David Amaya Barrick was still a toddler when his Dad took him from his
birthplace in Chicago across the border to Mexico . And now, more than 30
years since they last saw each other, Barrick and his mother have
been brought back together in an emotional reunion .
“I love you and I'm very happy to
see you and I'm not going to let you go," were the words Kathy Amaya told
her son when they were reunited on Saturday in San Diego.
The meeting was not a simple one to
arrange. The pair had not been in contact since Barrick, first was moved to
Mexico when he was between 2 and 3 years old. Amaya said she attempted to track
him down over the years but was unable to reach him through her now ex-husband
or her mother-in-law.
“My father told me my mother had
left me abandoned and orphaned,” Barrick told NBC 7 through an interpreter in an interview
earlier this month. “I don’t know my mother, and I find out she’s been looking
for me for 30 years, and I have the longing to meet her for the first time,” he
said.
Earlier this month, Barrick was
detained by U.S. authorities when he was caught attempting to cross the border
with a number of Romanian nationals. At first, authorities assumed he was part
of an illegal drug smuggling operation, because he was caught passing through a
water treatment tunnel frequented by individuals in the drug trade.
However, Barrick told Border Patrol
officials that he was in fact a U.S. citizen born in Chicago in 1977. When they
confirmed this information, he was let go.
"They told me he was beaten
and robbed before he crossed the border and the thieves took his money and his
cell (phone)," Amaya, 60, told Reuters. "They said he seemed like a
really good guy, and that he only speaks Spanish and I don't."
Barrick said he plans to write a
book about his journey and plans to spend plenty of time catching up with his
mother and other members of his family that he’s never even met. His first stop
will be Wisconsin, where he will enjoy Thanksgiving with his Mom and four
siblings.
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