Original subtitles

When I was already into my adult years, I dreamt that I had an identical twin.

I woke up perplexed, and I thought to myself,

"It would be so awesome if I could have an identical twin."

And then something unthinkable happened.

Something I wouldn't believe could happen if it hadn't actually happened to me then.

I took a look at the two photos on my phone, and I was incredibly shocked.

I mean, they were identical. I said to myself, "I can't believe it!"

"This guy looks exactly like me."

At that point, it took an unexpected turn. I didn't have any idea what was going on.

At a certain point, I came to feel like my life was a lie.

It was just like discovering someone had a double life.

Are you a believer in real-life soap operas?

Because after this point, your life is going to undergo a change.

No one really knows the pain that you live with.

I did not have the right to alter the course of people's lives.

It's not at all easy to wake up one day and learn that your life has been a lie.

I genuinely had no idea which side of the mirror I was standing on.

THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS

My name is Jorge Bernal.

My birthplace is Bogotá, where I was born on December 21, 1988.

I was working at a hydrocarbon company at the time.

And there, I had a friend whose name was Laura.

One day Laura greeted me, saying, "Hi. How are you doing?"

"I saw you near my neighborhood." I asked, "When was that?"

She said to me, "This past weekend."

I replied, "But I was not around Kennedy." And she was like, "I mean it. I saw you."

This whole thing started…

LAURA VEGA COLLEAGUE OF JORGE

…because Yaneth and I were both attending a barbecue event held by the company.

They asked if I could purchase the meat. Yaneth told me, "Don't worry about it."

"The cousin of my boyfriend is the owner of a butcher shop, and he can help us."

"He will give us premium-quality meat at a fantastic price point." Okay.

Then we made our way to the butcher shop, and William was preparing what we ordered.

ONE OF WILLIAM'S FRIENDS

Laura was taken aback by the sight of William.

I took a look at the butcher, and he was exactly identical to my colleague Jorge.

I was taken aback.

"Yaneth, I work with this guy!" I said hi. I was trying to say hello to the butcher.

And he looked back at me with this sort of blank expression.

She left the shop thinking that he was me, and that I didn't want to say hello.

I always had the impression that Jorge felt too embarrassed to say hello to me,

since I had recognized him while he was busy working at the butcher shop.

That was the impression I had.

She remained adamant about it.

She went as far as to say to me,

"Hey, are you uncomfortable admitting that you're working at a butcher shop?"

I explained, "I wouldn't be embarrassed, but I don't actually work at a butcher's."

"That man wasn't me."

I didn't attach importance to it then. I mean, I didn't believe it was true yet.

He shared with me that he had a brother. A twin brother, although not identical.

So I said, "Oh, your brother must be the guy I ran into."

And he replied, "I'm not sure about that. We don't really look like each other."

I kept bothering him for a long period of time about his twin brother.

We also came up with some theories.

At a certain point, Jorge even said to me, "What if I have a lost sibling somewhere?"

"A sibling that my father never gave us any information about."

After some time had passed, Yaneth became an employee at the company.

I didn't go over to say hello to her because I didn't know who she was.

But it did catch my attention that sometimes when I arrived,

she would keep staring at me.

When I spotted Jorge at the company, I thought to myself, "Oh my God!"

As a matter of fact, I said to Laura,

"This guy does strongly resemble William, but it is obvious that he isn't William."

I'm not sure if that… It felt almost like I was dreaming.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, it all ignited my curiosity.

I knew that William's birth month was December.

And I asked Laura, "Do you happen to know when Jorge's birthday falls?"

At our workplace, we have a board with everyone's birthday.

I told her, "I'll get you the date. It's a piece of cake."

I went and took a look at the birthday board, and lo and behold,

he was also born in the month of December.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

DECEMBER 08 - MARIA, 21 - JORGE

So I said to her, "I sense that there might be something strange going on here."

Then this one day, Yaneth mentioned to me,

"Hey, I've got a picture of William, the guy who works at the butcher's shop."

"Would you mind showing it to Jorge and seeing what he says about it?"

She came over to me, with her hands behind her back,

gripping her cell phone in her hand, like, "Do you remember what I mentioned to you?"

"About the guy I mistakenly thought was you?"

"There's no question it wasn't you."

"But do you think you're prepared to see your doppelgänger?"

"I'll let you take a look at the photo." He said, "Let's take a peek at my twin."

When he got a look at him, he was…

He was just completely… I mean, he was dumbfounded.

It goes without saying that I was surprised

because there really was another person who looked exactly like me. Identical.

He started getting opinions from our coworkers passing by,

"How do you think I look in this pic?"

And they would say, "You're looking good. Yeah. Wonderful." Awesome.

Let's ask someone else for their opinion. "How do I look in this picture?"

And so he said to me, "Have you realized that no one can tell that he is not me?"

I said to a friend of mine,

"Look at this picture. I want to know what you think of it."

He looked and said, "What's up with it? It's you next to some other guys."

So I said, "The strange thing is that the person in the picture is not me."

So he double-checked the photo and analyzed it, and he said to me,

"But this guy looks exactly like you."

About an hour went by, and I went downstairs and asked her,

"Could you give me the name of this guy, to see if I could look him up somewhere?"

"Maybe on Facebook or something."

She said, "Go and do a search for William Cañas Velasco."

I started searching for him and looking, taking a look at each one of his pictures.

And I'd stay quiet, looking at a picture. I'd take a thorough look at the image.

I found some photos where he didn't have the mustache I had seen in the first one.

He had an uncanny likeness to me.

That's when I started to experience a sense of fear.

Also, I thought to myself, "Something is happening here."

When I thought that I had seen everything, and nothing else could possibly happen…

I stumbled across the photograph that really turned everything upside down.

The one that shifted the entire course of events in this story.

A colleague I used to have lunch with reached out to me with a message,

"Hey there. We are taking a look at the photos of your boyfriend's cousin."

"He looks strikingly similar to Jorgito."

And I said, "Are you serious? Want to know something funny?"

"William actually has a twin brother who doesn't look anything like him."

She told me, "It's the same story with Jorgito."

So I asked her, "Do you happen to have a picture of Jorge along with his twin?"

"I'll send you one of William with his twin brother."

When I took a look at both pictures on my cell phone, I said to myself,

"Oh my goodness. I mean, these are two pairs of twins, and they're…"

- They're mixed up. - "They're mixed up."

There wasn't just one problem to address.

- There were two of them. - There were two.

One problem that was bigger in scale than we thought.

I immediately forwarded the pictures to Laura and said,

"These are two pairs of twins who have been switched at birth."

I found myself in a state of shock. It was something beyond belief.

I couldn't believe my eyes at the sight before me,

because in that picture was someone who looked exactly like my brother.

So I couldn't look away from that picture, and I was like, "Who is this person?"

And among the comments, I saw one that said,

"Two brothers, joined at the hip." But "brothers" was the word they used.

Then I came to the realization, "Something is happening here."

"What is this? A parallel dimension? A mirrored reflection of our world?"

I didn't have an answer. I found myself very confused.

I even considered the possibility that,

"My life is like a charade," or, "Something weird is going on."

Because I didn't know who these two were. I mean to say, I was confused and shocked.

And then we began to look into a series of questions,

of indicators that might point to them actually being siblings.

Twin brothers.

That they might have been separated for some reason or another.

Then, obviously, the first thing that we did was compare the birthdates.

However, there were inconsistencies, particularly in terms of birthplaces.

Santander was the birthplace for both of them.

But it didn't make any sense to me. How could they have been born there?

YANETH: WAS JORGE BORN IN SANTANDER? LAURA: I BELIEVE HE WAS BORN IN BOGOTÁ

YANETH: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?

And then Laura said to me, "Nope, he actually wasn't born in Santander."

And so I thought, "We didn't get it right. No."

So, I went to my boyfriend and asked,

"Wait, do you know if they were ever taken to the city of Bogotá for some reason?"

He told me, "I think they were. Let me ask William."

That's enough, Conchita.

I go by the name of William Cañas Velasco.

Yaneth used to come and stop by the butcher's shop where I was working.

I began to analyze it all and ask myself the same questions that Yaneth asked me.

We began taking a look into this

on account of the fact I always believed that I had been born in Santander,

and spent my childhood in Santander.

It turns out that I was born in Santander, and then I was later brought to Bogotá.

I called my aunt on the phone, and I asked her,

"Auntie, do you happen to remember which hospital I was taken to in Bogotá?"

So then she shared with me,

"Yeah, you were taken to the hospital Materno Infantil."

MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS

Yaneth went and got the details regarding the birthplaces of the other two twins.

The two of them were born in Santander.

However, it turned out that one of them developed an illness while living there,

since they were born prematurely at seven months.

So one of the twin boys was very sick when he was transported to Bogotá

and he was taken to the same hospital, the Materno Infantil Hospital.

So when we learned about that, our response was,

"Well, that must be it. This clearly took place at that hospital."

"There's nothing else to do."

I made my way back home, and Carlos was there.

He was there, watching the TV. I arrived at home.

My name is Carlos Alberto Bernal Castro, and I'm 34 years old.

I was having a conversation on the phone when Jorge got home from college.

He told me to hang up the phone because we needed to talk.

And I know that Jorge is a little bit of… Well, not a bit. He's a big prankster.

Jorge really is a big joker,

so I asked what he needed to talk about, telling him I had a lot on my plate.

I was like, "How are you, Carlos? Are you doing okay?"

"Do you believe in real-life soap operas?" He said, "Tell me what's going on here."

In a serious tone because he's a serious guy.

So I asked him, "Tell me what happened. I mean, be straight with me."

"Do you believe in real-life soap operas?" He said, "No, I don't."

I said, "I'm going to show you something, and I want you to tell me what you think."

I said, "What is this? Stop bothering me. I'm busy. Just go on and spit it out."

"Because after you see this, your life is going to change."

I was laughing when I said it, but deep down, I was being serious.

I knew very well what I was telling him about.

I logged into my Facebook account, and I showed him William's profile.

I showed the photos to him, and he covered his face with his hands.

He laughed, and he treated it like a joke. He said, "That guy really looks like you."

I said, "You have a doppelgänger. What happened?"

"I don't know what could've happened. Maybe Dad had another son on the side."

I said to him, "Hold on a minute. I haven't shown you the best picture."

We got to a photograph where he was together with another person.

Where he was with another guy,

and I found myself in a state of shock.

The moment he laid eyes on that picture, he stopped laughing right away.

He asked me, "Where did you find that? Who are these two people?"

There was a picture of the guy who looked just identical to my brother

alongside a guy who looked exactly identical to me.

That's when the fun really came to an end, the joke was over, and I went to my room.

Once I was in my room, I started to look into this.

I started feeling really nostalgic.

The tears started to fall.

I went back to Jorge's room. I hugged him. And I told him that I loved him very much.

And this was a gesture that was very unusual on my part.

I only did that sort of thing while drunk.

For the very first time, I told him that I loved him while sober.

And he told me, "Stop this. Just let it be."

"Don't start investigating this. Don't go and do anything like that."

"Just let it go."

I immediately came to the conclusion that if someone was swapped, it had been me.

Because physically speaking, my brother looks a lot like my sister.

He bears a strong resemblance to my mom, and at the same time too,

I've always had a very different look compared to them.

Obviously, my biggest fear came from thinking

that the family members I had in Bogotá would reject me.

I was afraid they would say to me, "You are no longer considered our child."

"You are not the son of Luz Marina. There is no place for you here."

There were challenging questions for us to ask.

And the answers to these questions were even harder for us to swallow.

It wasn't easy to come to terms with the fact

that my brother was not the person I thought he was,

and that I was not actually the son of the person I admired most in the world.

Deep down, I knew that I would keep on investigating.

He didn't want to, but I was determined to uncover the truth of the matter

and find out the full scope of what was happening.

There were times that Laura and I thought,

"What if everything that's happening ends in a really tragic situation?"

"I don't know, if one of them commits suicide."

So, taking all of that into account, it was… terrible for us. It really was.

"When did I get myself involved in this? I shouldn't have asked any questions."

"I shouldn't have gotten involved."

Because we were clueless as to what the outcome of this would be.

We had no idea how they would react when they found out and looked at each other.

And there were the families too. I thought a lot about their mothers.

I told my husband, like I was gossiping, "Imagine if this had happened to you."

He said to me, "How dare you suggest these guys were swapped?"

I said, "Take a look at the evidence and at the pictures we have."

He firmly urged me not to do anything. He said that something bad could happen.

He said that I could change people's lives and that I had no right to go and do that.

Yeah, he was clearly in the right. But I ignored him, and I kept at it.

After we got the second picture, I made the decision to call Yaneth up.

And asked her to give me the phone number of the guy who looked exactly like me.

I distinctly recall that moment.

When the cell phone began ringing, I did not even know how I'd talk to him.

My heart was beating out of my chest

because I knew that someone who was exactly like me was on the line.

That said, I didn't know how he'd speak, or what he would even have to say to me.

I knew it was him who was calling. I picked up the phone.

So I asked him, "What's up, dude? How is everything going?"

When I heard his voice for the first time, for a moment there, I thought

we weren't identical after all.

I got the impression I was speaking to someone who was not like me.

There was a soft tone to his voice, like, "Hello. How are you doing?"

"I am William, the guy from the butcher's. They showed me some pictures of yours."

And then all of a sudden, I said to him, "Hey. Where could we plan to meet up?"

"Because there have been plenty of strange coincidences so far,

and I would like to meet with you to figure out what is really going on."

I said, "Of course I'd like to! Where should we meet?"

"Would Lourdes Church be okay? Do you know where it is?"

"Sure thing. I know where the church is."

I said, "Okay. How about this evening? Would around 9:00 p.m. be all right?"

"Of course, sir."

And that's when he told me that he could meet me later on that night.

I asked him, "Will you be coming alone?" He told me, "Yes, I'll be all on my own."

I told him, "I'm going on my own too." That is what I told him.

I said to myself, "I'll give Carlos a call and let him know I'm going to meet them."

"Maybe he would like to come along."

So I asked him, "What are you doing now? I'm going to meet them later today. Come."

I remember one of the things he said was, "I thought I told you to forget about it."

But well… I had already made plans to go and meet up with them anyhow.

He told me that he made plans to go meet one of them and asked if I wanted to go.

I told him, "There's no way I can meet up. I'm working on my thesis. I can't go."

But the issue wasn't that I couldn't go. I just didn't want to.

He told me, "I'm not going there, and you shouldn't go either."

So I was like, "Come on. It's not like something bad is going to happen."

"There is no way I'm going. I'm not going. I have things to do and I'm really busy."

When he decided to actually meet up with them in person,

I had no desire to meet them. I was not eager to face that new reality.

Dealing with that situation was something I wanted to avoid.

The fear of being rejected was too much for me.

Considering his insistence on meeting them,

it was obvious to me I wouldn't be able to talk him out of it.

Then I said to him, "I have faith in you. Just watch out and keep me updated."

My name is Wilber Cañas Velasco. I was born in Vélez, Santander.

I spent my childhood in La Paz with William.

He used to make the claim that we were identical twins.

At the time, William worked in Kennedy.

He called and asked me to go over there. He told me he needed to see me urgently.

I arrived at the butcher's shop, and I said hello.

And then he showed me this picture of a guy who looked exactly like William.

And standing beside him in the photo, there was another guy,

who bore an uncanny resemblance to me. And a girl.

The only words I could find were these, "William, you're my brother until death,

and that is something that will never change."

At that moment, those words were all that came to mind.

Being a twin goes beyond just looking like each other physically.

It's like having a duplicate in terms of blood, thoughts, and your preferences.

I didn't share that profound connection with Wilber.

We were always fighting with each other.

Our parents made an effort to coordinate our outfits to always be the same.

But we were different from one another. We lacked that mutual understanding.

During our fight, deep down, there was a part of me

yearning for someone who truly was the same as me.

I used to get the feeling

that my twin could be more like me.

Jorge and I each had different tastes. Neither of us liked to share very much.

He was really into basketball, but I'm a big soccer fan.

He's a fan of hip-hop, but I lean more towards rap and rock.

So, over time, we began to drift apart, each pursuing different paths in life.

I called Wilber on my phone to let him know,

"Wilber, I've arranged to get together with the guy who looks exactly like me."

And he gave me this response, "William, you're my brother for life,

but count me out, I won't be joining you."

And I said, "Whether you come along or not, I'm still going there."

And when he saw that I was about to head out,

he said, "Don't go yet. I'm coming with you."

"I'm worried about you going alone especially with so many questions."

"It's possible this could be a setup."

There's a chance it's a setup to rob him. You really never can tell.

I approach situations like that with caution.

We caught a cab and made our way down towards Lourdes Square.

It goes without saying that we spent the entire taxi trip discussing it.

What the experience was going to be like, the guy that I was going to meet up with.

The whole ride to Lourdes Church just seemed to stretch out forever.

To me, it felt like it was really far away because I was wrapped up in my thoughts.

And William was just blabbering on and on. Like a motormouth. He wouldn't shut up.

I was thinking, "We don't know this dude. Who's to say this is even really the guy?"

Just as we were making our way to Lourdes,

I crossed paths with one of my closest friends from college.

I gave him a warm hello.

I said, "You won't believe what happened. Would you like to tag along?"

And I dove right into telling him the whole story.

I've never explained the story so quickly as I did then, walking for three blocks.

He decided to come along with me.

And there we were, finally arriving at Lourdes Square.

LOURDES SQUARE BOGOTÁ

We were just standing there, talking, and he said something I'll never forget.

He said something like, "Oh, hey. Here he comes. I've got eyes on him."

"Here you come." And we both cracked up, laughing our heads off.

And I kept asking my friend, whispering, "Do I seriously look like that?"

He answered, "Yeah, that's you, all right."

"Do I really walk like that?" "Yep, you're exactly the same."

And then it dawned on me that William brought his brother along.

And William did not head to the square on his own.

He showed up to the meet-up with Yaneth and his cousin Brayan.

Somehow, I ended up feeling… I was truly taken aback when I saw him.

And I was all, "You brought the other guy with you, huh?" I was referring to Wilber.

He said to me, "And you didn't come by yourself either." And we both laughed.

Would you look at that?

William's got a lighter complexion.

Oh yeah, he's lighter for sure.

- But it's from the cold. - It's the cold.

- This is incredible. Oh my God! - Yeah, it really is.

This is extraordinary.

- What was that? - He looks just like William does when…

- It's just that he was… - It's the hair…

He got a haircut earlier today.

- Otherwise, it would… - It was quite long.

- Did you actually do that? - But I think if I hadn't cut it, I'd be…

Sporting a beard, kind of like this.

Well, when I spotted that guy who was a dead ringer for me, I was speechless.

I greeted him, and it wasn't as much a back-and-forth with our words,

but more about feeling a connection on an emotional level.

When I first laid eyes on Jorge, it had me laughing hard.

It cracked me up because physically, he was the spitting image of William.

His guffaw was reminiscent of Carlos's. I'll carry that moment with me always.

No, when I see you, it's like seeing my brother standing right there.

- They have the exact same laugh! - All he needs now is the glasses.

I saw the resemblance he had to Carlos, and that was what shocked me the most.

You're not constantly looking at yourself. You're not carrying around a mirror 24/7

to get a better grasp on your behavior, your movements, how you use your hands.

I can't wrap my head around it.

On the other hand, I have had my eyes on Carlos over the past 25 years.

I knew each and every gesture Carlos made, and I saw him making every one of them.

I'm not sure if what happened was better or just looking at him on the street.

That was the part that made me a little more freaked out about it.

Somehow that was what got my attention, more than even seeing William himself.

Oh my goodness.

And I just can't take my eyes off him.

There it was, the missing puzzle piece,

so we could finally wrap our heads around what had gone down.

Because at one point, William threw it out there,

"When I was a newborn, they brought me all the way down here to Bogotá."

You weren't just brought here. They took you here.

- Mind sharing your blood type with me? - You have the same blood type.

We were cracking up.

I remember that William and I posed to snap a picture together.

I remember Wilber saying, "Now I want to meet my twin," or something like that.

At some point during the meet-up, they asked me, "So, where is Carlos?"

I told them, "He's busy doing stuff at home."

I didn't mention that he was feeling uneasy.

My curiosity got the best of me. I said, "I really want to meet Carlos."

"Can we go see him?"

Jorge gives Carlos a call, saying, "We're coming your way."

I said, "Why are they on their way here? We never agreed to do it this way."

"I have no interest in meeting them or knowing anything about this."

Just then, the doorbell starts ringing.

I said to myself, "Damn. Fuck, they've finally arrived."

There was a knock from Jorge, but Carlos was reluctant to open the door.

Yeah, exactly there.

Laughing from inside, he replied, "Nope, there's no way I'm opening it."

So who's gonna be the one to do it? Come on. Let's go. Open the door!

I couldn't bring myself to open the door and confront that reality.

He keeps laughing his head off. Oh my goodness!

No way, you've got to be kidding!

When I finally got to meet Carlos, and actually got to lay eyes on him,

I couldn't help but notice his resemblance to Wilber.

Seeing the way that he laughs,

and how he grabbed his head in surprise at everything that was going down there.

I was so close to wearing a gray hoodie. I almost went with it.

I was genuinely stunned.

I've got a brother, and we're so alike. It's so like looking at my own reflection.

So there was a fair amount of .. laughter, teasing, apprehension, and awkwardness.

You could even go so far as to say happiness as well, yeah?

Because coming across another person

who's basically a carbon copy of you, well, it's definitely curious, right?

And that is especially true at the age we all were, at 25 years old.

I felt like I had been cheated, because, well,

I didn't get to grow up alongside my brother.

I always had been told that my actual brother was William.

And then later, after 25 years of that, a person that I've never seen shows up,

and I find out he's my twin?

I was feeling kind of sad,

because I would have liked to have had the chance to grow up alongside him,

with my brother, my real birth brother, that is, with Carlos.

But also to have grown up alongside William as well.

That's because even if William and I are not real blood brothers,

he still grew up there, alongside me, and I love him very much, like a brother.

Here they come, the little monsters.

- How are you doing, cutie? - Give us a smile, Wilber.

- All natural here. - And now what?

- Oh, here you are, brother. - I need to borrow him for just a second.

- Of course. - All right. Of course.

Our talent is arriving.

What a handsome gentleman.

After we reconnected, we found ourselves talking more often,

and we decided we wanted to go public about everything that we had been through.

And we said, "All right, then. It's time for us to look for a TV network

because I know that they will be eager to report on our story."

And we finally managed to tell our story with Caracol on the program Séptimo Día.

It was the first time that our story had ever been told on television.

This has been, without any doubt at all, one of the most unforgettable stories

that we have ever told on our show, Séptimo Día.

At some point, in the neonatal intensive care unit of Materno Infantil Hospital,

a mistake was made where two babies were switched…

My name is Juan Guillermo Mercado, and I am a journalist.

I am a reporter who is always on the lookout for one-of-a-kind stories…

REPORTER, JOURNALIST

…chronicles, human stories, and even in-depth investigative stories.

I always tend to wind up involved in covering stories on the topic of reunions.

I remember the whole thing as if it were just yesterday.

I received a call from the show's producer and the director, saying,

"Juan, we are doing a story about two sets of twins who were swapped at birth."

"They have found each other again 25 years later."

I said, "Well, it seems this is unfolding right here in the land of magical realism,

but it feels like reality has actually gone and outdone fiction this time."

- Hello. Welcome to our show! - Thank you so much.

- How is it going, Gigi? - Hello. Thank you so very much. Jorge.

- My name is actually Carlos. - Carlos, we started on the wrong foot.

When I first saw a picture of him alongside his brother,

I saw that he looked exactly like my brother.

Very much like the audience here, I started to laugh

when I first saw the picture of Wilber, my twin brother.

But then, right away, he stopped laughing when he saw the picture.

The joke was just over.

"WE WERE SEPARATED DUE TO A MISTAKE"

You guys must be used to this by now.

You two with glasses were raised together as twins, but you are not twins after all.

Yeah, everyone around here used to tell us that we were fraternal twins.

Yep, it's a delightful hot mess, plain and simple.

DECEMBER 1988

THE MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL - BOGOTÁ

We knew that two of the twins were born in Bogotá, at Materno Infantil Hospital…

MATERNITY WARD DELIVERY ROOM

…while the other two twins were born at Vélez Hospital in Santander.

So we went on the hunt, tracking down civil registries and medical records.

We found records for Luz Marina Castro, the mother of the Bogotá twin brothers.

It was not easy to obtain them because the hospital had since shut down.

Not only was the hospital closed, but it was also in a state of disrepair.

What we found in those medical records was that the twins were born premature.

We were able to confirm that they had been born at seven months.

Furthermore, we were then able to confirm that the mother of the others, Ana Delina,

had given birth to twins at Vélez Hospital the evening of December 22nd at 10:00 p.m.

You could say that back in the year 1988,

the total distance between the hospitals where the two sets of twins were born,

in the cities of Santander and Bogotá, could be between 12 and 14 hours by road.

REGIONAL HOSPITAL OF VÉLEZ

One of the twins who was born in Santander was having health problems.

At around 8:00 a.m. on that Saturday, the doctor had a conversation with me.

He said, "One of the babies is sick."

MOTHER OF THE SANTANDER TWINS

I said, "What is the problem with the baby?"

He told me, "The baby won't stop crying, and he hasn't had a bowel movement."

He said, "We have no choice but to send him to Bogotá."

And then the doctor asked me, "Do you have anyone here to go with him?"

So my mom dropped by, and the doctor sent the baby to Bogotá with her.

The sick child made the trip all the way to Bogotá accompanied by his grandmother.

However, while he was hospitalized there, an aunt was present to take care of him.

And on that Sunday, a sister of mine who happened to be in Bogotá

went to the hospital to visit him.

Then the medical staff released the baby into the care of my sister.

She then gave the child back to my mother.

So the aunt gives the child back to the grandmother,

and the grandmother brings the child back home to Santander, after hospitalization.

But they gave her the wrong newborn baby.

And she had no idea it happened. But it makes sense. They were newborns.

The hospital gave her the newborn, and she headed back home to Santander.

she gave the boy back to his mother, and the mother didn't realize it either.

The newborn baby, who had been born in Bogotá,

was uprooted and moved to Santander and baptized as William Cañas Velasco.

Meanwhile, at the same time, the twin baby who had begun his life in Santander

had been uprooted and relocated to Bogotá and left with this family, in this city,

and they baptized him and called him Carlos Alberto Bernal.

Realizing that your entire life has been a charade is a really heavy revelation.

Feeling that you have lived the life that was meant for someone else

or that someone else has been living the life that you were intended to have.

In what ways did this swap have a psychological impact

on those two twins whose lives had been mistakenly interchanged?

What effect did it have on the siblings?

And who bore the legal responsibility for what had gone awry in this case?

We got the ball rolling by doing a preliminary analysis of the situation…

CARLOS MEDELLÍN PUBLIC ATTORNEY

…and we observed that there were indeed some questions that had to be answered.

Because it's not merely a psychological or an emotional ordeal that we have here.

What we have is also a legal issue.

All of us are the products of our parents, family environments, and histories.

And so, in this specific case, the twins were whisked away, without consent,

and thrust into inheriting circumstances that were not theirs to begin with.

The birth of these children occurred within the walls of a medical facility,

and they should have been provided with the appropriate medical care.

In this situation, the twins clearly did not receive the proper care.

THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA THE JUDICIAL BRANCH OF PUBLIC POWER

It is possible that the key question that we had to deliberate on here

was if there was a way to determine what took place over at that hospital.

What circumstances led to this baby swap happening?

HOSPITALIZATION WARD ROOMS 238 TO 222

Given that it's a tertiary care facility, it handles a substantial amount of births.

It was an incredibly busy hospital.

Many patients would come from far and wide across the country.

NURSE FROM THE MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL

On occasions, we had to place two babies in one crib, or two in just one incubator.

Also, when twins are born, they are marked as "twin 1" or "twin 2," and "child of…"

The baby who was born in Bogotá, who could have gone to pediatrics here,

was the one labeled twin 2, according to the medical records.

It is conceivable that

one of the babies' identity bracelets happened to slip off

and nobody bothered to report it.

I don't really know.

I'm not exactly sure what might have happened with the mix-up with the twins.

Part of what has been said in this case is that the swap was not intentional.

It appears there was some external cause, some sort of accident that took place.

It is my understanding that one of the babies was born sick…

NURSE FROM THE MATERNO INFANTIL HOSPITAL

…and that he needed to be put on oxygen.

So that baby was the one who wound up being relocated to the pediatric ward.

The other twin was able to stay with his mother.

It is possible that his identity bracelet fell off,

but a nurse or the doctor or anyone who was present, should have said,

"There is a baby whose bracelet fell off. Also, there are two here. So who is who?"

There's absolutely no other way it could've happened.

I mean, I don't think swapping babies like that has ever been done on purpose.

I mean, never.

How many newborns have been born over the years at an institution this big?

How many times has this exact thing happened?

How many people have experienced the same thing and are unaware of it?

And so, we would like to officially set the record straight.

None of us present here were involved in these two babies being switched.

Well, it just happened. Can't change that fact, unfortunately.

And there is no denying that all of this happened at the Materno.

If we see this from a legal perspective, this is a particularly problematic case

because nobody is willing to accept the blame.

Every single entity that has been named in this lawsuit,

every single one of them, in one way or another have said,

"What happened here had nothing to do with me."

The way I see it, it was Christmastime. It happened during the holiday season.

It was a pretty chaotic time there.

The medical staff were a little distracted because it was around Christmastime.

Thanks to Juan Guillermo's investigation,

I came to the realization that I wasn't born in Santander as I thought,

but rather, right here in Bogotá.

And that's where the swap happened. I was taken from Bogotá to Santander.

And that's where I spent my childhood.

In a place where, frankly speaking, I shouldn't have spent my childhood.

He was unlike everyone else.

I never acknowledged that, though.

The reason he didn't look the same as the others.

Well, I ended up looking after him until… well, until he reached adulthood.

Until we uncovered the real story behind this.

And to this day, I'm still there for him, doing my best to take care of him.

That's when I asked them about their parents.

Jorge started telling me, "You know, my mother…"

"It's been about four or five years since she passed away."

"My dad was never a part of our household, but he has passed away as well."

Never having the chance to meet my mother from Bogotá… it was really hard on me.

Just a greeting, a hug from her would've meant the world to me, you know?

Because, well, she was my flesh and blood.

The toughest thing for me was coming to terms with

the fact that the person I'd admired most in this world was not my biological mom.

That the person to whom you owe everything you are as a human being,

is not really your mother, is not your own flesh and blood.

Besides the emotional shock, there's a sting to the ego as well.

It's a tough pill to swallow, when, from one moment to the next,

everything that you thought defined you,

in one way or another, turns out not to be yours.

You feel like you've snatched someone else's life away.

That you've even taken away someone's chance to be happy.

I basically shut myself away, like,

in a world where I was the only one there, the only one who existed in all this.

I tried to find answers to my questions and work through the doubts that I had.

How would things have turned out if I had grown up there with them?

What would've been different if my mom had the chance to meet them?

What would her reaction to me have been? Would she have accepted William as a son?

William and Carlos suffered some deep and serious psychological repercussions

as a result of this situation.

And Carlos, who was brought up in Bogotá but had been originally born in Santander,

did not want to embrace his roots in the rural countryside.

They grew up in a remote, rural corner of the country.

A place where various armed groups have historically been present,

both guerrillas and militia groups, all financed through drug trafficking.

Also, traveling all the way to Santander was definitely no easy task.

Because hardly anyone knew the inner struggles I had to contend with

to even be able to bring myself to smile at someone I didn't know,

or hug someone who I genuinely didn't feel any natural affection towards.

He didn't want to go to travel to La Paz. He didn't want to go to visit his mother.

He couldn't bring himself to accept her as his genuine biological mother.

- Hi, Anita. - Welcome. How are you doing?

- Welcome, son. - I told you I'd be coming by.

When he first took a trip to Santander, he found it to be too remote for him.

He felt like he was out of place there.

Maybe it's because he didn't really know my other siblings well yet,

or my mother and father either.

It's a very touchy subject because, over the span of 25 years,

he was convinced that his actual family, his mother and father, were in Bogotá.

And when he found out that that wasn't actually the case,

well, that was an extremely challenging thing for him.

CARMELO AND ANA DELINA PARENTS OF THE SANTANDER TWINS

He doesn't want to call me Mom, but I understand where he's coming from.

He spent his formative years with another family.

He doesn't use the term "mom" for me.

William is in a similar position.

If his mom were still alive, he wouldn't use the term "mom" for her either.

I understand why that is.

He can come to terms with things. He can accept that my mom is his mom…

It's challenging for him because he had a mother here in Bogotá who raised him.

And when Mrs. Luz Marina passed away, he went through a really rough patch.

He was really affected by the loss of his mother.

We are all able to understand that.

Parents aren't those who gave birth to you, but the people who brought you up.

Then, seeing another woman as his mom, even though she's his actual birth mother,

is difficult for him to adjust to and come to terms with.

William was really hurting.

It was a pain almost like mourning that he was starting to experience

due to the fact that he never met his biological mother.

He was really going through it.

He said, "Well, you see, the other guys, maybe Carlos, did get to see his parents,

and get to know his biological parents, that is, my adoptive parents. I didn't."

What's going on, William?

Nothing. I am just letting off some steam. I'm the most affected by all of this, but…

No, try not to see it like that.

I'm crying because I didn't get a chance to meet their parents as my own parents.

It just wasn't in the cards, but…

But God's will is like that. Everything is going to be okay.

It had a profound effect on William.

When he found out and he learned that his real birth parents had passed away,

we would serve him food, and he would refuse to eat it.

William was overcome with sadness,

knowing that he had been raised in a family that wasn't his own.

Obviously, he began to take inventory of everything that happened.

Like, "Naturally, I don't bear any physical resemblance to my siblings."

"I'm not really a member of this family."

William, do you believe that everything that happened had an impact on your life?

I'm not here crying right now

because I feel like I'm not their sibling or they're not my siblings anymore.

It's more about the adrenaline I'm feeling at the moment.

I distinctly remember that I couldn't get any sleep for about two or three days.

And it was also difficult when the family, people close to me, started to find out.

They would come and talk to me about all of it, like…

"Is it true that you're not really the birth son of Mrs. Ana from Santander?"

"Do you really have another mom?"

It was a terrible experience for the aunt who took the baby from the clinic.

She clearly was put in a situation where she felt like,

"I am the one to blame for all of this. I took a baby that wasn't my sister's."

"So this is all because of what I did." She also started feeling just terrible.

Oh my God, when she told me that news, I cried so much, I cried my heart out.

I thought to myself, "My poor Chinillo will toss me aside."

"William will up and leave."

That was what I actually thought, that William would go and abandon us.

Take a look, Carlos. All of these people are my siblings, yeah?

They're all your siblings, but they're also my siblings too, right?

- We all are. - Yeah, bro.

When I learned what happened, it was really tough for me to deal with.

Here we have Alcira, Wilber, Efraín, Edgar, and…

- And Ancelmo. - Ancelmo.

I had a sinking feeling that I might lose him.

ANCELMO CAÑAS ELDEST SANTANDER BROTHER

That he might go, he might turn his back on us, and…

Well, I would have lost the brother who seemed to understand me better than anyone

and who loved me the most out of everyone.

We had a good relationship.

They say that we have another brother. What could this guy be like?

I was wondering if he would turn out to be a sort of hoodlum or maybe even a grifter.

I've given that a whole lot of thought.

- No, these are tears of happiness here. - Thank you so much.

It never crossed my mind…

- Jorgito, come, you're my brother too. - Come over here.

Seeing that, right then and there, was really tough for me.

I didn't want any unfortunate events happening to anyone.

I mean to say, everything that happened was really unexpected.

All the information came to us bit by bit. Everything just sort of happened.

I didn't want things to get to the point where someone would get hurt by it.

So, seeing how both William and his family were struggling with this,

people were feeling a sense of guilt.

I really said to Laura at one point, like, "We honestly should not have done this."

Ma'am, I'm aware it is really emotional for you to be hearing all of this.

Can you describe to us what your experience has been?

Well, when all of this all started, I found it incredibly sad

to know that my son was…

To learn that I had raised someone who was not actually my son.

Of all my children, he was the one that I loved the most.

Because he absolutely adored me.

He was always with me all the time. Wherever I went, he went.

One way or another, she somehow starts feeling down, and she starts crying.

I comfort her, saying, "Mommy, don't cry."

"Or if you do cry, rest afterwards because if you do cry, you'll want rest."

"But don't go thinking that I'm going to be with another family now."

And so I say to her, "No, Mom. I'm here."

"And I'm going to work to do whatever needs to be done here,

and we are going to put in the effort in order to move forward."

"If I was making sure I took care of you, looked out for you at 50% before this,

now I'm going to do double or triple to make sure I take care of you."

How do you feel right now?

My heart is beating out of my chest.

The very first time that I met them, Anita gave me a hug. She prayed for me.

I can say that I was feeling calm because I'd had a mother all my life.

And my mother was a great one.

Would you like to introduce them, Wilber?

Carlos, I'd like you to meet my parents. I mean, your parents.

When Carmelo gave me a hug, I felt a mix of different emotions

because it was the first time in my life that I was hugged by a father figure.

Carmelo was a man who stood about six feet tall. He was ex-military.

When I saw with my own eyes how such a strong person

could be so emotionally affected for the very first time over his son…

May you be blessed by the Lord, precious son of mine.

May the Lord bless you and be with you, precious and adored son of mine.

This one time, someone asked me if I felt I missed out on having a father.

I told them, "It's not possible to miss something you've never had."

Right? But feeling that fatherly embrace, for me, was a totally new experience.

It was a totally new sensation for me. It was something really unique.

It took me 25 years to finally find out what a fatherly embrace really was.

And I also found it really touching on an emotional level.

Many people say that there is no mother like your very own mother,

while people say that a father can be just about anyone who shows up.

For the first time in my life, I felt a nice fatherly embrace.

And it was something that was very… On the spiritual level, it was fulfilling.

Don't cry. Everything that's happening is God's will, okay?

Though we've been very different people since our childhood, since adolescence,

he is still my brother.

At that very moment, when I first shook William's hand,

I felt that nice charisma that he had, that good energy of his.

Then it helped me to see myself more, and I felt that click just immediately.

I got this feeling like, besides discovering the truth,

I had discovered the person who was my real brother.

We hugged each other goodbye, and I said, "I love you so much." And he said it back.

And that was just the first day we had met.

I also saw how Carlos reacted to this.

Carlos sometimes presents himself as this tough guy.

but I know that, deep down, he is fragile and sensitive at times.

And I came to the conclusion that he, some way or another,

was falling apart. He was feeling bad

because he got the impression that he was losing me.

Right then, I started to get anxious, because knowing how Jorge is,

I knew he would want to start to develop a relationship like he never had with me.

And that's because of our preferences, our priorities, because of our passions.

Then I compared myself to a little child who has a toy and doesn't play with it,

only to have someone take it away from them.

That is something I didn't want, to lose my brother.

My fear was that he'd prefer being with William over being with me.

That he'd say to me, "I no longer consider you my brother."

"William and I have a special connection, and you could never take his place."

Good afternoon to you.

- How are you doing? - Good. Oh, you're identical twins!

That's right.

You two look exactly alike.

They would always try to give me and my brother matching haircuts,

but we didn't resemble each other.

- Was it the same for you, Jorge? - What?

Did they make an effort to cut your hair the same way as Carlos?

Of course they did.

In fact, my mom would take us to get our hair cut by the barbers in training,

and the easiest option was for them to just shave us bald.

That meant that we wouldn't have to go back for a longer period of time.

Then when we got older, we each began to style our hair differently.

That is when Carlos and I started to establish our own identities.

Both of us developed our own unique personalities.

But when you were still kids, you'd go to the…

We would get free haircuts from the barbers in training.

What do you think? Do we look the same, or not?

- You're identical. - Like two peas in a pod.

Exactly.

William and I started to share things and to wear the same clothes.

We did many things together that with Carlos--

If I had asked Carlos to do them, he probably would have said yes,

but I just didn't bother to ask him because he was so serious, so I didn't.

Cortito passes to Tobón, centers it… And it's a goal!

Carlos started to be colder towards me. He was more gruff towards me in general.

He did this because he was in pain. Deep down, he was feeling hurt.

I wanted to make him feel better about it. So I kept thinking, analyzing it all.

I asked myself, "Is there anything that I can do to make him feel better?"

"To make my brother understand that I still care for him and that I love him?"

Because, at the end of the day, he was still my brother.

There was nothing better than getting a tattoo of him next to the one of my mom.

I was reserving that space to have my sister's portrait tattooed on me,

but in light of everything that happened, I wanted that spot to be for Carlos.

I wanted him to have the feeling that he was still a big part of my world.

The moment that he saw my new tattoo, he what I was trying to say,

and in one way or another, his attitude underwent a change.

And I also feel that it helped him, in one way or another, to accept William.

When William and I first met, let's say that we had our share of differences.

We had a series of disagreements, and that was on both of us.

I found myself talking about things that I really knew nothing about.

I was not managing to put myself in William's shoes.

Things like, "You grew up in the city. You are more privileged."

"You wouldn't have survived growing up in the country."

That having grown up in the country would've been too much for me to take.

I think that both of us went through that.

As time went by, we learned to listen to each other and understand

that each of us grew up with different advantages and disadvantages.

The relationship that we have is much better now.

I am the godfather of his son. We travel together, just the two of us.

The relationship that we have is very positive.

And mind you, I have no biological or civil ties to William.

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday, happy birthday Happy birthday to you

I made the trip all the way to their homes.

I made my way to the butcher's shop. I dropped by Carlos and Jorge's house.

As time went by, it became obvious to me

that the twins belonged to two very different settings in Colombia.

One pair of twins had been raised in the city of Bogotá.

During the late 1980s, when the twins were accidentally switched,

that city was a difficult place to live. It was a violent place.

Bogotá was a city that was on the front lines of the war.

It may well have been the darkest period in the history of the nation's capital.

A city where, of course, the residents had access to education and healthcare,

but it was also a city where people were dealing with hunger on a daily basis.

And the twins from Bogotá were struggling with these circumstances.

The twins lived in a family situation

where the mother, who was the head of the household, did just that.

She went out to work every day so that she could provide for her family,

who were those two boys along with their older sister.

We grew up in a modest home.

We didn't have any luxuries.

But yeah, I would say that we were given plenty of love.

My mother was known as a person who would say,

"I don't need a man to help raise them. I can raise my kids all on my own."

"It isn't easy. There have been times that I've had to take on service jobs."

"There have been times that I've had to figure out how to put you to bed

and provide you with at least a panela water and some bread to eat."

She always managed to take care of us all on her own.

She raised three kids all by herself.

And she always did it with that same mentality,

and her nature, saying we needed to get an education to earn a living.

That is the real feminism.

Just with her example, she taught us how to be human, how to be people.

If, after coming back home from a long day of cleaning houses,

she had to go take care of cars, or go and wash some clothes

in order to be able to provide for our basic needs, she would do it.

Though we didn't have a father with us, she'd try to do what was best for us.

She was always a very loving person.

She was incredibly kind.

Even though my mother did not have anything of her own, she would…

She would do people favors, without expecting anything…

She would do favors for other people, and she'd expect nothing in return.

Many times, she obviously didn't get anything in return, since she did it for…

I apologize.

She was incredibly kind.

And that's the reason why many people loved her.

When I got to know William, I noticed that he's the same as her.

I mean, he does that same exact thing. He does it even to this day.

Then also, based on all that happened, I realized it could be a genetic trait.

And based on her personality

because I didn't expect that somehow William would be just like she was.

LUZ MARINA CASTRO JULY 14, 1952 - NOVEMBER 9, 2009

NANCY SEGAL PSYCHOLOGIST AND GENETICIST SPECIALIST IN TWINS

I don't know if anyone could call what happened an experiment,

seeing what impact a swap has on twins, how they develop in the environment,

and how they cope with life…

JUAN JOSÉ YUNIS GENETICIST

…depending on the circumstances that they're facing in life

and their individual genetic background.

I wouldn't call it an experiment because experiments have an element of control.

In an experiment, there is always a hypothesis to prove.

Here, an accident occurred, and after that,

the thing is, these people's lives as they knew them were changed for good.

And also how each person faces their own life.

Did you guys ever play Tejo at all?

- Yes, we did, but not a lot. - But it was…

When we were children, we used to play at the sports center,

but we never played it on a big court like this one here.

Our court was a clay one, right? Remember that?

Yes, but it was never exactly a regular thing for us.

- So you don't know how to play. - No, we don't.

This is the favorite sport of my siblings in Santander.

Of course, every time they play, they're the champions over there.

- I tag along with them to learn, but… - This guy will mop the floor with us.

Just our luck. Come on. Let's see what you've got.

You can go first, then. Show us what you've got.

Let's see what you get here.

See? That was a good one, right? It was awesome.

- Can you tell that I've been practicing? - Wonderful job.

Let's skip the guy from Santander's turn.

- Cool your jets there. - I am from Santander.

I'll throw just like my little brother.

- Play the game. Don't fight. - But Carlos started it.

So blood is truly thicker than water.

You're just terrible.

No, it's you who is making me look bad, Carlitos.

- No, not like that. - Go on, give it your best shot.

- Okay. Go ahead, Wilber. - He's the one who knows best.

Go get 'em, roadside hawk.

- He knows what he's doing. - Move your hand.

- Look at that… - It's a bad shot.

- You've finally done something right! - You got a strike!

Something peculiar about the day when we all first met

was the first question that we asked each other.

What were things we had in common, and how were we different?

We were not talking about our physical resemblance, of course.

Take for example, when it comes to the case of Wilber and me,

we are very much on the neat side. We're obsessed with tidiness.

We have more serious personalities.

We're just a little bit more…

Back then, we were more on the flirty side.

We're more serious. We're more considerate in terms of punctuality.

Jorge always talks about the occasion when he bought the same clothes as William.

I distinctly remember when Wilber said to me, "I'm going to copy you."

"Let's go shopping together. You know what you're doing, and you're cool."

We went to a shop that was close by to pick up some clothes.

He said to me, "Some browns shoes." And I corrected him by saying, "Brown."

I was making fun of him.

Then the stylist made fun of him too, so I said, "Don't do that. Only I can."

"I have the biological right to do that. You have to respect him."

Well, talking about us, in our case, we're more sociable,

and more charismatic too.

We always see things around us in the most positive light.

Even if we are experiencing difficulties, we approach things with positivity.

We're more expressive in terms of sharing our feelings with our family members.

We tend to be more reserved when it comes to those things.

When it comes to what we're feeling, we're private and reserved, unlike them.

- There. Take it. Get it, brother. - Hey, Jorge!

You hurt me on my jaw.

- Throw it, bro. Right over here. Throw it. - Shoot it! Shoot!

Nothing but net there, my dude.

Let's play.

- So, should I score again or not? - Hey, easy.

Take it easy, bro. Bro!

It's going to go in!

- Damn it. - Do it again!

- Hey, Wilber! - Here you go. No, don't, Wilber.

- Oh yeah! - Nice going, Wilber!

That was really rough, son.

That's genetics, son.

Having a genetic link means that you also have a cultural link.

Genetics play an important role. There is no questioning that.

But also, the environment in which a person spends their formative years

and the opportunities that that person is given in life,

will also have an impact on things.

But genetics play a major role.

Here, it takes an hour to walk to school every single morning,

and it takes an hour to get back home.

You'd come home from school and you would have to do your work,

your chores that you had to do at home.

You would have to go and get firewood.

There was no proper aqueduct or anything to help bring water to the house,

so we had to go to the nearest well to go fetch water.

At night, we'd use a small candle, and we called it our little lamp.

Since we didn't have any electricity at our house either,

we obviously had to light candles.

From the 1990s until the 2000s,

the area was always dominated by guerrillas.

Around the year 2000, they started to leave the area,

and then the paramilitary came along as well.

At that time, there was illegal farming. For example, there was coca.

Because of our circumstances, many times we had to harvest coca and work the field.

It's something we did out of necessity, not because we wanted to do it.

I would always say to myself, "This life is not for me. I want to find a way out."

But I had to wait for 17 years, until I finally turned 18,

and I joined the army so I could get myself out of that situation.

There was a brother of mine who also served in the armed forces.

He was older than I was.

As fate would have it, he lost his life while in the service.

He lost his life when he was just 22 years old.

For me, it was… Well, for all of us, it was incredibly difficult to endure.

At that time, all William and I thought about was getting revenge.

When we were kids, we would always say, "When I'm 18, I'm going to join the army."

"And once we do, we are going to avenge the death of our older brother."

When William came and told me that he was going to serve in the army,

my first thought was that he would wind up being killed too.

After all, Israel had already been killed.

My mom went through a rough patch when William enlisted in the army.

He asked me, "Mommy, will you let me enlist in the armed forces?"

I told him, "I won't say yes or no to that."

"There is no way I'm telling you to go or not."

I was worried that he would wind up getting killed too.

I told him, "It's up to you." And he said, "Mommy, let me go."

"I want to go and serve in the armed forces."

"I want to get myself a military service record,

and when I'm finished serving, I'll move to Bogotá."

I remember the day Wilber arrived, after I had been there for four months.

Seeing him in uniform and all that, well, I felt kind of jealous of him.

I went home that afternoon and told my parents, "I'm going to serve too."

And then we were assigned to serve in the southern part of Bolívar.

When we were sent to the southern part of Bolívar, well, we…

We began to grow closer.

We found that brotherhood, because we used to fight a lot back when we were just kids.

But once we got there,

maybe because it was an area where the enemy was stationed nearby,

I felt like we developed a closer sense of brotherhood.

Eventually, I got to the point where I couldn't pursue a military career,

and I had no choice but to retire from the army.

I moved to the house of a godmother of mine in Bogotá.

She was an arepas vendor.

She taught me the recipe as well as how to make the arepas,

and I started working as a vendor with her.

I set up my own street vending stand.

I also sold arepas in the street, in the city of Bogotá.

Working for a family opened a number of doors for me.

Through those opportunities, I was able to get a start in the meat industry.

And after that, he encouraged Wilber to join him.

He was leading the way for Wilber to come to Bogotá,

and anyone else that wanted to come, but the other siblings didn't want to.

A person is born with their own genetic makeup,

and that genetic makeup can make that person more driven to do things.

How are you doing? How is it going, Don Félix?

And when I learned the life stories of my twin brothers,

and heard that they were both about to become professionals,

I set the same goal for myself in life, and I said,

"I would also like to become a professional."

Hey, my man.

I'd like to use what I saved at the shop and pay to be able to have my own career.

Hey, William, my friend.

- My friend, how are you doing? - Awesome!

He has studied, he's now a lawyer, he's specialized, he's super driven.

- So it's a deal then, Feiser. - Thank you, my friend.

- God bless. - Send my blessings to everyone.

- Goodbye. - I'll see you later.

Of all my mother's children that I grew up around,

I'm the only one who obtained a degree-- who has a degree. As of right now.

I managed to get my law degree.

I was also given the chance to study to specialize in constitutional law,

and that's also when I decided to return here, to La Paz, to live.

The town elected me to be a council member by popular vote.

WILLIAM CAÑAS VELASCO PRESIDENT

And from there, to get to work,

and be able to help many families in La Paz who also want to get ahead,

as I have managed to do.

Professionally, I am a public accountant, and I specialize in taxes,

and I have some done some additional studies.

I work as deputy finance director within a labor union.

Aside from working, I also like to play sports.

I participate in basketball, swimming, and CrossFit.

My job right now is… I'm a meat carver.

I like this job, I'm passionate about it and I'm happy at my workplace.

My plan is to have my own business and to become independent,

and to move forward, just like I always do, with a level head.

You must have an open mind to understand and begin to comprehend

that in just an instant, something can change your life completely.

At that time, I thought of myself as a unique sort of person.

I thought that there was no one like me and that I was the best.

But life showed me I was wrong, and it did it with a slap in the face.

Not only did it tell me that I'm not a unique person,

but it brought me someone just like me, someone identical to me.

And I learned from that experience too.

Now that some years have gone by since the discovery,

to see the great relationships they have, Jorge and William, and Carlos and Wilber,

is something really fulfilling for me.

I feel like what we did was actually okay, and I have no regrets about it.

- Thank you, Mr. Ciro! - Thank you so much.

- Over here? - Yeah, here.

Hi there, Mom!

I'm just joking.

- Close the door, please. - Thank you.

- Mrs. Anita! - Carlitos, how are you doing?

William didn't want to tell you about this. Make sure to scold him.

- Hi there, Carlitos. - Hi there, William!

How are you doing, Mom?

- Hello, my son. How are you? - I'm doing well, Mom.

Affectionately, this song is for Doña Anita and Doña Luz Marina,

two beautiful mothers who brought these four twins into this world.

And it goes like this.

I'm going to tell you this story Of so many things that happened

Things that are surprising for us Things that we will not forget

The story of the sets of twins Which has shaken all of Colombia

That fateful December 21st During the year of 1988

Four young boys were born To begin on the journey

And an error at the hospital Would change the destiny of them all

And an error at the hospital Would change the destiny of them all

Among those four young boys There is a deep bond and love today

Because now they are four brothers And no one can separate them

And it was only two mothers Who brought them into the world

And it was only two mothers Who brought them into the world

Wilber and Carlos, ladies and gents Born here in my own land

Here in La Paz, Santander In a beautiful, gorgeous village

Where the people are humble And stay positive, no matter what…

Now, ten years after the events,

I ask myself every morning what is going to happen to us that day.

And I always do it with an open mind.

And I do it knowing that, nowadays, I have gained two more brothers.

Twenty-five years later One fateful day, a friend of Jorge's

When she got to know William She had the surprise of her life

And that is the moment when the story That everybody knows was discovered

And that is the moment when the story That everybody knows was discovered

Today, they are proudly reunited And we are all enjoying our lives

"This is wonderful," said their parents "For our family has grown bigger"

Today the brothers are the pride of La Paz And that story will never be forgotten

Today the brothers are the pride of La Paz And that story will never be forgotten