AnaBahia: A rising model/actress longing to meet the mother she has never known

Bahia is the stage name of AnaBahia Honorio do Nascimento, a 22 year old professional who is a disciplined young lady. Bahia has many talents which consist of acting, singing, and modeling. Bahia continues to study these crafts. Commercials & Print Modeling is what she is focused on along with voiceovers and commercial jingles.
She has also made appearances in American Gangsterfeaturing Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and on the Naked Brothers Band, a Nickelodeon Production. Bahia’s modeling was featured in the November/December issue of Hype Hair Magazine in 2006. Bahia is currently modeling for a clothing line calledRivals Of Time. These experiences have encouraged and given her confidence in many ways.



Bahia in layout for Hype Hair magazine from November/December of 1996
Bahia attended Repertory Company for The Arts High School in New York City and appeared in many great plays and has also performed monologue pieces as well. Her motto is “Be constant and persistent”. Her keys to success are being focused, surrounding herself with brilliant colleagues and maintaining her artistic passion. Bahia wants to show and let the world know she has much to offer and achieve. Her overall agenda is to create a change in society. Part of her focus is making things better for children via education and soon she intends to invest in her future inventions.

Modeling for the clothing line Rivals Of Time
Mother, where are you?
While Bahia’s bio is intriguing enough by itself, there is another yet another compelling facet to her life. You see, Bahia is in search of a woman named Maria da Paz Honorio do Nascimento: her birth mother. Today nat 22 years of age, she lives in New York with the American family that adopted her on August 22, 1990, in the city of Nova Cruz, Rio Grande do Norte located in Brazil’s northeast. Bahia is happy and feels that her adoption was a gift and the ultimate proof of a mother’s love. Since leaving the country, she has never returned to Brazil but wants to know her mother in order to “fill in the empty space that exists in (her) heart.”


Bahia’s story is ironic considering the issue of skin color that often leaves black Brazilian children at a disadvantage for being adopted by Brazilian couples in comparison to white, a fact we highlighted a few days ago. In a situation that face many black Brazilians, Bahia’s mother gave her up at five and a half months of age due to financial conditions that she felt were not sufficient to raise a child. “I feel that she saved my life having made the right decision. It is the infinite proof of love and every day I am thankful for what she gave me.”
Bahia was born on March 12, 1990 in the city of Montanhas, in Rio Grande do Norte. She was adopted by Paul and Andrea, an American couple from New York who wanted to adopt a child because they didn’t have their own. According to Bahia, they became interested after having read an ad in a newspaper about the adoption of children in Brazil, which led them to Brazil in search of their first child.

Adoption registration
Bahia’s adoption was registered in the city of Nova Cruz and the black and white photo shows the baby Bahia being picked up by the hands of the wife of the lawyer that facilitated the adoption process. According to Bahia, her mother was a friend of the lawyer and she lived with the lawyer and his wife until being officially adopted by the American couple. Although one can imagine that the separation between mother and child must have been a painful one for Maria, it would ultimately provide her child with a path to happiness, a privileged education, loving parents and all the opportunities of a first world country.


Since being adopted, Bahia has had a happy life being raised by a loving family that supports the dreams and opinions that she has carried on in life. Today, she divides her time between modeling gigs and part-time work as a life-guard in a New York swimming gymnastics academy. As a teen she entered the world of modeling, first in a layout for Hype Hairmagazine with plans of being an actress and singer, which were talents she discovered when she was still a child. “I want to be strong, creative and an activist to help change the world into a happier place”, which has been her wish since first discovering that she was adopted. Part of Bahia’s focus is making things better for children via education. Since Bahia’s adoption, her adoptive parents sought to cure their daughter’s loneliness, so they would traveled again, this time to Ethiopia in east Africa and adopted a seven year child.


“I remember when I was little, I loved to talk about my adoption because I really had a great life. And I didn’t understand the reason that many were telling me that they were sorry for what happened. The only thing that saddens me is when I dive into a swamp of thoughts trying figure out the whole process.”
Bahia naturally feels a desire to end the main mystery of her life. “I feel, by instinct, that my mother wants to see me. Psychologically, I imagine her in any situation. I want to know where my features come from, if I have brothers and sisters and if my mother is happy and healthy. I notice that society keeps a closed mind, with a negative perception about adoptions. I have matured in this respect and I am prepared to move forward.”
Bahia’s dream of finding her mother now depends on the efforts of officials of the two cities responsible for her adoption: Montanhas, where she was born, and Nova Cruz, where the adoption took place. Her hope is that with the information she has provided, the two cities can work together and help her locate her mother. At the time that Bahia put together this official request, she did so with two special dates in mind: Mother’s Day and the National Adoption Day. With today’s use of modern technology and the miracles of social networking, the possibility of Bahia being re-united with her birth mother may be even better today than it was when she was born in 1990. I post this article today with her in mind. For Brazilians reading this, please feel free to share this information. In some ways, the world is smaller than we think. Any one person could hold the key to re-uniting someone with a mother she hasn’t seen in 22 years. Good luck Bahia!


Anyone wishing to contact Bahia, please do so here: 
In Twitter@iambahiaa and on Facebook at Fb.com/iAmBahia

Source: Green Card News, artist resume
About Marques Travae 3747 Articles
Marques Travae. For more on the creator and editor of BLACK WOMEN OF BRAZIL, see the interview here.

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