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When I was already an adult, I dreamt that I had an identical twin.
I woke up curious, thinking,
"It'd be so cool to have an identical twin."
Then the unthinkable happened.
Something I wouldn't believe could happen if it hadn't happened to me.
I saw the two photos on my phone and was very shocked.
I mean, they were the same. "I can't believe it!"
"He looks just like me."
Everything took a turn, I didn't understand what was going on.
At some point, I thought my life was a lie.
It was like discovering a double life.
Do you believe in soap operas?
Because after this, your life will change.
No one knows the pain you live with.
I didn't have the right to change people's lives.
It's not easy to wake up one day and learn your life is a lie.
I really didn't know which side of the mirror I was on.
THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS
I'm Jorge Bernal.
I was born in Bogotá on December 21st, 1988.
I worked at a hydrocarbon company,
where I had a friend named Laura.
One day Laura said to me, "Hi. How are you?"
"I saw you in my area." I asked, "When?"
She said, "Last weekend."
I said, "But I wasn't in Kennedy." She was like, "For real, I saw you."
All this started…
JORGE'S CO-WORKER
…because of a company barbecue that Yaneth and I were going to.
They asked if I could buy the meat. Yaneth told me, "Don't worry."
"My boyfriend's cousin has a butcher shop and he can help us."
"He will give us excellent meat at a great price." Okay.
So we go into the butcher shop, and William was preparing our order.
WILLIAM'S FRIEND
Laura was shocked to see William.
I saw the butcher and he looked exactly like my colleague, Jorge.
I was shocked.
"Yaneth, I work with him!" I said, "Hi!" I was trying to say hi to the butcher.
He looked at me with a blank expression.
She left thinking it was me, and that I didn't want to say hi.
I always assumed that Jorge was embarrassed to say hello,
since I'd recognized him while he was working at the butcher's.
That's what I thought.
She kept insisting.
She actually said to me,
"Hey, are you embarrassed to say you work at a butcher shop?"
I said, "I wouldn't be embarrassed, but I don't work at a butcher's."
"It's not me."
I didn't think much of it. I mean, I didn't believe it yet.
He told me he had a brother. Not identical, but a twin.
So I was like, "Oh, so he's the guy I saw."
And he said, "I don't think so, we don't really look alike."
I kept bothering him for a long time about his twin.
We also made speculations.
At some point he said to me, "What if I have a lost sibling somewhere?"
"A sibling my dad never told us existed."
Some time later, Yaneth came to work at the company.
I didn't greet her, because I didn't know her.
But I noticed that sometimes when I arrived,
she would stare at me.
I saw Jorge at the company, and I said, "Oh my God!"
I actually said to Laura,
"He does look a lot like William, but he's clearly not William."
I don't know if that… It was like a dream.
And all of a sudden, it sparked my intrigue.
I knew William was born in December.
So, I asked Laura, "Do you know when Jorge's birthday is?"
We have a birthday board at work.
I told her, "I'll get that one. Super easy."
I went and looked at the board and sure enough,
he was also born in December.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
DECEMBER 21 - JORGE
So I said, "I think there is something strange going on here."
Then one day, Yaneth said to me,
"Hey, I have a picture of William, from the butcher's shop."
"Could you show it to Jorge and see what he says?"
She comes to me, hands behind her back,
with her phone in her hand, like, "Remember what I told you?"
"About the guy I thought was you?"
"It definitely wasn't you."
"But are you ready to see your doppelgänger?"
"I'll show you the photo." He was like, "Let's see my twin."
When he saw him, he was…
He was completely… I mean, shocked.
Obviously I was surprised,
because there really was someone who looked just like me. Identical.
He started asking our coworkers passing by,
"How do I look in this pic?"
And they'd say, "You look good. Yes. Great." Cool.
Let's ask someone else. "How do I look in this photo?"
So he was like, "Do you realize that no one can tell that he's not me?"
I said to a friend,
"Look at this pic, tell me what you think."
He looked and said, "What? It's you and some other guys."
I said, "That's the funny thing, that's not me in the picture."
He went back and double-checked, and said to me,
"But he looks just like you."
After a while I went downstairs and asked her,
"Could you get me his name, to see if I can look him up somewhere?"
"Facebook or something?"
She said, "Look up William Cañas Velasco."
I started to look for him and at him, and to check picture by picture.
And I was quiet, looking at a picture. I'd review it completely.
I found some photos where he didn't have the mustache I saw in the first photo.
He looked just like me.
So that's when… I started to freak out.
Also, like, "Something is happening here."
When I thought that I'd seen everything, and nothing else could happen…
I came across the photo that really changed everything.
The one that turned this whole story around.
A girl I used to have lunch with at the office wrote me,
"We're looking at the pictures of your boyfriend's cousin,
he looks just like Jorgito."
And I said, "Really? You know something funny?"
"William has a twin that doesn't look anything like him."
She said, "Same with Jorgito."
And I said, "Do you have a picture of Jorge with his twin?"
"I'll send one of William with his twin."
When I see both pictures on my cell phone, I'm like,
"Oh, my God. I mean, they're two sets of twins and they're…"
-Mixed up. -"They're mixed up."
There wasn't just one problem.
-There were two. -But two.
One problem, bigger than we thought.
I immediately sent them to Laura and said,
"It's two sets of twins that have been swapped."
I was shocked. It was something unbelievable.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing,
because in that photo was someone identical to my brother.
So I kept staring at that picture and I was like, "Who is he?"
And one of the comments said,
"Brothers, joined at the hip." But it said "brothers."
Then I was like, "Something is happening here."
"What is this? A parallel world? A mirror world?"
I don't know. I felt very confused.
It even crossed my mind that,
"My life is a farce," or, "Something's going on."
Because I didn't know who they were. I mean, I was confused and shocked.
And we started asking a series of questions,
of things that might indicate that they are siblings.
Twins.
That they've been separated for some reason.
Then, of course, we start by matching the birthdates.
But some things didn't match, like the birthplace.
They were born in Santander.
But I didn't understand. How were they born in Santander?
YANETH: WAS JORGE BORN IN SANTANDER? LAURA: BOGOTÁ, I THINK
YANETH: YOU SURE?
And Laura said to me, "No, he wasn't born in Santander."
And I was like, "We failed. No."
So, I asked my boyfriend,
"Hey, do you know if they were brought to Bogotá for some reason?"
He said, "I think so. I'll ask William."
Enough, Conchita.
My name is William Cañas Velasco.
Yaneth used to visit the butcher's shop where I worked.
I began to analyze and ask myself the same questions that Yaneth asked me.
We began investigating,
because I always believed that I was born in Santander,
and grew up in Santander.
It turns out I was born in Santander, then brought to Bogotá.
I called my aunt, and asked,
"Auntie, do you know which hospital I was brought to in Bogotá?"
Then she tells me,
"Yes, they brought you to Materno Infantil."
MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
Yaneth got the information about the other twins, where they were born.
They were born in Santander,
but it turned out that one of them had become ill while in Santander,
since they were born at seven months.
So one of the twins was brought to Bogotá very ill,
and arrived at the same exact hospital, the Materno Infantil.
So when we learned that, we said,
"No, that's it. It clearly happened at the hospital."
"Nothing else to do."
I went home. Carlos was there.
He was there watching TV. I arrived.
I'm Carlos Alberto Bernal Castro. I'm 34.
I was on the phone when Jorge arrived from college,
he said to hang up, we needed to talk.
And I know Jorge is a bit… Not a bit. He's a big prankster.
He is a big joker,
so I asked what he needed to talk about, that I was busy.
I was like, "How are you, Carlos? Good?"
"Do you believe in soap operas?" And he said to me, "What happened?"
All serious, like he is.
And I said, "What happened? I mean, be clear."
"Do you believe in soap operas?" He said, "No."
I said, "I'm gonna show you something, you tell me what you think."
I said, "What? Jorge, stop bothering me. I'm busy, tell me."
"Because after this, your life will change."
I said it laughing, but deep down I was serious.
I knew what I was saying to him.
I opened Facebook and I showed him William's profile.
I showed him the photos, he put his face in his hands,
he laughed, he took it as a joke. He said, "That guy looks like you."
I said, "What do you mean a double?"
"I don't know what could've happened, if Dad had another son on the side."
I said, "I still haven't shown you the best picture."
We got to a picture where he was with another person,
with another guy,
and I was just shocked.
As soon as he saw that picture, he stopped laughing.
He asked me, "Where did you get that? Who are they?"
The guy who looked like my brother was in a photo
with a guy who looked just like me.
That's when the fun was over, the joke was over, and I went to my room.
Once there I started to investigate.
I got very nostalgic.
I started to cry.
I went back to Jorge's room. I hugged him. I told him I loved him very much.
A gesture that was very unusual on my part.
I'd only do that while drunk.
For the first time, I told him I loved him, sober.
He told me, "Stop. Let it be."
"Don't start investigating. Don't do any of that."
"Let it go."
I did deduce immediately that if someone was swapped, it had been me.
Physically, my brother looks a lot like my sister,
he looks a lot like my mother, and at the same time,
I was always different from them.
Clearly, my biggest fear was to think
that my family from Bogotá would reject me.
That they would say, "You're no longer our child here."
"You're not Luz Marina's son. There's nothing for you here."
There were hard questions to ask,
with answers that were even harder to accept.
It wasn't easy to face
that I was not the brother of who I thought,
nor was I the son of the person I most admired in this world.
Deep down, I knew I'd keep investigating.
He didn't want to, but I wanted to get to the bottom of the matter,
and find out what was going on.
At times, Laura and I thought,
"What if this thing ends in a really tragic situation?"
"Like, one of them commits suicide."
So, considering all that, for us, it was… terrible. Really.
"When did I get involved in this? I shouldn't have asked anything."
"I shouldn't be involved."
Because we didn't know what was going to happen.
We didn't know how they'd react when they finally look at each other.
The families! I thought a lot about their mothers.
I told my husband, like I was gossiping, "Imagine this happening to you."
He said, "How dare you say they were swapped?"
I said, "Look at the evidence, and the photos."
He insisted that I not do anything, that something bad could happen.
That I could change people's lives and I had no right to do that.
Yes, he was right, clearly. But no, I… I went on.
After the second picture, I decided to call Yaneth,
and ask her for the phone number of the guy who looked identical to me.
I vividly remember that
when the phone started ringing, I didn't even know how I'd talk to him.
My heart was beating so fast,
'cause I knew on the other side was someone like me,
but I didn't know how he'd speak, what he would say to me.
I knew it was him. I picked up.
I said, "What's up, man? How are you doing?"
When I heard his voice, for a moment I thought
we weren't identical.
I felt I was talking to someone other than myself.
He spoke very softly, like, "Hello, how are you?"
"I'm William, the guy from the butcher's. They showed me your pictures."
And all of a sudden I was like, "Hey, where can we meet?"
"There are already many coincidences going on,
and I want to meet with you to see what is going on."
I said, "Of course! Where?"
"Lourdes church, okay? Know where it is?"
"Yes. I know where it is."
I said, "Okay. Does evening work? Around 9:00 p.m.?"
"Yes, sir."
And that's when he told me that he could meet me at night.
I asked, "Are you coming alone?" He said, "Yes, I'm coming alone."
I said, "I'm going alone too." I told him that.
I said, "I'll call Carlos and tell him that I'm going to meet them,
maybe he will come with me."
I said, "What are you doing? I'm going to meet them today. Come."
I remember one of the things he said was, "I told you to let that go."
But well… I was already going to meet with them.
He said he was going to meet one of them, and asked if I wanted to go.
I said, "No, I can't. I'm working on my thesis. I can't go."
It's not that I couldn't, I just didn't want to.
He said, "I'm not going, you shouldn't either."
I was like, "Come on. Nothing's going to happen."
"No. I'm not going. I have things to do and I'm busy."
When he decided to actually meet them,
I didn't want to, I didn't want to face a new reality.
I didn't want to face that situation.
I was too afraid of rejection.
As he insisted on meeting them,
I obviously couldn't keep him from his decisions,
so I said to him, "I trust you, just be careful, and keep me informed."
I am Wilber Cañas Velasco. I was born in Vélez, Santander.
I grew up in La Paz with William.
He used to say that we were identical twins.
William worked in Kennedy.
He called and asked me to come there, said he needed me urgently.
I got to the shop. I greeted him.
Then he showed me a picture of a guy identical to William.
And next to him there was another guy,
identical to me. And a girl.
All I could say was, "William, you're my brother until death,
and nothing will change that."
That's all I could say at that moment.
Being a twin, besides the physical resemblance,
is like having a blood double, a double in thinking, in taste.
And I never felt that with Wilber.
We were always fighting.
Our parents tried to dress us in the same clothes.
But we weren't like each other. We never understood each other.
When we'd fight, inside, I'd feel like,
"I want to have someone identical to me."
I used to feel like,
my twin should be like me.
Jorge and I had different tastes. We didn't like to share.
He loved basketball, I love soccer.
He likes hip-hop and rap, I like rock.
So, little by little, we started going on different paths.
I called Wilber to tell him,
"Wilber, I set up a meeting with the guy who's identical to me."
Then he responded, "William, you're my brother until death,
but I'm not coming with you."
And I said, "Even if you're not coming, I'm going."
When he saw I was about to leave,
he said, "Wait. I'm coming."
"I worry about you going alone with so much insecurity."
"It could be a set-up."
It could be a set-up to rob him, you never know.
I am very cautious about that.
We got a cab and headed towards Lourdes Square.
Obviously, we were talking about it the whole taxi ride.
What it was going to be like, the guy I was going to see.
The route to Lourdes church felt like an eternity to me.
It seemed very far because I was very pensive, nervous, and worried.
And William was talking nonstop. Like a motormouth, he wouldn't shut up.
I thought, "We don't know who the guy is. Who knows if it's him?"
When I was walking to Lourdes,
I ran into a very good friend of mine from college.
I greeted him.
I said, "Dude, this thing happened. Want to come?"
And I began to tell him the story.
I'd never explained the story as succinctly as I did then in three blocks.
Well, he came with me.
So we arrived to Lourdes Square.
LOURDES SQUARE BOGOTÁ
We were standing, talking, and I'll never forget something he said.
It was something like, "Oh, he's coming, I can see him."
"Here you come." And we both burst out laughing.
And I kept asking my friend quietly, "Do I look like that?"
He said, "Yes, you do."
"Do I walk like that?" "You're the same."
And I realized William came with his brother.
William did not get there on his own.
He went with Yaneth, and Brayan, the cousin.
Somehow I was… I was very surprised to see him.
And I said, "You brought the other one." Meaning, Wilber.
He said, "You didn't come alone either." And we laughed.
Look at that.
William has lighter skin.
Yes, he's lighter.
-From the cold. -The cold.
-This is incredible. God! -Yes, exactly.
Extraordinary.
-What? -He looks like William when…
-It's just he was… -The hair…
He had a haircut today.
-Otherwise… -It was long.
-Did you? -But I think if I hadn't cut it, I'd be…
With a beard, like this.
Well, when I saw that person who looked just like me, I was speechless.
I greeted him, and it was not so much an exchange of words,
but more of an exchanging of emotions.
When I looked at Jorge, I laughed.
It made me laugh a lot because he was just like William physically.
It was a laugh, a guffaw, like Carlos's. I'll never forget that.
No, I see you and it's like seeing my brother.
-They laugh the same! -He's missing glasses.
I saw the resemblance he had to Carlos, and that was what shocked me the most.
Because you don't see yourself, you don't have a mirror 24-hours-a-day
to know how you act, how you gesture, how you move your hands.
I can't believe it.
On the other hand, I'd been watching Carlos for 25 years.
I knew every move Carlos made, and I saw him making them.
I'm not sure if what happened was better or just looking at him on the street.
That was what made me a bit more freaked out.
Somehow it got my attention, more than seeing William himself.
Oh, God.
And I keep looking at him.
There it was, the missing piece,
so we could finally understand what had happened.
Because at one point William said,
"When I was a newborn, they brought me here to Bogotá."
You weren't brought here, they took you.
-What blood type are you? -You're the same.
We were laughing.
I remember William and I took a picture together.
I remember Wilber said, "Now I want to meet my twin," something like that.
At some point they asked, "So where is Carlos?"
I said, "He's busy at home."
I didn't say that he was unwell.
I got curious and said, "I really want to meet Carlos."
"Can we go?"
Jorge calls Carlos saying, "We're coming."
I said, "Why are they coming here? We didn't agree to that."
"I don't want to meet them or know anything about it."
Then the doorbell rings.
I said, "Damn. Fuck, they're here."
Jorge knocked on the door, and Carlos didn't want to open it.
Yeah, there.
From inside he laughed and said, "No, I'm not opening it."
Who's going to do it then? Come on, open up!
I didn't want to open the door and face that reality.
He keeps laughing. Oh, my God!
No way!
When I finally got to meet Carlos, when I saw him,
I did see a reflection of Wilber.
In the way he laughs,
how he grabbed his head in surprise at what was happening.
I was going to wear a gray hoodie. I almost did.
I was shocked.
I have a brother like me. Like seeing myself in a mirror.
So there was a bit of… laughter, jokes, nerves, discomfort.
You could even say happiness, right?
Because finding someone who
is physically the same as you, well, it's curious, isn't it?
And even more so at the age we were, at 25 years old.
I felt cheated, because, well,
I didn't grow up with my brother.
I was told my brother was William.
And then after 25 years, a person that I've never seen appears,
and he's my twin?
I was kind of sad,
'cause I would've liked to have grown up with him,
with my brother, my own brother, with Carlos.
But to have grown up with William too.
Because even if William is not my blood brother,
he grew up with me and I love him very much, like a brother.
Here come the monsters.
-How are you, cutie? -Smile, Wilber.
-All natural. -Now what?
-You're here, brother. -I'll borrow him for a second.
-Of course. -Of course.
Talent arriving.
Handsome dude.
After our reunion, we started to talk,
and we wanted to go public about what happened to us.
And we said, well, it's time to look for a TV network,
because I know they'd like to film with us.
And we managed to film the story with Caracol, on Séptimo Día.
It was the first time our story was told on TV.
It was, without a doubt, one of the most unforgettable stories
we've ever told on Séptimo Día.
At some point, in the NICU of the Materno Infantil Hospital,
were accidentally delivered…
I am Juan Guillermo Mercado. I'm a journalist.
I am a reporter who is always looking for unusual stories…
JOURNALIST
…chronicles, human stories, investigative stories.
I always wind up involved with stories about reunions.
I remember it as if it were yesterday.
The show's producer and director said,
"Juan, there's a story about two sets of twins swapped at birth
who found each other 25 years later."
I said, "Well, this is happening in the land of magical realism,
but here we could say that reality has surpassed fiction."
-Hello. Welcome! -Thank you.
-Hi, Gigi. -Hello. Thank you very much. Jorge.
-Carlos. -Carlos, we started on the wrong foot.
I saw a picture of him with his brother,
and he looked just like my brother.
Like the audience, I started to laugh
when I saw the picture of Wilber, my twin.
Then he stopped laughing, when he saw the picture.
The joke was over.
"WE WERE SEPARATED BY MISTAKE"
You guys are used to this.
You two with glasses were raised together as twins, but you are not twins.
Yes, fraternal twins is what they'd call us here.
Of course. It's a beautiful mess.
DECEMBER 1988
MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL - BOGOTÁ
We knew two of the twins were born in Bogotá, at Materno Infantil…
DELIVERY ROOM
…and the other two at Vélez Hospital, in Santander.
We looked for their civil registries and medical records.
We found records for Luz Marina Castro, the Bogotá twins' mother.
They were difficult to get, because the hospital was shut down.
The hospital was closed, it was even in ruins.
What we found in those medical records was that they were born premature,
that they had indeed been born at seven months.
And we confirmed that with the other pair, their mother, Ana Delina,
had given birth at Vélez Hospital on December 22nd at 10:00 p.m.
You could say that in 1988,
the distance between the places where the two sets of twins were born,
in Santander and Bogotá, could be between 12 and 14 hours by road.
VÉLEZ REGIONAL HOSPITAL
One of the Santander twins was sick.
On Saturday morning, around 8:00 a.m. the doctor told me,
"One of the babies is sick."
SANTANDER MOTHER
I said, "What's up with the baby?"
He said, "He won't stop crying, he hasn't had a bowel movement."
He said, "We must send him to Bogotá."
The doctor asked, "Can anyone here go with him?"
My mom arrived and he sent the baby with her.
The sick baby was moved by his grandma all the way to Bogotá.
But while he was hospitalized, he was taken care of by an aunt.
And on Sunday, my sister, who was in Bogotá,
went to visit him.
Then they released the baby to my sister.
She sent him back with my mom.
She gives him back to Grandma,
and Grandma brings him back, after being hospitalized, to Santander.
They gave her the wrong one.
And she didn't realize it. Of course. They were newborns.
She received her little baby, took it to Santander,
gave it to the mommy, and the mommy didn't realize it either.
The baby, who was born in Bogotá,
was moved to Santander and baptized there as William Cañas Velasco.
And on the other hand, the baby who'd been born in Santander
had been moved to Bogotá, and left with this family, in this city,
and they baptized him as Carlos Alberto Bernal.
It's not easy to wake up one day knowing that your life has been a lie.
Feeling that you lived someone else's life,
or that someone else lived what you should have lived.
What was the psychological impact
on twins whose lives had been swapped?
And their siblings?
And who was legally responsible for what had happened?
We made an initial analysis of the situation…
PUBLIC ATTORNEY
…and we observed that there were indeed some unanswered questions here.
Because it's not just a psychological issue or an emotional issue,
it is also a legal issue.
We are our parents, our family environments, our histories.
And so, in this case, they were removed, against their will,
and forced to inherit circumstances that were not their own.
The birth of these children took place at a health facility,
and they should have received the care that a delivery should,
in this case, the delivery of twins, and they didn't get it.
REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA JUDICIAL BRANCH OF PUBLIC POWER
Perhaps the most important question we asked ourselves
was if it was possible to find out what happened at the hospital.
How did this big baby swap happen?
HOSPITALIZATION ROOMS 238 TO 222
Since it's a tertiary care facility, many babies were born there.
There was a lot of work.
Many patients would come from all over the country.
NURSE AT MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL
Sometimes we had to put two babies in one crib, or two in one incubator.
Also, when twins are born, they're marked, "Twin 1" or "Twin 2," and "Child of…"
The baby from Bogotá, who could have gone to pediatrics here,
was Twin 2, according to the medical record.
It could be that
one of the babies' bracelets fell off
and it wasn't reported.
I don't really know
what could have happened with the swap of the twins.
Part of what has been said here is that the swap was not intentional.
It appears there was some external circumstance, some accident.
I understand that one of the babies was born sick…
NURSE AT MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL
…he needed oxygen.
So that baby was the one that was transferred to pediatrics.
The other stayed with the mother.
The bracelet could have fallen off,
but a nurse, or the doctor, or whoever is there, should say,
"This baby's bracelet fell off, and there are two here, so who is who?"
There's no other way it could have happened.
I mean, I don't think a big swap like that has ever been done on purpose.
Never.
How many babies have they received over the years at an institution this big?
How many times has this happened?
How many people in the same conditions, and they don't know about it?
And so, we want to officially say,
that none of us present here were involved in this big swap.
It happened and… Unfortunately it happened.
It really can't be denied that it happened at Materno.
In this specific case, part of the problem, let's say legally,
is nobody wants to respond.
The entities that have defended the suit,
all of them, in one way or another have said,
"This has nothing to do with me."
I think it was Christmastime. It was party season.
There wasn't much order.
The medical staff was a bit distracted, because it was Christmastime.
As a result of Juan Guillermo's investigation,
I realized that I was not born in Santander,
but here, in Bogotá.
And that is where the swap occurred. I was taken from Bogotá to Santander.
And that's where I grew up.
In a place, well… where I shouldn't have grown up.
He was different.
I never acknowledged it.
Why he didn't look like the others.
Well, I kept taking care of him until-- until he grew up.
Until we discovered the truth.
And I'm still taking care of him. I still take care of him.
Then I asked about the parents.
Jorge tells me, "Well, my mother…
she passed away four, five years ago."
He said, "My father didn't live with us, but he also passed away."
Not having met my mother from Bogotá… well, it was difficult for me,
because I would've at least liked a greeting, a hug from her, because…
well, she was my blood.
For me, the hardest part was knowing
that the person I most admired in my life, was not my biological mother.
That the human being to whom you owe everything you are,
isn't your mom, doesn't share your blood.
There's emotional shock, ego shock as well.
It's not easy when, from one moment to the next,
everything you thought you were,
in one way or another, isn't yours.
You feel you've stolen a life.
That you've even stolen someone's happiness.
I locked myself up, like,
in a world where only I lived, where only I existed.
I tried to clarify many questions, many conundrums.
What would've happened if I'd grown up there?
What would've happened if my mom had met them?
What would her reaction to me have been? Would she have accepted William?
William and Carlos were deeply and seriously affected psychologically
by the situation.
And Carlos, who had grown up in Bogotá, but was born in Santander,
did not want to acknowledge his rural origins.
The place where they grew up is a rural place,
where armed groups have historically been present,
both guerrillas and militias, all financed by drug trafficking.
Going to Santander was also very complicated,
because almost nobody knew the internal battles I had to deal with
to even be able to smile at someone I didn't know,
or hug someone who did not inspire any kind of affection in me.
He didn't want to go to La Paz. He didn't want to visit his mother.
He didn't want to recognize her as his biological mother.
-Anita. -Welcome. How are you?
-Welcome, son. -I told you I'd come.
When he first went to Santander, he found it too remote.
He wasn't comfortable there.
Maybe because of a lack of trust with my other siblings,
with my mom and dad.
A very delicate issue, because for 25 years
he was convinced that his family, his mother and father were here in Bogotá,
and when he found out that that was not so,
well, that was very complicated for him.
CARMELO AND ANA DELINA SANTANDER PARENTS
He won't call me "Mom," but I understand.
He grew up with another family.
He won't call me Mom.
Same as William.
If his mom were still alive, he wouldn't call her mom either.
I understand that.
He can accept things. He can accept that my mom is his mom, but…
it's hard for him because he had a mother here in Bogotá who raised him.
And when Mrs. Luz Marina died, he suffered a lot.
He felt the loss of his mother.
We all understand that,
because parents aren't who made you, but who raised you.
Then, seeing another woman as his mom, even if it is his real mother,
is hard for him to adapt to and accept.
William was in pain.
It was a pain almost like mourning that he was starting to experience
at not knowing his biological mother.
He was suffering a lot.
He said, "Well, the others, maybe Carlos, did get to see his parents,
and know his biological parents, that is, my adoptive parents. I didn't."
What is it, William?
Nothing, I'm just venting. I'm the most affected by all this, but…
No, don't feel like that.
I'm crying because I couldn't meet their parents as my own parents.
It wasn't possible, but…
But God's will is like that. All is well.
It hit William very hard.
When he found out and he knew that his real parents had passed away,
he'd be served food and wouldn't eat it.
William became very sad,
knowing that he'd grown up in a family that was not his own.
Obviously, he started to take inventory.
Like, "Of course, I don't look like any of my siblings."
"I don't belong to this family."
William, do you feel the impact of this has changed your life?
It's not that I cry
'cause I feel like I'm not their sibling or they're not my siblings anymore,
it's more about the adrenaline I feel.
I remember very well that for two or three days I couldn't sleep.
And it was also difficult when the family, people close to me, started to find out.
They'd come talk to me about it, like…
"Is it true you're not really Mrs. Ana from Santander's son?"
"You have another mom?"
For the aunt who took the baby from the clinic,
it was terrible. Obviously she thought,
"This was my fault. I took a baby that wasn't my sister's."
"So this is all my fault." She also started feeling terrible.
My God, when she told me that news, I cried. I cried to death.
I thought, "My Chinillo will toss me aside."
"William will leave."
That was what I thought, that he'd leave us alone.
Look, Carlos, these are all my siblings, right?
Those are yours, but they're mine too, right?
-We all… -Yes, bro.
When I learned what happened, it was really tough for me.
Alcira, Wilber, Efraín, Edgar, and…
-Ancelmo. -Ancelmo.
I thought that I might lose him.
ELDEST SANTANDER BROTHER
That he might go, he might leave, and…
Well, I would've lost the brother who was the most understanding,
and loving with me.
We were very close.
They say there is another brother. What is he like?
I was thinking, what if he is a… maybe he's a man of the street, or a con.
I thought so much about that.
-No, these are tears of happiness. -Thank you.
I never thought…
-Jorgito, come, you're my brother too. -Come.
Seeing that, at that moment, was difficult for me.
I didn't want anything bad happening to anyone.
I mean, it was really unexpected.
All the information came to us bit by bit, it just kind of happened.
I didn't want to get to the point of someone getting hurt.
So, seeing how William was so sad, his family too,
people were feeling guilty.
I really said to Laura at one point, like, "We shouldn't have done this."
Ma'am, I know it's very emotional for you to hear all this.
What has been your experience?
Well, at the beginning it was very sad
to know that my son was…
I had raised someone who was not my son.
Of all my children, I loved him the most.
Because he adored me very much.
He was always with me. Wherever I went, he went.
One way or another, she gets sad, she starts crying.
I tell her, "Mommy, don't cry."
"Or cry and rest because if you do cry, you'll want rest."
"But don't think that I'm going to another family now."
I tell her, "No, Mom. I'm here."
"And I'm going to do whatever needs to be done here,
and we are going to work to move forward."
"If I was taking care of you, looking out for you at 50% before,
now I'm going to double or triple how much I take care of you."
What do you feel?
My heart is racing.
When I met them, Anita hugged me. She prayed for me.
I can say that I was calm because I'd had a mother all my life.
I had a great one.
Want to introduce them, Wilber?
Carlos, these are my parents. Your parents.
When Carmelo hugged me, there were mixed emotions,
because for the first time in my life I felt a fatherly embrace.
Carmelo was a man of about 1.90 meters. Ex-military.
Seeing such a strong person
break down emotionally for the first time over his son…
May God bless you, my precious son.
May the Lord bless you and be with you, my precious and adored son.
Someone once asked me if I missed out on having a father.
I said, "You can't miss what you've never had."
Right? But feeling a fatherly embrace, for me, it was something new.
It was a novel sensation, it was a unique sensation.
It took 25 years to know what a fatherly embrace was.
And that also completely touched me.
Many people say there's no mother like your own,
while a father… We know how the saying goes.
For the first time, I felt a nice fatherly embrace.
And it was something very… Spiritually, it was very fulfilling.
Don't cry. This is God's will, okay?
Though we've been very different since childhood, since adolescence,
he's my brother.
At that moment, when I shook William's hand,
I felt that charisma in him, that good energy.
Then I saw myself more, and I felt that click at once.
I felt like, besides discovering the truth,
I found my real brother.
We hugged each other goodbye and I said, "I love you so much." He said it too.
That was the first day we met.
I saw Carlos's reaction.
Carlos sometimes wears the mask of a tough guy,
but I know that inside he is fragile sometimes.
And I realized that he, somehow,
was falling apart, he was feeling bad,
because he thought he was losing me.
I was suddenly afraid that, knowing how Jorge is,
he would want to establish a relationship like he never had with me.
Because of our preferences, our priorities, because of our passions.
Then I compared myself to a little child who has a toy and doesn't use it,
and someone takes it away.
I didn't want that, to lose my brother.
I was afraid that he'd rather be with William than with me.
That he'd say, "You're not my brother anymore."
"I live what I live with William, and you can't replace him."
Good afternoon.
-How are you? -Good. Oh, you're identical!
Right.
You look just alike.
They always tried to give me the same haircut as my brother,
but we didn't look alike.
-You too, Jorge? -What?
Did they try to give you the same hair as Carlos?
Of course.
In fact, my mom would take us to see trainees,
and it was easiest to just shave us bald,
then it would be longer before we needed to go back.
When we grew up, we each had our own hairstyle,
that's when the differentiation from Carlos started.
Each establishing our own personality.
But as kids, you'd go to the…
To the free haircuts with beginners.
What? Do we look alike, or not?
-Identical. -Two peas in a pod.
Yes.
William and I started to share, to dress alike.
Many things that with Carlos--
If I'd asked him, he probably would've said yes,
but I didn't ask because he was so serious, so I just didn't.
Cortito passes to Tobón, centers it… Goal!
Carlos began to greet me more seriously. More roughly.
Because he felt bad, he was hurt inside.
I wanted him to feel better. I was thinking, analyzing.
I said, "What can I do to make him feel better?"
"To make him understand that I still care for him, that I love him?"
Because he was still my brother.
Nothing better than putting him next to the tattoo of my mother.
I had reserved the space for a tattoo of my sister,
but because of what happened, I wanted to give that spot to Carlos.
I wanted him to feel that he was still part of my world.
The moment he saw that tattoo, he understood,
and somehow his attitude changed.
And I also feel that it helped him, in a way, to accept William.
When I met William, let's say there were some differences,
there were some disagreements on both sides.
I was talking about things I knew nothing about.
I didn't put myself in William's shoes.
"You grew up in the city, you have privileges."
"You couldn't grow up in the country."
That growing up in the country would've been too hard for me.
That happened to both of us.
With time, we learned to listen and understand
that each of us grew up with pros and cons.
Our relationship is very good now.
I'm his son's godfather. We travel together, just us.
The relationship is very pleasant.
And I have no biological or civil tie to William.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you…
Happy birthday, happy birthday Happy birthday to you…
I went all the way to their homes.
I went to the butcher shop. Went to Carlos and Jorge's house.
And I began to clearly see
that they belong to two very different settings in Colombia.
One pair had been raised in Bogotá.
At the end of the 1980s, when the swap occurred,
that city was a difficult, violent place.
Bogotá was one of the flanks of the war.
It may have been the darkest period that the capital went through.
A city that, of course, had easy access to education, to healthcare,
but a city where people were fighting hunger on a daily basis.
And that was the case of the twins from Bogotá,
who lived in a family core,
where the mother, head of the household, did just that.
She went to work every day to provide for her family,
those two boys, and an older sister.
It was a humble home.
No luxuries.
But yes, I would say there was a lot of love.
My mother was known to say,
"I don't need a man to raise them, I can do it alone."
"It's hard. I've had to work in general services at times."
"At times I've had to figure out how to get you to bed
with at least a panela water and some bread."
She always took care of us by herself.
She raised three children.
Always with the mentality,
and her nature, saying we needed studies so we could earn a living.
That is true feminism.
Just by example, she taught us to be human, to be people.
If, after coming home from cleaning houses,
she had to go take care of cars, or to wash clothes
in order to provide for our basic needs, she would do it.
Though we didn't have a father with us, she'd try to do what was best for us.
She was always very loving.
Very kind.
Though my mother had nothing of her own, she would…
She'd do favors, without anything…
She would do them, expecting nothing in return.
Many times, she obviously didn't get anything in return, since she did it…
Sorry.
She was so kind.
That's why many people loved her.
When I met William, I saw that he's the same way.
I mean, he does that. He does it today.
Then also, from all that happened, I realized that it could be genetic.
And how she was,
because I didn't expect that somehow William would be the same.
JULY 14TH, 1952 - NOVEMBER 9TH, 2009
PSYCHOLOGIST AND GENETICIST SPECIALIST IN TWINS
I don't know if one could call it an experiment,
seeing what impact a swap has on twins, how they develop in the environment,
and how they face life…
GENETICIST
…depending on the circumstances in which they're living
and their genetic background.
I can't call it an experiment because experiments are always controlled.
There is always a hypothesis to prove.
Here there was an accident and then,
well, then came the ending of these people's lives as they knew them.
And how each faces their own life.
Did you guys play Tejo?
-Yes. Not a lot. -But it was…
As kids, we used to play at the sports center,
but not on a big court like this one.
Ours was clay, right? Remember?
Yes, it was mostly an occasional thing.
-So you don't know how to play. -No.
This is my siblings' favorite sport in Santander.
Of course, every time they play, they're champions over there.
-I tag along to learn, but… -He'll mop the floor with us.
Our luck. Let's see what you've got.
You start then, show us what you've got.
Let's see what you get.
See? That was good, right? It was great.
-Can you tell I practiced? -Well done.
Let's skip the guy from Santander.
-Calm down. -I'm from Santander.
I'll throw like my little brother.
-Play. Don't fight. -Carlos started it.
Blood is thicker than water.
You're so bad.
No, you're making me look bad, Carlitos.
-Not like that. -Give it your best shot.
-Okay. Go, Wilber. -He's who knows best.
Go, roadside hawk.
-He knows. -Move your hand.
-Look… -It's a bad shot.
-You finally did something right! -A strike!
Something odd about the day we first met,
was the first question we asked each other.
What was similar, and what was different about us?
Obviously, aside from the physical aspect.
For example, in the case of Wilber and me,
we are very orderly, obsessed with being tidy.
We're more serious.
We're a little more…
At the time we were more flirty.
More serious, more thoughtful of being on time.
Jorge always talks about the day he bought the same clothes as William.
I remember well when Wilber said to me, "I'm going to copy you."
"Let's go shopping together. You know about it and you're cool."
We went to a shop nearby to buy some clothes.
He says to me, "Some browns shoes." And I said, "Brown."
Making fun of him.
Then the stylist made fun of him. I said, "Don't do that. Only I can."
"I have a biological right to do so. Respect him."
Well, in our case, we're more sociable,
more charismatic.
We always see things in the best way.
Even if there are difficulties, we approach things with positivity.
We're more expressive regarding our feelings towards our relatives.
We're more reserved about those things.
In our emotions we are more private. More reserved, unlike them.
-There, take it, brother. -Jorge!
You hurt my jaw.
-Throw it, bro. Right here. Throw it. -Shoot it!
Nothing but net, dude.
Play!
-Should I score another or no? -Easy.
Easy, bro. Bro!
It's going in!
-Damn -Again!
-Wilber! -Here. No, Wilber.
-Yeah! -Good, Wilber!
Without lube, son.
Genetics, son.
A genetic link means a cultural link.
There's a heavy genetic weight. That's unquestionable.
But also, the environment in which the person develops,
and the opportunities that person has in life,
will also have an impact.
Genetics have a heavy influence.
It takes an hour to go to school in the morning,
and an hour to return.
You'd come home from school and you had your work to do,
your chores to do at home.
You'd have to get firewood.
There was no proper aqueduct or anything to bring water to the house,
so we had to go to the nearest tap to get water.
At night, we'd use a small candle that we called our little lamp.
Since there was no electric light at our house either,
we obviously lit candles.
From the '90s to the 2000s,
it was always dominated by guerrillas.
Around 2000, they started to leave
and then the paramilitary entered.
At that time, there was illegal farming. There was coca.
Our life situation forced us many times to harvest coca and work in that field.
We'd do it out of necessity, not because we liked it.
I always said to myself, "This is not for me. I want out."
But I had to wait 17 years, until I turned 18,
and I joined the army so I could get out.
I had a brother who was also in the military.
He was older than I.
As fate would have it, he lost his life there.
He lost his life at 22 years old.
For me, it was… Well, for everybody, it was so difficult.
At that time, William and I could only think about revenge.
When we were kids, we would say, "When I'm 18, I'm going to join the army."
"And then, we're going to avenge our brother's death."
When William told me that he was going to serve,
my first thought was that they'd kill him too,
they'd already killed Israel.
My mom suffered a lot when William enlisted.
He said, "Mommy, will you let me go into the service?"
I said, "I won't say yes or no."
"I'm not telling you to go or not."
I was worried they'd kill him too.
"It's up to you." He said, "Mommy, let me go."
"I want to go to serve."
"I want to have my military service record,
and when I finish, I'll go to Bogotá."
I remember the day Wilber arrived, after I was there for four months.
Seeing him in uniform and all that, well, I felt kind of envious.
I went home that afternoon and told my parents, "I'm going to serve."
And we went to the southern part of Bolívar.
In the southern part of Bolívar, well, we…
We got closer.
We found that brotherhood, because we used to fight a lot when we were kids.
But once there,
maybe because it was an area where the enemy was present,
I felt a closer brotherhood with him.
Eventually, I could no longer pursue a military career
and had to retire from the army.
I arrived in Bogotá to a godmother's house.
She sold arepas.
She taught me the recipe, how to make them,
and I started working with her.
I set up a street stand.
I also sold arepas in the street, in Bogotá.
Working for a family opened other doors for me.
Through them, I was able to work with meats.
And then, he encouraged Wilber.
He was leading the way for Wilber to come,
and anyone else that wanted to come, but the other siblings didn't want to.
A person is born with a genetic makeup,
and that genetic makeup can make that person more driven to do things.
How are you? How's it going, Don Félix?
And knowing the story of my twin brothers,
that they were both about to be professionals,
I set this goal for my life, and said,
"I also want to become a professional."
My man.
Use what I saved at the butcher shop and pay for my own career.
William, friend.
-My friend, how are you? -Good!
He has studied, he's now a lawyer, he's specialized, he's super driven.
-It's a deal then, Feiser. -Thank you, friend.
-God bless. -Blessings for everyone.
-Bye. -See you later.
Of all my mother's children that I grew up with,
I'm the only one who had a degree-- who has a degree. As of right now.
I got my law degree.
I was also given a chance to study to specialize in constitutional law,
and that's also when I decided to return here, to La Paz.
The town elected me as a council member, by popular vote.
PRESIDENT
And from there, to work,
and be able to help many families in La Paz who also want to get ahead,
as I have done.
Professionally, I am a public accountant, I specialize in taxes,
and I have some additional studies.
I work as deputy finance director for a labor union.
Aside from working, I also like to play sports.
I practice basketball, swimming, CrossFit.
My job right now is… I'm a meat carver.
I like this job, I'm passionate about it and I'm happy at my workplace.
My plan is to have my own business, to be independent,
and to move forward, like I always do. Level-headed.
You must have an open mind to understand and comprehend
that in an instant, something can change your life.
At that time, I thought of myself as "unique."
That there was no one like me, and I was the best.
But life showed me, and it did it with a slap in the face.
Not only did it tell me I'm not unique,
but it brought someone just like me, identical to me.
And I learned from that, too.
Now that some years have passed,
to see their beautiful relationships, Jorge and William, and Carlos and Wilber,
is really fulfilling for me.
I feel like what we did was okay and I have no regrets.
-Thank you, Mr. Ciro! -Thank you.
-Over here? -Yes.
Hi, Mom!
Joking.
-Close the door. -Thank you.
-Mrs. Anita! -Carlitos, how are you?
William didn't want to tell you. Scold him.
-Hi, Carlitos. -Hi, William!
How are you, Mom?
-Hi, my son. How are you? -I'm good, Mom.
Affectionately, this song is for Doña Anita and Doña Luz Marina,
two beautiful mothers who brought four twins into the world.
It goes like this.
I'm going to tell this story Of so many things that happened
Things that are surprising Things we won't forget
The story of the twins Which has shaken Colombia
That December 21st '88 was the year
Four boys were born To begin the journey
And a hospital error Would change their destiny
Among those four boys There is a deep love today
Because now they are four brothers No one can separate them
And it was only two mothers Who brought them into the world
Wilber and Carlos, ladies and gents Born here in my land
Here in La Paz, Santander In a beautiful village
Where the people are humble Positive, no matter what…
Now, ten years later,
I ask myself every day what is going to happen to us.
Always with an open mind.
And well, knowing that, nowadays, I have two more brothers.
25 years later One day, a friend of Jorge's
When she met William Her surprise was enormous
And that's when the story That everybody knows was discovered
Today, proudly reunited Everyone enjoying life
"Very well," said their parents "The family has grown"
Today they're the pride of La Paz And that story is not forgotten
Subtitle translation by: Ryan N. Becker