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Maria Escobar
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Affiliation
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Biological Mother of Jose Daniel Escobar/Alex Kaplan
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Episode Appeared In
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Played By
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Maria Escobar is a young woman from Colombia with a young son, Jose Daniel. In 1985 the adoption lawyer Howard Famiglia visited Colombia and took Jose Daniel from his mother and brought him into the US and adopted him to Moira Kaplan, and he was named Alex. Maria desperately tried to get to the US to get Jose back, resorting to prostitution, paying bribes, etc., but got nowhere, finally she stowed away on another planeload of babies bound for Miami, when the plane landed, Maria fell out of the fuselage, and enlisted the help of the Metro-Dade Vice squad to find her baby, the investigation of the babies (three of which died in the trip) they uncovered Famiglia's scheme, and that a baby matching the description of Jose (an anginoma on his shoulder was a defining mark) was at the Kaplan home, in an affluent section of Miami, but Moira Kaplan ran off Maria and the Vice detectives, and Jose did not recognize his mother. To stop the illegal adoptions, Maria appeared in a bogus TV interview made in a hospital saying she had knowledge of who was behind the baby planeload and was going to the police. Famiglia was able to get inside the ventilation system at the hospital in an attempt to kill Maria, but was met by Gina Calabrese and the Vice team, who shot Familglia dead. Maria was prepared to take Jose back to Colombia, but Jose and the Kaplan family were emotionally distraught about losing "Alex", and Maria, not wanting to hurt Jose, agreed to his staying with the only family he's known, and returned to Colombia.