Uprooted: the lost children of Hato Mayor

1 September 2015

In the 1980s, more than 200 children in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic, were separated from their families and placed in the care of couples from Quebec. In the heart of this small town lost in the Caribbean, a formidably efficient "adoption machine" had been set up completely legally by a Quebec network of missionaries and adoptive parents. Thirty years later, accompanied by Orlando Fleurant, one of these children who is now an adult, Isabelle Hachey followed in the footsteps of this organization which, although motivated by good intentions, gave false hope to many families. Through the history of Orlando, DERACINES lifts the veil on the drift of a system whose impacts are still felt, in Quebec as in the Dominican Republic.