A former US marine Jimmy Lippert Thyden experienced a tearful reunion with his biological mother Maria Angelica Gonzalez after 42 years in Valdivia, Chile after he was stolen shortly after his birth. Gonzalez's son was taken from him by hospital workers and was told that he had died.
A major contributor of Thyden's reunion was the Chilean non-profit organisation called Nos Buscamos. The organisation found that Thyden had been born prematurely in Chile's capital Santiago and placed in an incubator. Gonzalez was told to leave the hospital, but when she returned to get her son, she was told that he had died and his body had been disposed of.
According to Nos Buscamos, thousands of babies were taken from Chilean families inthe 1970s and 1980s. They were mostly stolen from poor families who could not defend themselves. The child-trafficking was one of several human rights violations under Gen Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile.
Thyden was adopted by an American family and spent 19 years with the US Marines. He is also married and the couple have two daughters aged 8 and 5.
A case of counterfeit adoption
Thyden's efforts to find his birth parents started in April this year when he read news about Chilean-born adoptees who had been reunited with their birth relatives with the help of Nos Buscamos.
"The paperwork I have for my adoption tells me I have no living relatives. And I learned in the last few months that I have a mama and I have four brothers and a sister," he said in an interview with AP from Virginia, where he works as a criminal defense attorney. He also said that his case was one of 'counterfeit adoption'.
Thyden's DNA test confirmed that he was 100% Chilean and the data was matched with a cousin who uses the genealogy platform MyHeritage, which provides free-at-home DNA kits for Chilean adoptees. After he sent his adoption papers to his cousin, Thyden found that he had a Maria Angelica Gonzalez on their mother's side.
Gonzalez apparently declined to take his phone calls until he texted her a photo of his wife and daughters. "Then just the dam broke. I was trying to bookend 42 years of a life taken from her. Taken from us both," said the former marine.
A heartwarming reunion
Soon after, Thyden travelled with his family to Chile where he finally visited his birth mother after 42 long years. "Hola, Mama. I love you very much," he greeted his mother in a tearful hug.
He was also greeted with 42 colourful balloons, signifying the years of lost time with his Chilean birth family. "There is an empowerment in popping those balloons, empowerment in being there with your family to take inventory of all that was lost," he said.
"Mijo (son) you have no idea the oceans I’ve cried for you. How many nights I’ve laid awake praying that God let me live long enough to learn what happened to you," Thyden quoted his mother's response on seeing him after such a long time. He also met his biological relatives, including a sister and four brothers.
"It knocked the wind out of me. ... I was suffocated by the gravity of this moment. How do you hug someone in a way that makes up for 42 years of hugs?" he told AP after the reunion.
Thyden also discovered that he and his birth mother share a fondness for cooking. "My hands are in the same dough as my mama," he mentioned while making empanadas together for the family.
Additionally, Thyden's adoptive parents were also supportive of his quest to find his lost birth relatives. He called them "unwitting victims" of the illegal adoption network and said they were grappling with the reality of the situation. "My parents wanted a family but they never wanted it like this. Not at the extortion of another, the robbing of another," he added.
Thousands of counterfeit adoption cases still remain
While Thyden was one of the lucky ones to experience a successful reunion with his birth family, he acknowledged that there are thousands of cases of counterfeit adoptions that still remain at large.
He and Nos Buscamos founder-director Constanza del Rio met with one of the seven investigators who are engaged in addressing many such cases. He also met with the Chilean Ambassador to the US Juan Gabriel Valdes and sought government recognition of the adoption scheme, emphasising that there was no mechanism to assist Chilean adoptees to visit their birth relatives.
Nos Buscamos has helped 450 adoptees to reunite with their families, while other non-profit organisations are also engaged to do the same.
Under Pinochet's rule, at least 3,095 people were killed and tens of thousands more were tortured or jailed for political reasons, as per government figures.
