Tampa woman reunites with mom in Chile, 37 years after coerced adoption

Reporters with cameras and microphones swarmed Maria Hastings as she stepped off the plane in Chile, but she looked beyond them.

• Her eyes searched the terminal for a face just like hers, with a smile so broad it pushed appled cheeks into her eyes.
• She found it, framed with straight black hair and bangs. And the two embraced for the first time in 37 years.

Why it matters: Hastings reunited with her birth mother in Santiago, Chile, last week — a hug her mother thought may never happen again after she was manipulated into giving Hastings up for adoption.

Catch up quick: Hastings spent most of her life in Tampa and thought she'd been given up willingly until she read about Connecting Roots, an organization that reunites the stolen children of Chile with their birth families.

• She's spent the last year talking to her birth mother on WhatsApp, trying to get to know each other through a language barrier and technical issues.
• Last week, Hastings joined a group of other adoptees, and translators with Connecting Roots, on a 10-hour flight to meet their birth families.

The big picture: The group learned about the history behind their adoptions at the Memorial of the Disappeared, on a private tour of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, and at the president's palace.

• The adoptees have become friends and are supporting each other like no one else can, Connecting Roots CEO Tyler Graf said.
• "To see them lean on each other has been amazing," Graf told Axios. "They're proud of each other. And I'm proud of them too."

Yes, but: The smallest moments with her birth mom have meant the most to Hastings.

• "Watching her make lunch while listening to music as she cooked made me teary-eyed and I went to hug her in that moment," Hastings told Axios. "Just now she took me clothes shopping because she didn't get to experience buying clothes for me when I was younger."

What's ahead: Graf told Axios that more than 100 new cases have poured in since news outlets started covering the trip.

• When he returns to the U.S., he'll form as many of those connections as he can, and then others will need to pack for that trip.