Chile: Virginia Man Stolen as a Baby Hugs His Birth Mother for the First Time in 42 Years

By Rick Martin First Posted: Aug 29, 2023 02:10 AM EDT

Jimmy Lippert Thyden, the Virginia man stolen as a baby has returned to Chile and finally met with his birth mother in a heartwarming scene, reuniting for the first time in 42 years.

"Hola, mamá," he told her.

In a story 42 years in the making, Maria Angelica Gonzalez finally met with her now-adult son face-to-face at her Valdivia, Chile home. He traveled all the way from the US just to meet her.

Gonzalez was tricked by hospital workers that her then-newborn son had died and took him from her arms. The boy somehow ended up in the United States, where he grew up.

Thyden spoke with the Associated Press via a video call and admitted, "It knocked the wind out of me. ... I was suffocated by the gravity of this moment."

He then added, "How do you hug someone in a way that makes up for 42 years of hugs?" The Virginia man was seen telling his long-lost mother, "I love you very much" in Spanish.

Thyden was reportedly born at a hospital in Santiago, Chile, the country's capital. He was a premature birth and was placed in an incubator. After giving birth, his real mother was told to leave the hospital since the baby was in an incubator and she could not interact with him. However, upon her return, Gonzalez was told that her baby had died and the hospital had disposed of his body.

"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," said the Virginia man who now works as a criminal defense attorney representing "people who look like me" who cannot afford a lawyer.

Virginia Man Was Adopted by Unwitting Parents Who Had No Idea He Was Stolen From Chile

The stolen Chilean baby who grew up to be a US lawyer called his case "counterfeit adoption." He was able to learn of his real birth relatives thanks to the help of a Chilean nonprofit called Nos Buscamos.

After he was taken, Thyden was reportedly taken to the US where he was adopted out to unwitting parents who raised the boy in Arlington, Virginia. He grew up thinking he had no other family until he read a story on USA TODAY about a California man who was stolen from birth in Chile. This had the lawyer thinking if the same thing happened to him.

After reaching out to Nos Buscamos, they found his birth family after several weeks. USA TODAY reported that the Virginia man thought he had no relatives in Chile for 42 years. After their reunion, his mother stated in Spanish that meeting him again after over four decades was a miracle from God.

NGO Says Thousands of Babies Were Stolen From Chile During the 1970s

Nos Buscamos has helped Jimmy Lippert Thyden reunite with his birth family back in Chile. However, this is a part of a much bigger fight as they continue to reunite other Chilean-born adoptees with their birth families.

According to News Nation, the NGO has been teaming up with genealogy platform MyHeritage to help families separated by child trafficking in 1970s Chile. The group estimates that thousands of babies taken from Chilean families during that era.

Low-income mothers were targeted and had their babies stolen after birth. This was all part of an elaborate human trafficking operation that involved a network of midwives, doctors, social workers, nuns, priests, and judges. Many of these people got rich off grieving mothers who thought their babies had died.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Man taken from mother at birth reunites in Chile after four decades - NBC News