Louisa Reynolds /

Pz

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But when Aura Elena saw the young man’s photograph, 
she immediately knew who he was, even before forensic 
anthropologist Jessika Osorio, from FAFG, travelled to the 
United States to collect his DNA sample.

Whereas he had been told why the sample was necessary in 
order to confirm who his real father was, Aura Elena never 
told Tranquilino why he had been summoned to Guatemala 
City in mid-2010.

The old man was puzzled as to why all those people had 
gathered at the FAFG office. The foundation’s director, 
Fredy Peccerelli, was there, together with ten other forensic 
anthropologists, as well as Aura Elena and other members of 
FAMDEGUA that he wasn’t familiar with.

Aura Elena told him to sit down, then she sat down beside 
him and put her arm around his shoulders, hugging him 
tightly. Then, someone placed a computer on his lap where a 
face that had his same features suddenly appeared.

Father and son wept in silence. Tranquilino was so shocked 
that he fainted and he had to be revived with a glass of 
aguardiente. The FAFG anthropologists also cried and 
celebrated the triumph of life over death.

After that first emotionally charged encounter via Skype in 
which neither Tranquilino nor his son were able to utter a 
single word, they gradually began to get to know each other 
over the telephone.  The young man told his father about his 
childhood in Zacapa, his journey to the United States at the 
age of 19 and his four children.

He assured his father that he had never been mistreated 
by his adoptive family and that he emigrated to the United