Hijos del silencio

( Children of silence) ongoing

More than 20,000 families were split apart by illegal adoptions in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship between 1970 and 1990.The kidnapping and adoption of Chilean children was a mechanism put in place to improve the image of the dictatorship abroad. It was also a practice that sought to lower the poverty rate since the vast majority of the babies came from impoverished families. The child trafficking operation consisted of a wide and well-articulated network of social workers, doctors, nurses, judges and adoption agencies that would sell the babies mostly to European families. Some of these families knew the truth and others chose to ignore it.

Silence was and still is, the backbone of this situation.This project aims to inform and revive the memory of this problematic by portraying the different parties involved. From the people illegally adopted, their biological and adoptive families as well as the courts, clinics and others who were implicated.

︎︎︎︎Overview




© Alejandra Arévalo 2023