Illegally adopted during Chile’s dictatorship, they’re now reuniting with biological families

BY PATRICIA LUNA

SANTIAGO (AP) — Romina Cortés couldn’t pronounce her sister’s last name. She didn’t know what she smells like, what her favorite food is, or what she likes to do in her free time.

Cortés, 43, waited impatiently Sunday at the airport in Santiago, Chile, where she would soon meet her sister, Maria, whose existence Cortés learned of just a month ago.

That’s because Cortés’ sister, María Hastings, was one of thousands of Chilean children trafficked or illegally put up for adoption over the last 60 years or so, most during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet from 1973-1990.

“I am overwhelmed, so happy to meet my biological family,” Hastings said as soon as she stepped off the plane from Tampa, Florida. “I’m going to reconnect with them, learn who they really are and let them know who I am.”

The illegal adoptions — 20,000 of which are being investigated by Chilean justice officials and other social groups — extend back to the 1960s. Largely poor, young and indigenous women in vulnerable situations were either forced to give up their children or were told they died shortly after childbirth.

Now, families like the Cortés’ are finally reuniting after decades.

Cortés’ mother, a woman from the countryside, came to work in the city “without knowing how to read or write.” Without any support, her mom ended up on the street and was coerced into putting her baby up for adoption after she was born in 1987.

“They forced her to sign a document that she didn’t know what it was, since she was illiterate,” Cortés said. “For some reason, because of the pain she was carrying she didn’t tell me before.”

But last month, to the hairstylist’s surprise, she added a sister and a nephew to her life. “When I saw her on Zoom I said, ‘She looks like me. She has my same eyes and my same nose,’” said Cortés.

Eyes fixed on the terminal doors Sunday, Cortés felt a rollercoaster of emotions. Eager to hug her sister, she said she is trying to learn English to better communicate with her, but that all she knows how to say is “yes.”

Hastings was told as a child that she was adopted, but a few months ago discovered she was part of a child abduction network with branches around the world, including the United States, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

On Sunday she wrapped her arms around five members of her new family, among them her crying mother, who preferred to remain anonymous but said she knew this day would come.

Hastings said she is learning Spanish to connect with a part of herself that remained dormant all this time.

Hastings said she didn’t initially want to search for her family until she read a news article about the trafficked children, which led her to connect with Connecting Roots.

It’s one of several organizations that bring together children illegally trafficked from Chile, especially those in the U.S.

The trafficking network was vast, including foster homes, hospitals, hotels, social workers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, judges, and diplomats “who participated in this criminal enterprise under the protection of the State,” said Juan Luis Insulza, the vice president of Connecting Roots.

Foreigners received or marketed the trafficked infants, the organization said. In most cases the adoptive families were also deceived about the illegal origin of the babies.

Ben Frutcher was one of seven people on the flight to Chile on Sunday, excited to connect with his seven siblings and 14 nieces and nephews. He came with his adoptive father, who had encouraged him to search for his birth family.

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