Maria Madre Association of Bilbao: stolen babies, irregular adoptions and identity substitution in Spain
The report IAMM – Report on the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao documents the existence, structure and operation of an organisation founded in 1969 under ecclesiastical cover and authorisation from the Francoist State, linked to networks of stolen babies, irregular adoptions, concealment of filiations and identity substitution in Spain.
This is not a generic suspicion. The report reconstructs a specific organisation: its name, headquarters, statutes, officers, links with Caritas Diocesana of Bilbao, the Diocese of Bilbao, the Ministry of the Interior, the Civil Government of Biscay, doctors, local elites, documentary sources and annexes.
The Maria Madre Association of Bilbao appears as an ecclesiastical-civil piece within a system of maternity control, transfer of minors, concealed adoptions and erasure of children’s identity during Francoism and the Transition.
Quick access
The IAMM project is published as a main report and as documentary annexes. The main report is also available on Academia.edu as a consultation and academic dissemination copy.
Related
This report should be read together with the page on AdoptadosBilbao, the historical blog created by victims and relatives to denounce illegal adoptions, search for origins and reconstruct public memory of the Maria Madre network in Bilbao and Biscay.
IAMM reconstructs the organisation, its structure, its institutional cover and its role within the system of stolen babies in Spain.
AdoptadosBilbao reconstructs the digital memory of the victims: the blog, the searches, the testimonies, the names identified and the public denunciation that preceded institutional recognition.
On this page
- What the IAMM report documents
- Church, Francoist State and institutional cover
- Control of maternity and punishment of unmarried mothers
- Adoption, false filiation and disappearance of identity
- A Church–private healthcare–adoptive families network
- Sources and annexes: the body of evidence
- Institutional responsibility
- Right to identity, filiation and reparation
- Documentary structure of the IAMM project
- Main report, annexes and records
- Access to the report
- Recommended citation
What the IAMM report documents
The report analyses the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao as an institutional structure. Its purpose is to reconstruct, from a documentary, historical and legal perspective, the foundation, operation, cover, activity and responsibility of the association within the Spanish framework of stolen babies.
The research brings together documentation on its constitution in 1969, its authorisation by the Ministry of the Interior, its registration with the Civil Government of Biscay, its founding statutes, its board of directors, its headquarters, its relationship with Caritas Diocesana of Bilbao and the Diocese, its accounting activity, its medical links and its insertion into the Church-State framework.
The report is presented as a documentary and historical reconstruction of a newborn baby trafficking network, within the digital archive roboytraficobebes-spain. Its content addresses the abduction of minors, irregular adoptions, concealment of filiations and identity substitution during Francoism and the Transition.
Church, Francoist State and institutional cover
The Maria Madre Association of Bilbao was born under a double cover: the administrative legality of the Francoist State and the religious legitimacy of the Catholic Church.
The Francoist State authorised the association, approved its statutes, officially registered it and maintained administrative knowledge of its existence. The Church provided premises, moral cover, social legitimacy and direct linkage through Caritas Diocesana of Bilbao and the Diocese.
This double cover allowed a structure presented as charitable-assistance work to operate as an instrument of moral control over maternity, concealed management of pregnancies, concealment of filiations and transfer of minors.
Control of maternity and punishment of unmarried mothers
The statutory language of Maria Madre reveals the ideological framework of the organisation. Its purposes were organised around so-called “illicit sexual relations” and their alleged consequences: abortion, infanticide, abandonment of newborns, suicide, prostitution of unmarried mothers and social scandal.
That language does not place at the centre the child’s right to identity or the mother’s right to keep her child. It places at the centre Catholic sexual morality, control over women pregnant outside marriage, family dishonour and the social disappearance of the child considered illegitimate.
Within that framework, non-marital maternity was treated as a moral problem to be hidden, corrected or removed from public space. The transfer of the child appeared as the institutional solution to scandal.
Adoption, false filiation and disappearance of identity
The report places the activity of Maria Madre within a system of irregular adoptions and substitution of filiations. The mechanism did not consist only of handing over children, but of erasing their origin, breaking the bond with the biological mother and allowing their documentary integration into another family.
That process could involve concealed adoptions, registration as biological children of the adopters, documentary falsification, concealment of the mother, manipulation of the family narrative and legal disappearance of the original filiation.
The consequence was a form of identity abduction: children legally and socially turned into other people, separated from their origin and deprived of their history.
A Church–private healthcare–adoptive families network
The report reconstructs a functional structure in which Church, State, medical professionals, local elites, adoptive families and civil administration converge.
The association appears linked to spaces for housing mothers, doctors, certificates, births, documentation, adoptive families and registries. The combination of ecclesiastical premises, administrative recognition and medical participation created an environment of impunity and appearance of normality.
The report identifies a pattern of intermediation: recruitment or housing of pregnant women, moral and material management of pregnancy, medical or religious intervention in childbirth, production or manipulation of documents, transfer of the child and erasure of the original filiation.
Sources and annexes: the body of evidence
The value of the report lies in the convergence of sources. It does not depend on a single piece of evidence, but on a broad, coherent and cross-checked documentary body.
The sources used include certifications from Caritas Diocesana of Bilbao, founding statutes, constitution documents, resolution of the Ministry of the Interior, registry sheet of the Civil Government of Biscay, board of directors, accounts, administrative circular, recent registry certificates, academic sources, testimonial sources and digital documentation.
The documentary annexes are an essential part of the IAMM project. They are not a secondary addition. They are the body of evidence that supports the historical and legal reconstruction of the report.
Institutional responsibility
The report attributes institutional responsibility to the Francoist State, the Catholic Church, the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao, its directors and the professionals involved in its operation.
That responsibility is not limited to direct actions. It includes authorisation, cover, legitimisation, lack of inspection, absence of control, administrative silence, moral concealment and maintenance of an appearance of legality.
The State provided legal recognition and administrative cover. The Church provided moral authority, premises, religious legitimacy and an assistance structure. The association operated within that space of institutional impunity.
Right to identity, filiation and reparation
The report is framed within the right to truth, memory and reparation of people affected by the abduction and trafficking of minors in the Spanish State during Francoism and the Transition.
The concealment of filiations, the substitution of identity and the registration of minors within false family narratives were not private harms or mere administrative irregularities. They were serious violations of the right to identity, the right to filiation and the right to know one’s own origin.
Each recovered document breaks part of the cover-up. Each archived piece of evidence makes it possible to reconstruct a history erased by institutions that acted under the appearance of charity, morality and legality.
Documentary structure of the IAMM project
The IAMM project is organised into two complementary pieces: the main report and the documentary annexes.
The main report is the analytical text. It orders the research, reconstructs the history of the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao, interprets the sources, places the facts within the Spanish framework of stolen babies and formulates the documentary, historical and legal thesis.
The documentary annexes are the body of evidence. They bring together original or supporting documentation: statutes, certifications, registry sheet, board of directors, accounts, administrative circular, recent certificates, academic sources and testimonial materials.
The documentary logic is clear: the main report explains and interprets the system; the annexes support the evidentiary reconstruction.
Main report, annexes and records
Access to the report
The main report and the documentary annexes are preserved on Zenodo with DOI. The main report is also available on Academia.edu as a consultation and academic dissemination copy.
Recommended citation
Gómez Aldaz, Olmo. IAMM – Report on the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao. Documentary and historical report on the Maria Madre Association of Bilbao network (1969). Version 1.1. Tudela de Duero, Valladolid, 18 October 2025. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17386489.