This is the story of something that should have happened 42 years ago. Or, rather, what should never have happened.
Last August 22 Jimmy Lippert-Thydena criminal lawyer from Ashburn, Virginia (United States), embraced María Angélica González, her biological motherin Valdivia, a city in the southern zone of Chile.
Although they are mother and son, it was the first time they saw each other in person, that they touched each other, that they said “I love you”.
And it is that four decades earlier, in October 1980, when González gave birth to her baby at the Hospital del Salvador in Santiago, the Chilean capital, they told her that, since it was premature, she had to stay in the incubator.
When they went back to look for him, they told him that he had died, and when he asked to see the body, they told him that they had “disposed of him”.
But actually, it had been given up for adoption to an American couple, John and Fred Lippert-Thyne.
Was a “stolen child”like so many others during the regime of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Track
“I I always knew I was adopted. My parents did not hide it from me and I grew up in a transparent home full of love”, Lippert-Thyne tells BBC Mundo via Zoom from Chile on the eve of flying back to the United States.
“What I didn’t know, and neither did my adoptive parents, is that it was a fake, falsified adoption”, he continues. “I thought my mom had given me because she wanted me to have more opportunities, a better life. That’s why I thought it was a story with a happy ending.”
Although he acknowledges that there was something that did not quite fit.
At one point, his adoptive mother – whom he continues to call momwhile his biological mother is referred to as “mom” – had shown him the adoption papers.
“And there was three versions: one said that she had not appeared at the hospital, another that she had voluntarily surrendered me two years after giving birth, and the third, that she had died during childbirth.
With the doubt already installed, he continued with his life, thinking that to solve it he would have to save and go to his country of origin himself, until in April of this year he read in the press the case of an American who had been illegally adopted in Chile. .
“I understood that this was the only truth that could explain the lies”, remember. “And I also discovered that there was an organization that could help me with the inquiries on the ground.”
The search
The next thing was to contact that foundation, We are looking forwhich in recent years has coordinated more than 450 meetings between those who were victims of a similar scheme and their Chilean biological families.
Although it is estimated that they were tens of thousands of babies taken from their parents in the 1970s and 1980s.
It was part of the many human rights violations that took place during the 17 years of the regime of General Augusto Pinochetwho on September 11, 1973 led a coup to overthrow the democratic government of Salvador Allende, whose 50th anniversary will only take place in a few days.
“The violence began with the repression and the disappearance of the left and the opponents, and then it took different forms,” Danny Monsálvez, a history professor and researcher at the University of Concepción, explained to BBC Mundo for another report on adoptions. illegal published in 2021.
In this context, the theft of babies was “part of a policy”affirmed then the expert historian in the military government of Pinochet.
“They were not isolated cases and in the adoption process there were related state institutions, such as the Civil Registry“, and the minors ended up in countries all over Europe, or in the United States, such as Lippert-Thyden.
“They were taken from poor families, from poor women who didn’t know it and had no way to defend themselves,” the founder and director of Nos Encontramos, Constanza Del Río, told BBC Mundo.
“And as for Jimmy, the track only What we had (to try to find her biological relatives) was a name that appeared in her documentation, María González, and it was not very encouraging, because it is the name of many women in Chile”.
So, while they were getting Lippert-Thyden’s literal birth certificates, he, following the organization’s protocols, underwent a dna test.
Nos Buscamos has been associated for two years with the MyHeritage genealogy platform, which provides free kits to distribute to Chilean adoptees and suspected victims of child trafficking in the country.
The home test confirmed that he was 100% Chilean and linked him to a cousin who also uses the platform, who also turned out to have a relative named María Angélica González on her mother’s side and helped them get in touch.
“Mom, it’s me, your baby”
The first approach was made by Del Río. He then left it in the hands of Lippert-Thyden.
“I sent her a first text message with a photo of me, saying: ‘Mom, it’s me, her baby,’” she says. Later she attached other images – “They are my wife, your two granddaughters” – and she asked him not to be in a hurry to answer. “Take all the time you need”.
That was followed by hours and hours exchanging messages -says her son-, with her confessing that she cried whole nights for him, although she never told anyone that she had had him.
A few weeks later it was time to see each other by videoconference. By then, a DNA test carried out on González had already confirmed the relationship between the two.
“I had gone to my mother’s house (mom) to find out how they felt, because they were following the process with me and it was difficult for everyone”, recalls Lippert-Thyden, when that video call arrived via WhatsApp.
“When we met, there was no doubt. I presented them and it was a moment of such grace…”, she recounts. I appreciate you raising him, careprovided and loved, recounts what his biological mother said to his adoptive mother, to which the latter replied: “Thank you for sharing it with us”.
BBC Mundo tried to talk to both mothers, but the response was that they are not ready yet.
According to Lippert-Thyden, his adoptive parents were also victims of this network.
“My parents they wanted a family, but they never wanted it like this”, he told BBC Mundo. “Not through extortion, through robbery.”
Irregularities in Chile
- At the beginning of 2018, the former minister of the Court of Appeals of Santiago Mario Carroza began to investigate close to 500 cases of irregular adoptions that took place between 1970 and 1990.
- By the end of that year, the Chilean Court of Appeals had already estimated that close to 7,500 adoptions that took place at that time could have been illegal.
- In September 2018, following pressure from various groups, the lower house of the Chilean Congress created a commission to investigate the multiple accusations.
- In July 2019, the special commission published a 144-page report that talks about some 20,000 cases of Chilean children who were adopted by foreign couples during the government of Augusto Pinochet.
- The modality consisted of deceiving the mothers. They were usually told that their babies had died.
- In some cases, they had the support of judges, immigration authorities, notaries, religious figures and government institutions, according to the same report.
- Most of the children ended up in Sweden, Italy, the United States, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
“That’s not my name”
“Indeed, Jimmy arrived adopted in the United States, but he left Chile stolen, with a passport and a name that the traffickers had given him,” emphasizes Del Río.
He still has that document with the red cover and gold letters.
It includes a photo of a serious boy, with straight hair and straight bangs, dressed in a shirt and vest.
Date of birth: October 31, 1980. Name: Carlos Dionne Burbach.
“I want to make it clear that this is not my name,” says the protagonist.
“I’m Jimmy Lippert-Thyden. I grew up in a loving home, in a family, and they gave me that name, ”he points out.
“Although I am also the son of María Angélica González, and the only dignity that I can give her in this life is to include her last name next to mine,” he continues.
That’s why wants to change his name to Jimmy Lippert-Thyden González. “And once I have it, I plan to work with lawyers in Chile to create that identity, to to be recognized as my Chilean identity”.
It will be the way to definitively settle a question, that of “who am I?”, which has been chasing him for decades.
“Although I had a happy childhood, as an adopted child there were difficult phases, and all my life I was too brown to be white, too white to be brown. He didn’t fit in anywhere and I always knew something was missing, ”he explains.
“I never felt quite American, even after serving 19 years in the Marine Corps for 19 years,” he continues. “I always felt Chilean-American.”
The visit to Chile
To continue exploring his Chilean side, last week he traveled with his wife Johannah and their two daughters, Ebba Joy, 8, and Betty Grace, 5, to the country where he was born.
It was there that the scene with which this report begins and began to discover the traits they have in commonlike an inexhaustible energy and that way of speaking “as if visualizing the words”.
They communicate in Spanish, a language he studied in high school – “On good days I understand 90%, on regular days 60%, and you have to take into account how fast Chileans speak” -, and with the help of online translators. .
He also realized that they share a love of cooking.
“My hands are in the same dough as my mom,” he exclaimed as they made empanadas together, after returning from a visit to the Santiago zoo, the first place his American parents took him after his adoption and to which he has now returned with his sister. biology as a guide.
Seeing places, walking the streets, trying the food, talking, sharing… That’s how the days went by.
Although he also took the opportunity to meet with investigators, lawyers and government representatives.
“The only way to improve this is with reunification and inclusion”, and today there is no mechanism -financial or otherwise- to help Chilean adoptees in their effort to visit the country of origin.
“My wife and I sold our truck so we could come, but not everyone has that option.”
In addition, he seeks recognition that goes further, something Del Río also insists on.
“We don’t want money,” the founder and director of Nos Buscamos tells BBC Mundo.
“What we ask is that the State, with a decree law, recognize these thefts as a historical truth”.
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See original article on BBC