Reuniting families separted by the civil war
Several papers had feature stories this week about Suzanne Marie Berghaus, who as a baby had been adopted by parents from Massachusetts, who never knew that she had been forcibly taken from her birth parents by soldiers during El Salvador's civil war. This week Ms. Berghaus was reunited with her birth parents in El Salvador:
The reunion was also chronicled in the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe also had a photo gallery from the reunion.
This story highlights the work of Asociación Pro-Busqueda, the organization, founded by Father Jon Cortina, which works to help Salvadoran families find the thousands of children kidnapped or otherwise "disappeared" during the civil war. From Pro-Busqueda's web site:
Another of Pro-Busqeda's success stories is story of Nelson (or Roberto when he was a baby in El Salvador). Nelson has set up a blog where his families' stories are told called Ana's Miracle. It's dedicated to his mother, a guerilla fighter who was killed and her baby boy placed in an orphanage.
Ms. Berghaus, a 26-year-old from the Boston suburbs, walked into a humble homestead here in rural El Salvador on Tuesday and spotted someone a generation older with a face that resembled her own but whom she did not know. Then, mother and daughter embraced.
Soon after, others came for hugs of their own. Confronted with siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews — strangers all — Ms. Berghaus wiped tears from her cheeks. “Hola,” she said, one of the few Spanish words she knows.
This was a family reunion of a most unusual sort. Wrapped in it was a profound personal story as well as that of El Salvador’s bitter civil war, which long ago came to a formal end but still haunts this country in ways large and small.
At age 14 months, Ms. Berghaus had been plucked from a hammock by a government soldier, one of numerous babies snatched by the military during the war in what was part counterinsurgency strategy and part business venture.
Many of the stolen children were sent to orphanages, where they were adopted internationally in a wartime system that had tinges of compassion and greed. (more from the New York Times)
The reunion was also chronicled in the International Herald Tribune and the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe also had a photo gallery from the reunion.
This story highlights the work of Asociación Pro-Busqueda, the organization, founded by Father Jon Cortina, which works to help Salvadoran families find the thousands of children kidnapped or otherwise "disappeared" during the civil war. From Pro-Busqueda's web site:
Pro-Busqueda was founded on the basis of a simple but brutal question that rips with pain the hearts of the mothers and fathers who live in anguish: Where is my son? Where is my daughter? From these questions the Association has over time evolved its mission to its now solid form of to “Search and locate children who disappeared as a result of the armed conflict in El Salvador, and once found, to promote the reunification and reintegration of the family unit. In this fashion the demands for truth, justice and reparation, which the victims have against the Salvadoran state, come to pass.”
Another of Pro-Busqeda's success stories is story of Nelson (or Roberto when he was a baby in El Salvador). Nelson has set up a blog where his families' stories are told called Ana's Miracle. It's dedicated to his mother, a guerilla fighter who was killed and her baby boy placed in an orphanage.
Comments
Tim, did you realize that in these whole pieces the so-called "journalists" never interview or cite any source other than either the purported victim or Probúsqueda? Do you realize that these staged reunions between sons and parents are extremely well planned in advance, and that there always are major media press from the U.S. at these media events?
It was only three months ago that there was another Probusqueda article in the U.S. media that received wide coverage. Angela Fillingim was reunited with her Salvadorean parents and the press headlined about kidnapping soldiers, etc., etc. It was only towards the bottom of the articles that it was revealed Filingim had been given up voluntarily because of she was the result of an extramarital affair.
Yesterday's hit pieces, likewise, are filled with dark innuendos about government denials, "fattening houses," and profit-making lawyers. I ask any non-salvadorean readers: do U.S. adoption laywers generally work for free?. Did the "journalists" bother to ask the lawyers before sullying their humanitarian work in this way?
Compare the U.S. media coverage of Probúsqueda vs. that of the government's equivalent entity. Did you see this case in your local paper? Did not think so. It would not advance the interests of the weeping-heart left-biased U.S. media.
It was only in December that it was revealed another Salvadorean "news report" from the New York Times was also solely based on an ONG's input, and it was a fake (the link is to Tim's own article). Have you wondered why is it that the NYT insists on reporting on just an ONG's view?
Easy. These stories fit with their lefty weeping-heart worldview. Therefore, there is no need for contrasting or additional sources. These people are not journalists. They are propagandists.
When I met my family for the first time there was no media coverage, it was definitely not staged or planned in advanced. It was not a media event is anyway. It was just me and my family.
Probusqueda is a great organization. With out them I would not know my birth family. I can assure you they did not try to use our reunion for any type of propaganda.
I think this is a story that this absolutely deserves coverage. My family, like many others, was torn apart by the civil and it took many years for those wounds to heal. I'm glad they covered it because it shows that some good can come out of that awful war.
So you can call it "weeping heart" or "propaganda" all you want but I think you are missing the point. Growing up not know your birth family is so hard and Finding your lost loved ones again is an incredible experience that deserved to be celebrated.
Agreed. And Probúsqueda has done a commendable and humanitarian job by helping people come together.
"How is this any way propaganda?"
+ "Journalists" who only recite the press release's talking points
+ "Journalists" who do not cite, interview, or quote any source other than the media event itself.
+ "Journalists" who insinuate adoption lawyers and doctors (!) are in just for the money. How about some innuendo that these "journalists" are in only b/c of the easy, zero-prep, company paid, pre-arranged trip and media event?
+ "Journalists" who print that Probúsqueda's competition is "window dressing" ---when that other institution has solved over 20 cases in just one year of operations.
For the NYT, if you found your relatives through the government, you are window dressing. No "deserved to be celebrated," apparently, in those cases.
There is no doubt that Pro-Busqueda invited the press to El Salvador for a very compelling human interest story. Out of necessity, Pro-Busqueda has had to become expert in public relations, in order to generate the financial and international support necessary to pursue the reunification of families. That support was necessary because the government of El Salvador has done so very little to help the families of children who were separated during the war.
The government's intransigence, is well documented in the proceedings before the Inter-American Court for Human Rights in the case of the Serrano sisters. In fact, the Salvadoran government did not have any commission for uniting families until ordered to do so by the international court. As you point out, the Salvadoran commission has been in existence -- for only one year -- isn't that at least 14 years too late?
Your own "righty" agenda is as apparent in pointing to the La Prensa article from March 15. First, the article has the suspicious timing of coming right before the deadline for compliance with the Serrano court judgment. Second, the case it describes is one where the government does not have to worry about implicating itself -- a family decides to send its 5 year old son overseas to study in Italy and loses touch with him until reunited 21 years later. I am happy for all of these families who have been reunited, whether through Pro-Busqueda or the government's efforts, but don't think you are convincing anybody that El Salvador's government has done anything but drag its feet on this issue.
More importantly, your diatribes against the US-based media, don't deal with the real issue of whether there was kidnapping of children during the war and whether there were adoption practices which ignored the rights of parents, particularly parents in guerilla-controlled areas. Here we have the testimony of eye-witnesses such as the parents of Suzanne Marie or the relatives of the Serrano sisters to kidnappings. A few anecdotes don't tell us whether this was a "policy" or a "corrupt system," but unless the Salvadoran government opens up its records and participates in making the whole truth available, I am not willing to give that regime the benefit of the doubt.
Agreed. We don't know.
Now if the "journalists" would boldly go beyond repeating verbatim the press release, and would do some research, interviews, or would even bother to request government files, then we might find out.
But they choose parroting, so we remain, with just one side of the story, unenlightened.
Request government files? In El Salvador? Salvador does not have a Freedom of Information Act. Technically, government officials are CONSTITUTIONALLY bound to comply with PDDH requests for information. In reality, however, they rarely do so. The chances of a journalist getting government information on his or her own is VERY slim.
I just want to let the father know that his daughter is OK, she now has two children, and give him some fotos and our address. If you think ProBusqueda would help people like me without making hostile assumptions, please let me know. thanks,
Bonnie (bonnie.shepard@gmail.com)