Brothers Raised As Fraternal Twins Discover They Have Identical Twins In Birth Mix-Up

Jan 30, 2023 by apost team

The story of these two pairs of fraternal twin brothers might seem straight out of a Latin American telenovela, which unraveled after a friend's random encounter at a butcher shop.

Laura Vega Garzón from Bogota, Colombia, was at a grocery store in 2013 when she thought she saw Jorge Castro, a 25-year-old co-worker from their engineering firm, behind the butcher's counter. But Garzón's friend, Janeth Páez, introduced the man as William Velasco, who was supposed to give them a good deal on prime cuts.

Garzón was so intrigued by the young butcher with the same face, smile and narrow build as her co-worker. So, she told Jorge about his "twin" the following day at work and he actually thought that she was talking about Carlos Castro, his fraternal twin brother. 

Growing up, Carlos was the taller twin with a bigger build than Jorge and he also didn't look anything like their sister, Diana. In an exclusive with the New York Times in 2015, Carlos always had this feeling that he was different from the family he had known, including his twin brother. 

Months later, William also found out about his "doppelganger" at Garzón's workplace from Páez but thought it was pure coincidence. Then one day, Páez convinced Garzón to show Jorge a picture of William from her phone. He could not stop staring at the photo. 

Baffled by the image of his look-a-like, Jorge decided to check on William's social media profile and discovered that he also had a fraternal twin brother, who looked exactly like Carlos. His name was Wilber Velasco. 

William and Wilber didn't get along as kids. As an adult, William was closer to his cousin, Brian, Páez's boyfriend. Brian then told William that Jorge had a twin brother as well, who was Wilber’s mirror image.

Amid the anguish and confusion, Jorge and Carlos decided to get to the bottom of this mystery and got in touch with William and Wilber, as arranged by Garzón. The four men were face-to-face for the first time.

"It was like staring through a mirror, and on the other side of the mirror, there’s a parallel universe," Jorge said. 

After a jittery start, the four men started comparing notes about their childhood and their mothers. They also got to learn about each other's qualities and quirks. They cried together about the twist of fate in their lives. 

They figured out what may have happened when they were born. On Dec. 21, 1988, premature identical twins Jorge and William were born at the Materno Infantil Hospital in Bogota. Carlos and Wilber, also premature identical twins, were born the following day but were brought to the same hospital from Santander, a province in the north because Carlos had stomach issues.

Jorge believes that they were switched at birth at the hospital's nursery, and their moms weren't aware of it. Their families were discharged on the same day. Wilber returned to Santander with William, not Carlos. 

After learning of their real twins, the four brothers have since grown a lot closer to each other and resolved their personal differences. In 2018, the brothers published their story, "Accidental Brothers," through California State University. 

In February 2022, all of William's brothers were present when he earned his law degree. William also won a seat as a councilor in the Municipality of La Paz, his hometown, with his brothers fully supporting him in his campaign. 

apost.com

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