Juan was nine months old when his mother, 21-year-old Mercedes del Valle Morales, was kidnapped.
On May 20, 1976, in the same operation carried out in the Argentine province of Tucumán, Juan's grandparents, Toribia Romero de Morales and José Ramón Morales, were also kidnapped.
Four days later, the military also took his uncles José Silvano Morales, Juan Ceferino Morales and Julio César Morales.
The Argentine dictatorship made a large part of his family disappear, while the baby was appropriated by the owners of the farm where his biological mother worked and raised by them, without suspecting the truth.
Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo announced this Wednesday that Juan is the 132nd grandson stolen by the dictatorship that recovers his identity, although it remains incomplete because it is still unknown who his father is.
"I'm very excited about everything," Juan assured EL PAÍS in a brief exchange via chat from Tucumán, in northern Argentina.
For almost 30 years, while his appropriators were alive, he believed that they were his real parents.
When they died, his foster brothers revealed the truth and gave him the original ID, which stated that he was the son of Mercedes Del Valle Morales.
He received this news in 2004. In order to find out his biological origin, he approached the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi), which began an investigation that has lasted for almost two decades.
In 2008, a DNA study at the National Genetic Data Bank (BNDG) made it possible to confirm that Del Valle Morales was her mother, who at that time was still missing.
Thanks to the genetic clue, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) located the remains of Del Valle Morales in the northern cemetery of Tucumán.
Juan was able to hold a ceremony, which was also attended by the surviving maternal family of the dictatorship, and say goodbye to her.
in search of the father
Knowing the identity of his mother, the new grandson wanted to know who his father was.
To confirm that he had been a victim of appropriation, it was necessary to prove whether or not the person who registered him as his own son was his real father.
Having already died, the filiation could only be verified or ruled out "through the exhumation" of the body and the comparison of the genetic profiles, explained the president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, at a press conference.
This step was ordered by the Tucumán office of the Office of the Prosecutor for crimes against humanity, which on Wednesday informed Juan "that he is not the son of the person who raised him and confirmed that he was indeed a victim of theft, concealment and substitution of identity in the framework of State terrorism”, announced De Carlotto.
"Today we embrace him as our 132nd grandson. And like a puzzle that is never finished, a new path begins to be able to find his real father," added the head of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, before asking for the collaboration of the whole society to find it.
The Secretary of Human Rights, Horacio Pietragalla, recalled that this case, in which Juan was appropriated by the owners of the farm where his biological mother worked, shows the complicity that existed during the dictatorship between the military and part of society civil.
This is the second grandson who has seen his true identity restored in a week, after almost three years without other confirmations.
As in the case of the recent grandson 131, the news was received with a barrage of applause among those present in the Casa de la Identidad auditorium and accompanied by the World Cup chant “Grandmothers, la la la la la”.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS America newsletter and receive all the latest news in the region.
