Mara Vernica Soto has been reunited with her twin daughters, Maria Beatrice and Adelia Rose Mereu Chessa, in Chile, 45 years after they were stolen as babies and placed for adoption with a foreign family. The emotional meeting took place in the city of Concepcin, Biobo province, after the twins, now 46, traveled from Italy, where they were raised. It was the first time Soto, now 64, had seen her daughters since they were just eight months old. The twins always knew they were adopted in Chile but had no memory of their mother. In 1979, under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Soto gave birth to the girls in Hualpn. After a routine doctors visit, she was told her daughters needed evaluation. Instead, the babies were taken from her, with officials accusing her of not feeding them properly. When she sought police help, she discovered her daughters had already been placed for adoption abroad. Their birth certificates had been altered to suggest no parents had come forward. During Pinochets rule, thousands of Chilean babies were stolen and sold into adoption, many to the US and Europe. They became known as the Children of Silence. Some were taken from poor mothers and sold through adoption agencies; others were given up under pressure from families, priests, doctors, or nuns. They listen to women now. Back then, they didnt listen to mothers. We could not speak up in those years like we can now, Soto said. The road to reunion began in 2020, when Soto contacted Nos Buscamos, an NGO that reconnects children illegally adopted abroad with their biological families. She took a DNA test, which was entered into an international database. For years, she waited. Earlier this year, her grandsonthe son of one of the twinstook a DNA test, leading to the discovery. Within 20 minutes of contact on Facebook, Soto was speaking with her daughters. On September 10, the twins landed in Concepcin, where the airport turned into a scene of celebration. As soon as they arrived, they ran into their mothers arms. Soto cried, Momma always looked for you, over and over. The language barrierSoto does not speak Italian, and her daughters dont yet know Spanishdid not matter. The embrace spoke louder than words. So many emotions and very, very happy because we finally found our mother we want to be with her, with the family, all the brothers, all the uncles, all the cousins, everybody! Maria Beatrice said.God heard me, Soto added. For me, this has been like giving birth to my daughters again, but in an adult version. Both Soto and her daughters believe they were deceived, as their Italian adoptive parents were unaware the twins had been taken without consent. Despite nearly half a century of separation, Soto considers herself blessed. Many mothers, she said, are still searching or died without ever reuniting. I fought until I found my girls. Thats why I tell those mothers not to stop fighting. Knock on doors, because now there are more possibilities with technology, she said.
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