'Stolen baby' born in 1973 meets her real mother

Ana Belén Pintada was one of the suspected tens of thousands of infants traded in illegal adoption scandals that started in around the 1960s, during General Franco's dictatorship, and may have been ongoing until as recently as the 1990s.

Typically, victims were mothers who gave birth in what used to be called 'nursing homes' and were nearly all run by the Catholic Church and staffed by nuns, and tended to be either poverty-stricken, unmarried, or else dissenters of Franco's régime.

A few, especially those giving birth out of wedlock, were told to their faces that they were 'whores' and their children had been given to 'decent' families, but the vast majority were told their babies had died shortly after coming into the world – and some were even given coffins filled with stones or sand.

Many – although not all – of the adopting families had no idea of the truth about their new babies, as they were often told the mothers had died in childbirth or had given away the babies because they were the result of an affair or practising prostitution.

Ana Belén grew up in Campo de Criptana, Ciudad Real province, believing herself to be an only child – but just months ago, discovered she was adopted and then realised she was one of the 'stolen babies'.

She became suspicious when dealing with her father's affairs after his death in 2010, but the fact she was adopted was not confirmed until after her mother died in 2014.

According to Ana Belén, she found a birth certificate in 2016 when selling her late mother's house, with parts of it cut out, and another medical certificate showing her mother was infertile.

Asked by the Campo de Criptana Info tourism and information site how she now felt about her deceased adoptive parents, Ana Belén says she does not bear a grudge, but has lots of unanswered questions she wishes she could have asked them in life to help her understand why they accepted a baby 'wrenched from her mother's arms' and 'how they could do that to another parent'.

“My adoptive parents knew what they were doing,” she reveals.

“I'd like to be able to ask them to explain themselves: how they could be so in need of 'stealing' a baby when there were legal ways of acquiring one. How they could have lived with this in silence. They gave me everything I needed and more, but this...in my head and heart, I can't figure out how the people I knew as my parents could have been capable of tearing a newborn baby from her mother's arms,” Ana Belén wonders.

It was only in early 2018 that she found out she was a 'stolen baby' and launched a media appeal.

Pilar V.G., 69, originally from Lanzahíta (Ávila province, Castilla y León) but living in the Greater Madrid region, said that when she gave birth on July 10, 1973 at the Santa Cristina Clinic in the capital, the baby was placed in her arms and then taken away for washing but, hours later, she awoke from being sedated to be told by her husband that their infant had died.

It was Pilar's husband who had been told the 'tragic' news and left to break it to his wife.

Until a few weeks ago, Pilar had never questioned her loss – then she received a call out of the blue from a woman claiming to be her daughter.

Ana Belén said an anonymous person had rung her, saying she knew her real mother and giving her telephone number.

A nervous Ana Belén called Pilar, who was so flustered she hung up on her.

But shortly afterwards, Pilar rang back and asked Ana Belén to get all the evidence she could that might show they were related.

The younger woman contacted the national Children's Institute and, armed with proof, arranged to meet Pilar in Aranjuez, Greater Madrid, halfway between their two homes.

Pilar immediately noticed the 'striking' physical resemblance both with herself and with her other two children and her husband, all of whom are still alive.

Ana Belén has not yet met her biological father or her siblings, but is looking forward to doing so and to making up for lost time with her family of birth.

She says she is very grateful to her lawyer and all other parties involved who helped her to trace them.

The above picture shows Ana Belén, right and Pilar, left.