STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Mother tell her long-lost son:
"I love you and ... and I'm not
going to let you go."
Her son, now 37, tells her in
Spanish: "I love you and I
missed you a lot."
David Amaya Barrick was taken
from Chicago to Mexico as a
boy by his father
He is discovered to be a U.S.
citizen while illegally crossing
the U.S.-Mexico border...
San Diego, California (sky updates) -- At
last, a Wisconsin mother and her
long-lost son met Saturday for the
first time since her estranged
husband spirited him away to
Mexico more than 30 years ago.
It was an emotional reunion in the
San Diego airport, heightened by
the fact that the mother speaks
only English and her 37-year-old
son only Spanish.
David Amaya Barrick, whose father
took him across the border at
about age 2 from Chicago, was
biting his nails just before his
mother, Kathy Amaya, now 60,
appeared before him in the
airport.
They embraced, hugged and
kissed -- the first time they've
laid eyes on each other in about
35 years.
The son spoke in Spanish: "I love
you and I missed you a lot. I
welcome you into my life."
Kathy Amaya's husband took their
son David to Mexico when he was
2.
The mother declared to her son: "I
love you and I'm very happy to
see you and I'm not going to let
you go."
Later, the son told reporters that
he was at a loss of words.
The mother remarked: "He's all
grown up."
Abducted son reunites with father
after 13 years
The mother and son will spend a
few days in San Diego getting to
know each other again. They will
do so during long strolls along the
beach, they said.
Then they will travel Tuesday to
her home in Chippewa Falls,
Wisconsin, where they will enjoy
Thanksgiving together. Kathy
Amaya, an assistant housekeeper
at a hotel, has four adult children
who are half-siblings to David
Amaya. Two of those adult
children live with Kathy Amaya.
Saturday's journey to see her son
also marked another milestone in
Kathy Amaya's life: It was the first
time she ever flew in a plane.
The separation between mother
and son spanned 1,800 miles and
lasted more than 30 years. The
mother counts the absence as 35
years, the son as 34 years -- an
exact figure to be certainly figured
out while they get reacquainted.
The family saga then took a
dramatic turn by how David Amaya
was discovered: He was arrested
illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border at Imperial Beach,
California, on October 30. The U.S.
Border Patrol thought he and a
Mexican national were smugglers
because they were in the
company of six Romanian
nationals.
They were all arrested after
crossing a flood control tunnel
frequented by intravenous drug
users and polluted by human
waste. Bandits had earlier robbed
David Amaya of his money and
cell phone, leaving him only the
clothes he was wearing.
David Amaya didn't even have any
identification cards on him. At
first, he said he was a Mexican
national, and then, as if he
summoned a distant memory, he
told Border Patrol agents that he
was a U.S. citizen born in
Chicago.
Freed Iranian journalist, 'proud'
son dream of a reunion
Border Patrol agents checked out
his story and indeed found his
birth certificate -- as well as his
mother, in Wisconsin.
Complicating the drama are the
conflicting parental accounts
about the son's relocation to San
Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he was
raised by paternal grandparents.
Kathy Amaya said her estranged
husband took the boy to Mexico
without her permission and
wouldn't return him. She mailed
letters to the grandparents in San
Luis Potosi, but those notes were
never answered, she said.
More recently, she searched for
her son under the name "David
Amaya" for years on social media,
but she never knew that he was
using her maiden name -- Barrick
-- as part of his full name, a
common practice in Latin America.
Her estranged husband, who
hasn't made himself available for
comment, told their son that his
mother abandoned him at an
orphanage because she didn't
love him, David Amaya said. But
after the father put the boy in the
grandparents' care, "he almost
never spent time with me," David
Amaya said.
At one point, the mother nearly
lost all hope of ever seeing her
son again, unable to make contact
with him, she said.
When the couple divorced in
1986, they didn't settle on child
custody, so police were unable to
help her, she said.
David Amaya will spend the
holidays with his mother in
Wisconsin for a month, and he
hopes to speak with his father
about what really happened to him
when he was 2 or 3 years old.
Then David Amaya will return to
San Diego to build a new life. He
was a drummer in a band in
Mexico and now likes San Diego's
proximity to Mexico and its
cultural atmosphere. Moreover,
he's taken a liking to a local
church pastor, Freddy Rivas, who
has helped Amaya with food and
shelter since the Border Patrol
released him this month. Amaya
was recently baptized at the
church.
While in Mexico, he married and
divorced, and his ex-wife and their
two children live in Mexico City.
As he makes a new home in San
Diego, he says he will recount his
life by writing a book.
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