In 2001, Betty and Jose Figueroa of Greenpoint adopted Edward, a Dominican child. With attention deficit disorder and slight autism, Edward was a "special needs" child - another population of foster children that the city struggles to place.

"We thought he was a little complicated, but we could tell he was happier with us," said Jose Figueroa, 45, a Puerto Rican native.

Now 10, Edward is a polite and studious boy who is thriving under the Figueroas' care.

In 2003, the Figueroas also adopted Joshua, 8, a Puerto Rican child on the city's adoption list.

Foster care was a natural option for Betty Figueroa. For 30 years, her Mexican immigrant mother had brought almost 100 foster children into the family home in Greenpoint.

"They bring life," Betty Figueroa said of foster children. "If I had a huge house with 20 rooms, I would bring in so many kids."