A court in the city of Salta, in northern Argentina, has united a family, granting them a wish they have held for almost six decades.
A judge in a family and civil court in the capital of Salta Province signed off last week approved the adoption of a 61-year-old male by a 76-year-old man he has long thought of as his father.
The unprecedented resolution, which follows previous failed attempts by the family to be united in law, ends a battle they have fought for 59 years.
The court identified the touching story’s protagonists as Ana López, aged 82; Luis González, aged 76; and Pedro Ruiz, aged 61. However, their names were changed in order to protect their identity.
The family’s story began when Ana began a relationship with Luis, almost six decades ago, when Pedro was just two years old.
When the child turned 10 years old, Ana and Luis married and the trio have lived as a family ever since then.
But for all three, as they testified to the court, something was missing. They were not a family in the eyes of the law.
On three previous occasions, the family asked the local courts to allow González to adopt Ruiz as his son. Pedro never had a relationship with his biological father, who passed away in 1974.
The requests were rejected on the grounds that the previous Civil Code did not allow it.
Given this context, the family forgot the court battle, though the men continued their father-son relationship.
However, when the trio discovered last year that Argentina’s Civil Code had been modified in 2015. Luis, they realised, might finally be able to legally adopt Pedro, despite them both being adults.
With little hope, and more questions than answers, the trio returned to the courts.
Last Friday, to their shock, Civil Persons and Family Court No. 2 of Orán announced that their request had been approved.
Before the eyes of the law, Luis and Pedro were now father and son before the Argentine Judiciary, they were told.
Ana María Carriquiry, the judge who delivered the ruling, explained the unusual situation that had been brought before her court in an interview with the La Nación newspaper.
“It was difficult to put together the adoption because at first we spoke of the child – and it turns out the child is 61 years old. Everyone involved in this adoption is elderly. They’re not just adults, they’re older. The adoptee is already a grandfather,” remarked the judge.
“We had to review legislation and survey international conventions on the rights of the elderly, to which Argentina adheres. We verified that here there was a right to identity and self-determination and autonomy of the elderly which had to be respected.
“The family really wanted it, because they were already a family. For their documents to match their real identity. And so it was,” she stated.
More unity is also coming for their extended family.
Following the adoption, the judge asked Pedro’s children, and grandchildren, if they wished to modify their DNI national identification cards and change their last name to González.
All stated their intent to do so.
“There is no one family model, it’s a cultural construct and we must safeguard the right to identity, to be able to call yourself the way you identify, with the name of your own family,” the judge underlined.
– TIMES/NA
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