Much-discussed Dutch nun kidnapped Alejandro as a baby from Chile: “Don’t label her as a bad person”

But Alejandro wasn’t dead. He was taken to a children’s home by the now 89-year-old nun who is nicknamed ‘sister Gertrudis’ in the Chilean media. Three months later he was adopted from the home by a Dutch couple.

Alejandro has been living in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel for 43 years now. At the age of 13 he found out that he was adopted. He grew up thinking that his mother would give him up for adoption because she would not have the financial means to care for him. “When I found out, I went wild. I no longer went to school and you name it. I lost myself,” he tells NH News.

On the loose

Alejandro wondered if he belonged in his adoptive family: “If you are not adopted, you know exactly from whom you got your language skills, for example. You look alike. I was very musical, but I didn’t know who I got it from. I really radically turned against my adoptive family at the time, because I really wondered, ‘What am I doing here?'”.

Questions about his background became a big part of his existence. He became disoriented, smoked a lot of marijuana and lived on the streets for a large part. In his own words, the connection with his adoptive family was completely gone.

Meeting

Alejandro has finally put a new spin on his life. He went to Chile to look for his mother. Salient detail: it was precisely the nun who kidnapped him at the time that brought him into contact with her. “It’s crazy to say, but without her I would never have known who my mother is. I am not in favor of labeling her as a bad person. I wanted openness.”

At the meeting, his mother told him that it had been stolen and that she did not want to lose it at all. Alejandro’s world came crashing down. The adoption documents he had turned out to be completely wrong. Everything he had accepted as true turned out to be a lie.

Hospital visit after complications

After that meeting, Alejandro also found out in what circumstances he was born. “I am from the south of Chile and my mother was 14 when she had me. I was born in the house where she lived, which was remote from the nearest village. Due to heavy blood loss, my mother was taken to the hospital. I was eventually pronounced dead.”

Little Alejandro was actually taken to a children’s home, after which he was adopted by a Dutch couple. According to Alejandro, this was one of many ways to take a child away from its mother. “My mother was 14 at the time and therefore one of the perfect victims. Girls of that age and from such an environment often do not know what their rights are, for example because they cannot read and write.”

Illegal hired

Alejandro is one of thousands of babies illegally put up for adoption. Between 1960 and 2004, an estimated 20,000 Chilean babies were illegally adopted in Europe. So also in the Netherlands.

Many of them have questions. Upon returning home, Alejandro decided to set up a foundation called Chilean Adoptees Worldwide. With the foundation he helps adopted children in their search for their biological parents. This has already helped several hundred people, but reuniting adopted children is not the only thing he is concerned with. “We also try to contribute to criminal investigations into illegal adoption, for example in the form of reporting, providing information or providing adoption papers.”

It is important for Alejandro that such practices as in Chile will no longer occur. “We shouldn’t think that moving a child from one side of the world to the other with the wrong genetic information is a good thing just because we want a baby,” says Alejandro. With this, Alejandro hopes to create more awareness about (illegal) adoption and also to draw the attention of politicians. “This has to stop.”