Picture Credit: Netflix
In the most recent Netflix documentary, A Child of My Own, Eleonor Alejandra Marin Mendoza (nicknamed Ale) explores the significant pressure she encountered from the societal traditionalist expectation of having a child after multiple miscarriages. This pressure ultimately resulted in her imprisonment after she abducted an infant from a Mexico City hospital where she had worked since 2002.
The film directed by Maite Alberdi is a thoughtful exploration and commentary on reproductive social constructs that should be dismantled, employing a hybrid dramatized reenactment that veers into documentary format by its second half.
Here’s every subject featured in A Child of My Own and where they are today.
Arturo Calderón Gamiño
For an extended period, Arturo believed every fabrication that his wife told him. He was an innocent bystander to her criminal activities. He believed that her fourth pregnancy was the one, as she constantly fibbed that she was pregnant. His belief is perfectly exemplified with flip-phone camera video footage of Arturo rubbing Ale’s pregnant belly, going, “That’s my son.” On the day of her due date, Ale brought a baby in a bag to Arturo’s car, convincing him that she made a deal with a surrogate five months beforehand.
Later that evening, police tracked Arturo and Ale to Hotel Hollywood Villa & Suites, where they were arrested.
Arturo was imprisoned for two and a half years. Initially, he felt angry, stating, “The feeling was rage, pretty much. That’s the only thing I could feel towards her at the time.” He was able to think about the pain he had caused Ale and the monumental pressure he had placed on her, including rejecting the idea of adopting when she asked. During and after his time in prison, he wrote Ale as many letters as he could, even after he got out.
He was acquitted of the crime, having a clean record. But Arturo shared how the psychological damage still lingers. “But the scar remains,” he says.
Nevertheless, the two kept in touch. He supported Ale throughout the remainder of her sentence.
Upon release, Gamiño and Ale tried making it work, but he still wanted to be a dad. They separated for a little bit, and he had an affair with another woman. He then became a father, but his heart still remained with Ale. He and Ale today got back together, and he is now a father to a toddler who also sees Ale as a parent.
Eleonor Alejandra Marin Mendoza
Alejandra tried getting pregnant three times over, but she faced miscarriages at every turn. Her family and husband and his family were no help as they suggested she just get pregnant again. Soon she made up a fib that she was pregnant, even successfully convincing doctors at sonogram appointments that she was pregnant. She was then placed on maternity leave from work at Hospital General de México. On June 16, 2009, at the age of 26, on the day of her supposed due date, she abducted Mayra Navarro’s baby girl named Katia Valentina.
She convinced everyone that Navarro and Mendoza made a pact to give up her baby at the hospital after she was put into labor. However, medical records indicated that Navarro didn’t even go to that clinic until her final trimester, proving that none of Ale’s story matches her claims.
Furthermore, another physician reports that Ale was diagnosed with dissociation following all the psychological evaluations, which resulted in her believing her own lies and misinterpreting the distinction between fact and fiction. The mental and physical stress of her miscarriages was a major factor in this outcome as well.
They were arrested the same day of the kidnapping. On June 23, she and Arturo were convicted of illegal deprivation of liberty involving a victim under 16.
Ale was sent to a women’s prison, Santa Martha Acatitla, to serve a 13-year and 4-month sentence. There, she formed bonds with her fellow prisoners and furnished her cell with pink walls and feminine decor. She also made peace with motherhood not being in the cards for her.
After being released from prison in 2023, Ale started her road to recovery. She and Arturo maintained their marital union until they were temporarily separated. Arturo went on to father a child with a lover and subsequently reconciled with Ale. Today they live in Mexico and are parents to his son.
Un hijo propio. (L to R) Armando Espitia as Arturo, Ana Celeste Montalvo as Alejandra in Un hijo propio. Cr. Luis Antonio Rojas/Netflix ©2026
Mayra Navarro Vega
The doc sees Mayra discussing her tale, denying all of Mendoza’s claims of her consent to have her baby. Mayra and her husband reveal that they met Ale on the day of their child’s birth, as they were convinced that Ale was a social worker conducting surveys before the abduction of Katia. CCTV footage captures Ale strolling away from the hospital with Mayra’s daughter hidden in a gift bag. By the time Mayra returned from taking urine tests post-labor, she saw her daughter gone.
The doc sees news coverage of the kidnapping in the evening with the father pleading for his daughter back.
“I don’t have any sympathy for her. I never have. She didn’t feel any sympathy when she kidnapped my daughter,” Mayra, still feeling the rage today, tells the camera.
“And she hasn’t shown any remorse either. If you ask me if I have forgiven her or if I…it’s something that…no, I couldn’t do. And I don’t think I can ever forgive her.”
Today she lives privately in Mexico.