A U.S. man who was adopted from Colombia has appealed for help tracking down as many as nine potential siblings.
Hugh Ordoñez, 37, has been searching for the truth about his biological roots for 17 years, after he found out he was adopted from Bogota’s Casa de la Madre y El Niño orphanage in 1976.
During many trips to Colombia he has managed to discover that his biological mother’s name is registered as Gloria Cita Parra Figeora, a fact that has led him to three siblings – but he believes there are more.
Ordoñez told Colombia Reports, “Reliable information I have managed to procure has told me were a number of other babies given up for adoption by my registered birth mother. I genuinely believe I have more brothers and sisters out there and I am desperate to find them.”
He has tracked down Figeora, who he now believes is actually is his older half-sister, and the man he believes is his birth father, but they are not willing to speak to him. He has been unable to get information from Casa de la Madre y el Niño.
Using traditional and social media, he has connected with two sisters and a brother, proven siblings by DNA tests. Now, he says, “our real hope is to track down the others.”
For Ordoñez, knowing your heritage is a basic human right. “I feel powerless, especially as I have worked so hard and so long and spent so much money on this search,” he said. “It’s so upsetting and frustrating. Everyone has the right to know where and what they come from. What do me and my siblings tell our children? You can adopt a name, a language, a culture, but you can’t adopt genetics.”
Ordoñez has set up a number of websites to aid his search and is asking anyone who thinks they may have information that could help him to get in touch via his Facebook, Twitter or Youtube pages.
