My colleagues and students at CSU Fullerton were a great source of inspiration and assistance. Professor André Zampaulo, of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and Claudia Acosta, of the Department of Instructional Design and Technology, translated documents, records, and popular media. Professor Aaron Lukaszewski of the Department of Psychology reviewed selected portions of the manuscript, Professor John Patton provided calipers and other anthropometric tools for recording body measurements of the twins, and Professor Stephen Neufeld of the Department of History provided comments and sources on historical matter. Other contributors include Amanda Killian, a former member of the faculty; Linda Pabon, graduate secretary in the Department of Psychology; and the students Brittney Hernandez, Hannah Bojorquez, Lisette Bohorquez, Jaime Muñoz-Velázquez, Erika Becker, and Erika Orozco. Accidental Brothers also benefited from my conversations with Professor Ray Williams and his graduate student Valentín González-BohÓrquez at the University of California, Riverside, and Professor James Alstrum at Illinois State University. My Australian colleagues Dr. Jeffrey Craig and Dr. Yuk Loke were instrumental in the epigenetic analyses and interpretation reported here and elsewhere, my Canadian colleague Professor P. Tony Vernon offered insights and advice, and my Spanish colleague Dr. María del Mar Gil translated the twins’ birth record. Jessica Crespo, MBA, professional translator and interpreter from Gran Canaria, Spain, translated selected interview material. Yesika’s former instructor in Bogotá Ligia Gómez and Ligia’s colleague Diana Ramos administered general intelligence tests to the twins prior to our arrival.
Mabel Terrero, Yesika’s student at Columbia University, assisted Yesika in the preparation of the genograms. The graphic artist Kelly Donovan at CSU Fullerton, who is an identical twin, added her usual magic to the photographs and charts that appear in the book.
Kevin Haroian, of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research, conducted the twin type analyses based on fingerprint and body size. The late professor Irving I. Gottesman, also of the University of Minnesota, to whom this book is dedicated, was a great source of encouragement, inspiration, and advice, and I only wish he were around to see the final product. My friend and colleague Dr. Milton Diamond, of the University of Hawaii, reviewed passages related to gender identity and development. Professor Cecil Reynolds, of Texas A&M University, and Dr. Julia Hickman, clinical psychologist, evaluated the twins’ drawings, and the handwriting consultant Eileen Page compared their penmanship.
Meeting the twins and their family members was an unforgettable experience. Each added an indelible entry to our understanding of how genetic factors and life circumstances make us who we are.
Pictured are the vast uneven terrain and poorly marked paths we had to traverse during the one-hour walk from La Paz to the barbeque at William and Wilber’s childhood home in Vereda El Recreo. The La Paz brothers had also arranged police protection for our visit. Wilber is third in line behind the mother and child. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
At left is one of many photographs of Carlos (left) and Jorge (right) at age five, when they graduated from preschool. At right is the only childhood photograph of Wilber (left) and William (right), at about the age of six near their La Paz home. PHOTOS COURTESY: JORGE AND CARLOS; WILLIAM AND WILBER
William and Wilber lived in this house in Vereda El Recreo, near La Paz, between the ages of five and eighteen, when they joined the military. Five other family members, including the brothers’ parents and older sibling Edgar, also lived there during those years. The house had neither running water nor electricity. PHOTO BY Y. S. MONTOYA
Jorge and Carlos lived in this modest two-story house in Bogotá with their mother, sister, cousin, and three aunts. From left to right are Jorge; his aunt Maria Teresa; the author, Nancy L. Segal; and Jorge’s identical reared-apart twin, William. This was William’s first visit to his biological family’s home. PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA YANG
William and Wilber attended a school that looked much like the one in the photograph at the top. Between the ages of five and eleven, every weekday they walked an hour to school and an hour to return home. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
The bottom photograph shows the Colegio Restrepo Millan, the prestigious high school Jorge and Carlos attended in Bogotá. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
The switched twins, Carlos (left), born in Vélez but raised in Bogotá, and William (right), born in Bogotá but raised in La Paz, at the Unidad Neonatal (Neonatal Unit) of the Hospital Regional de Vélez. This was Carlos’s first visit to his actual birthplace and William’s first visit to his assumed birthplace. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
Carmelo and Ana, shown at their former home in Vereda El Recreo. The couple now resides in another town, a move that required them to walk three hours in order to host the barbeque on the day of our visit. PHOTO BY ALBERTO ORJUELA
Crossing this suspension bridge with its missing rungs and uncertain support was one of only two options for getting to William and Wilber’s childhood home. The other was to wade through the mud and water of the creek just below. On the way there I chose the bridge, walking closely behind Carlos (shown in a black tank top and blue shorts). On the way back I took the creek. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
(Left to right) Wilber, Carlos, William, and Jorge at the March 29, 2015, barbeque held at William and Wilber’s childhood home. Except for Carlos, they are wearing the high boots and long pants necessary in the rugged countryside. This picture was taken just six months after the twins’ first reunion, so Carlos’s dress may have reflected his inner turmoil and reluctance to embrace the truth about his life. For lunch, William and Wilber’s father Carmelo had slaughtered a cow that was roasting on spits behind the four brothers. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
William (left) and Jorge (right), after the long hot walk back to La Paz from William’s childhood home. Jorge’s chest bears tattoos of his brother Carlos and his mother, Luz, with the inscription MI SAGRADA FAMILIA (My Sacred Family). To assure Carlos they would always be brothers, Jorge acquired the tattoo of Carlos soon after the switch was revealed. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
In 2017 Jorge (left) formed a construction company with longtime friends. He now develops plans for their new business, which includes constructing a house for William’s parents, Carmelo and Ana Delina. PHOTO COURTESY: JORGE
William (right) managed the small butcher shop, Carnes Finas de Colombia (Fine Meats of Colombia), at the back of La Gran Manzana (The Big Apple) supermarket until he entered law school in 2016. William remains involved in the business, but Wilber is the new manager. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
As a professional in the world of finance, Carlos (left) manages accounts and other financial records in his well-appointed office. PHOTO COURTESY: CARLOS
Wilber (right) now works as manager of the Carnes Finas de Colombia butcher shop. PHOTO COURTESY: WILBER
The identical reared-apart twins Jorge (left) and William (right) arm-wrestle. In the end William’s greater strength and stamina brought Jorge’s arm crashing to the table. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
Jorge (left) and William (right) at the February 2016 wedding of Jorge’s friend and coworker Laura, whose mistaking of William for Jorge led to the discovery of the switch. The twins’ physical resemblance is so striking in this picture that I had to ask them who was who. PHOTO COURTESY: JORGE AND WILLIAM
Jorge with his young son, Santi. Several months before Laura mistook William for Jorge, he had been wearing his hair long and had a goatee. Laura probably would not have confused them if Jorge had not cut and shaved his hair when he did. PHOTO COURTESY: JORGE
The twins gathered in William and Wilber’s apartment on the evening of July 17, 2016, to celebrate the thirty-second birthday of Jorge and Carlos’s sister, Diana. From left to right: William, Jorge, Diana, Wilber, and Carlos, with Jorge’s young son, Santi, in front. PHOTO BY N. L. SEGAL
Notes
Preface
1. Answers to many twin-related questions I have received over the years, and responses to many twin-related myths I h
ave encountered are available in N. L. Segal, Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables, and Facts About Twins (San Diego: Elsevier, 2017).
2. For aerial views of Bogotá, see https://mapcarta.com/28093320/Map; and for Vereda El Recreo, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/El+Recreo,+Vélez,+Santander+Department,+Colombia/@6.1579883,-73.6805392,14z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x8e4203ccb76ef8dd:0x88581adc14f2e1d2!2sLa+Paz,+Santander+Department,+Colombia!3b1!8m2!3d6.1898099!4d-73.57585!3m4!1s0x8e41f7fd4e0e065d:0x2d2ebdd172403e0!8m2!3d6.1500272!4d-73.6666775.
3. B. Palmer, “Double Insanity: Twin Studies Are Pretty Much Useless,” Slate, August 24, 2011, http://www.slate.com/articles/life/twins/2011/08/double_inanity.html; N. L. Segal, “The Value of Twin Studies: A Response to Slate Magazine.” Twin Research and Human Genetics 14, no. 6 (2011): 593–97.
4. N. L. Segal, “Cooperation, Competition and Altruism Within Twin Sets: Reappraisal,” doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1982.
5. N. L. Segal, Indivisible by Two: Lives of Extraordinary Twins (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).
6. N. L. Segal, Born Together—Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).
7. R. Plomin et al., Behavioral Genetics, 7th ed. (New York: Worth, 2017).
8. P. M. Visscher et al., “Assumption-Free Estimation of Heritability from Genome-Wide Identity-By-Descent Sharing Between Full Siblings,” PLoS Genetics 2, no. 3 (2006): e41. The range is based on a mean of 0.50 (+3 SD) and a standard deviation of 0.04.
9. C. Zimmer, “52 Genes Linked to Intelligence,” New York Times, May 23, 2017, D1, D3.
10. Segal, Born Together—Reared Apart.
11. China’s one-child policy, in place since 1979, was recently changed. Married couples now may raise two children. J. Marin, “China Now Sees Room for Two-Child Families,” Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2015, A1, A4.
12. A family in South Korea could afford to raise only one child; a young Chinese twin visiting her grandmother was separated from her sister when, due to political circumstances, her family suddenly fled the mainland leaving her behind; a mother in Romania was persuaded to give one of her twins to a couple to help them avoid paying a government tax required of childess couples and to provide a better life for her daughter; and in Soviet Armenia babies were sometimes taken at birth by hospital staff and offered to infertile couples; mothers might be told that one of their newborns twins had passed away; see N. L. Segal, “Stolen Twin: Fascination and Curiosity,” Twin Research and Human Genetics 17, no. 1 (2014): 56–61.
13. Segal, Born Together—Reared Apart.
14. N. L. Segal, Someone Else’s Twin: The True Story of Babies Switched at Birth (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2011).
Prologue: Tales of Two Mothers
1. “Braxton Hicks or True Labor Contractions?” WebMD, 2016, http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/true-false-labor#2-4.
2. “Preeclampsia and Eclampsia,” WebMD, 2016, http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/preeclampsia-eclampsia#1-1; ESHRE Capri Workshop Group, “Multiple Gestation Pregnancy,” Human Reproduction 15, no. 8 (2000): 1856–64.
3. Colombia has thirty-two states.
4. “Twins and Premature Birth,” University of Rochester Medical Center, 2017, https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=2849.
5. R. H. Lumme and S. V. Saarikoski, “Perinatal Deaths in Twin Pregnancy: A 22-Year Review,” Acta Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae: Twin Research 37, no. 1 (1988): 47–54; E. Hoffmann et al., “Twin Births: Cesarean Section or Vaginal Delivery?” Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 91, no. 4 (2012): 463–69.
6. “Preterm Birth,” US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015, http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/MaternalInfantHealth/PretermBirth.htm.
7. N. J. S. Christenfeld and E. A. Hill, “Whose Baby Are You?” Nature, December 14, 1995, 669; A. Alvergne, C. Faurie, and M. Raymond, “Father-Offspring Resemblance Predicts Paternal Investment in Humans,” Animal Behaviour 78, no. 1 (2009): 61–69. A DNA test can determine whether a man is not the father of a given child, but it cannot prove that he is. That is because other males could have genes compatible with the child’s genetic background.
8. S. I. Venancio and H. de Almeida, “Kangaroo Mother Care: Scientific Evidences and Impact on Breastfeeding,” Jornal de Pediatria 80, 5 suppl. (2004): S173–80.
9. J. Mann, “Nurturance or Negligence: Maternal Psychology and Behavioral Preference Among Preterm Twins,” in The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Evolution of Culture, ed. J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby, 367–90 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
10. N. L. Segal, Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables and Facts About Twins (San Diego: Elsevier, 2017).
11. B. Mampe et al., “Newborns’ Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language,” Current Biology 19, no. 23 (2008): 1994–97.
12. N. L. Segal, Someone Else’s Twin: The True Story of Babies Switched at Birth (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2011).
13. K. R. Chi, “The Dark Side of the Human Genome,” Nature 538, no. 7,624 (2016): 275-77.
14. S. Dominus, “The Mixed-Up Brothers of Bogotá,” New York Times Magazine, July 12, 2015: 34–41, 48, 50–52, 55.
Chapter 1: A Dubious Double
1. G. S. Barsh, “What Controls Variation in Human Skin Color?” PLoS Biology 1, no. 1 (2003): e27.
2. R. Plomin et al., Behavioral Genetics, 7th ed. (New York: Worth, 2017); L. R. Cardon and D. W. Fulker, “Genetics of Specific Cognitive Abilities,” in Nature, Nurture & Psychology, eds. R. Plomin and G. E. McClearn (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1993), 99–120.
3. J. C. Loehlin and R. C. Nichols, Heredity, Environment, and Personality: A Study of 850 Sets of Twins (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976); L. B. Koenig et al., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Religiousness: Findings for Retrospective and Current Religiousness Ratings,” Journal of Personality 73, no. 2 (2005): 471–88; N. G. Waller et al., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Religious Interests, Attitudes, and Values: A Study of Twins Reared Apart and Together,” Psychological Science 1, no. 2 (1990): 138–42.
4. N. L. Segal, Born Together—Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012).
5. J. J. Stubbe, D. I. Boomsma, and J. C. N. de Geus, “Sports Participation During Adolescence: A Shift from Environmental to Genetic Factors,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 37, no. 4 (2005): 563–70; P. P. Fierro, “Twins in the Olympics,” verywell, August 23, 2016, https://www.verywell.com/twins-in-the-olympics-2446954.
6. N. L. Segal, “A Tale of Two Sisters.” Psychology Today, November–December 2015, 68–75, 88.
7. S. P. Whiteside and E. Rixon, “Speech Characteristics of Monozygotic Twins and a Same-Sex Sibling: An Acoustic Case Study of Coarticulation Patterns in Read Speech,” Phonetica 60, no. 4 (2003): 273–97; M. J. Beatty, L. A. Marshall, and J. E. Rudd, “A Twins Study of Communicative Adaptability: Heritability of Individual Differences,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 87, no. 4 (2001): 366–77.
8. “La Paz: Municipality in Santander,” 2005 statistics, https://www.citypopulation.de/php/colombia-santander.php?adm2id=68397.
9. C. Moss, “Bogotá, Colombia: Introducing the Athens of South America,” Daily Telegraph, July 4, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/colombia/bogota/articles/Bogota-Colombia-introducing-the-Athens-of-South-America/.
10. “Is the Probability of Having Twins Determined by Genetics?” National Institutes of Health, September 2015, https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/twins; O. Lichtenstein, P. O. Olaussen, and A. B. Käl
lén, “Twin Births to Mothers Who Are Twins: A Registry Based Study,” British Medical Journal 312, no. 7035 (1996): 879–81.
11. N. L. Segal, Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables, and Facts About Twins (San Diego: Elsevier, 2017); N. L. Segal, “Twin Studies in Brazil: Projects and Plans,” Twin Research and Human Genetics 20, no. 5 (2017): 481–88; E. L. Abel and M. L. Kruger, “Maternal and Paternal Age and Twinning in the United States, 2004–2008,” Journal of Perinatal Medicine 40, no. 3 (2012): 237–39.
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