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THE GUARDIAN
July 2024


Chile’s stolen children: a new effort offers hope to Pinochet-era international adoptees


Thousands of children were adopted abroad during the Pinochet dictatorship – many in murky circumstances

Mirjam Hunze grew up in the quiet Dutch town of Lunteren, but always felt too loud, too different, too curious in her strict Protestant household. She was 10 years old when she found out she had been adopted from Chile, sparking a lifelong quest to find her biological family. Hunze’s Chilean birth certificate and passport listed her Dutch adoptive name, with the fields for her biological parents and place of birth conspicuously crossed out.

Hunze’s Dutch adoptive parents – who were unable to conceive biologically – had been given the number of a Dutch woman, Gertie Vogel, who lived in Chile and told them she could secure a baby. They paid an undisclosed amount for Mirjam, who arrived in Amsterdam on 19 October 1972, brought over by a KLM flight attendant.

“My adoption wasn’t done through an agency, but a network of individuals,” said Hunze in the picturesque town of Giethoorn, where she now lives with her partner and children.



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 Hi, I'm Charis McGowan, a British-Caribbean writer based between London, UK, and Santiago, Chile.

I’ve been a regular news stringer in Chile for over eight years, contributing to outlets including The Guardian, Al Jazeera, the BBC, The Telegraph, and more. My work primarily focuses on human rights and social justice. Additionally, I am the former Music Editor-at-Large at gal-dem, where I wrote extensively about music and culture with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean.

I’m open to commissions, collaborations, talks, and projects.
 
Please get in touch via the form. 

Or email me at: charismcgowan at gmail.com