Letters to My 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.