By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Erin Iwalani Castillo and her brother Gordon
Mattos support Saturday's International
Soundex Reunion Registry.
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
Star-BulletinGordon Wayne Mattos, 39, is a state retiree who worked as an Affirmative Action secretary and personnel recruiter and trainer. He now serves as music minister and choir director at Star of the Sea Church. Erin Iwalani Castillo, 37, is a social worker and new president of the Adoption Circle of Hawai'i.
Five years ago they were strangers who would have passed each other on the street. Today, they know each other as brother and sister -- two of eight children of the late Eloise Mercedes Lang -- who reunited in March 1992.
The pair will be at Ala Moana Center's Community Booth all day Saturday for the Hawaii debut of International Soundex Reunion Registry "Reg Day," during which long-lost family members have a shot at becoming unlost.
At that time people -- adoptees and parents who "relinquished" their offspring -- can sign up for a free computerized service out of Nevada that links up blood kin.
Castillo is trying still to find her father, "a blond, blue-eyed Marine" named Thomas Gordon Benson, who was stationed on Oahu in spring 1959. She is the youngest of three sisters and five brothers and the hapa-haole in the family. Seven of the eight children had different fathers.
Mattos found his birth family more than a dozen years ago -- eight years before Castillo turned up. "I remember when I met my family, they always told me, 'Oh, you know, there might be this haole baby that the family thinks existed.' But they weren't sure, and then when Erin came about, I remember my brother Tommy (Lang) calling me, 'The haole baby is here, she's found us.' " laughed Mattos.
"So it was like, 'When can I meet her?' "
They met at Zippy's by Washington Intermediate. Castillo remembered how overnight she gained a set of hulking brothers who didn't look like her. So, she harbored reservations about her family tie until early this year when she saw a 1971 photo of their mother -- taken two years before she died. The resemblance between mother and daughter was uncanny.
"Then I was satisfied," she recalled. Aunts and uncles agreed it was like looking at their sister.
Castillo said that despite a liberalized adoption records law, a search takes time and money. The process bottlenecks through one court-appointed researcher, who has a backlog of cases. And, it costs $300 per search. In Castillo's case it would have cost $900 to try to locate her mother, legal father and birth father for unanimous approval to access family records.
"There are sealed records and there's just a lot of secrecy and shame associated with (adoption)," she said. "Gordon and I were lucky that at the time we searched, we had people (Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center social workers) who were willing to help us in the process.
"But not everybody is as fortunate as we are, which brings us to Reg Day (and) why I'm so interested in trying to promote it here in Hawaii. There's just a lot of people who want to get connected with each other. They were separated through adoption and, for whatever reason, they weren't able to raise their children, or later on a child wants to find out about their family history."
Castillo said she learned through the family background that she has a medical history of lupus and she's alert for warning signs of the disease.
"My hope is that one day records will be open all over the place," she said. "That once adoptees are 18 years old, they'll have access to information to find out who their families are. That they have that opportunity."
She just became president of the Adoption Circle of Hawai'i in June. "We primarily focus on adult adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents. The group was really helpful to me when I was going through my search and reunion. It just gave me a place to share my feelings and my struggles with the whole process."
Mattos researched his family to determine his Hawaiian blood quantum in order to qualify for a Hawaiian homestead and other state Office of Hawaiian Affairs programs. He met his Hawaiian-Chinese birth father and has determined that he is five-eighths Hawaiian.
Castillo said, "If there are adoptees, birth parents or adoptive parents out there who are wondering about their child or their own roots, it's OK to search. No matter what you find, at least you have the truth about yourself and your heritage. It's all about truth."
Reg Day
What: Register for a free service to locate birth kin
