Idayalix and Estefania Bethencourt Alonso were born ago 33 and 30 yearsrespectively, in candlemas. Until two years ago, his life was that of any young man of his age, finishing his training and beginning his search for work, and also, like any citizen, fulfilling his obligation to have his information updated. And it was there, in the renewal, which was going to be the third, of their DNI, when an ordeal began that has led these two young women from Tenerife to fall into a administrative limbofrom which they can only leave by requesting the Spanish nationality.
Idayalix explains that “we went to renew the DNI, and, as in the document they had always misnamed my father, who is called Adalberto, but on the DNI he appears as Alberto, we thought we could fix it, and we asked the Police what we had to do to correct it.”
The National Police told him that they had to bring his birth certificate, and that, with that, they could change his father’s name. “What appears on your birth certificate is what I am going to put on your ID,” the agent on duty told him.
“It didn’t seem complicated so I went to the justice of the peace in Candelaria, and they gave it to us. We made an appointment with her again and we took her, and that was when this ordeal began, ”the sisters explain to DIARIO DE AVISOS.
“The official who attended us stared at the document and told us that since my parents were born in Venezuela, they should have put a marginal note on one side of the birth certificate, where it said that we obtained Spanish nationality by being born in Spain, because to our surprise it seems that this is not automatic”.
Two years in administrative procedures
“We told her that this could not be, that we were born here, that of course she had Spanish nationality, and the official insisted that this did not matter, because if our parents are Venezuelan, the nationality we automatically acquire is that of them, and if they are Venezuelans, so am I”, they say, still perplexed even though two years have passed.
“We do not understand that this is so, because our parents, despite being born in Venezuela, are also Spanish because their parents, that is, our grandparents are,” they add.
Given the response received, they went to a lawyer to guide them, thinking that they could solve what, by all accounts, was a simple administrative error.
“The lawyer told us that this had to be an administrative error, because on the birth certificate there is a stamp that gives us the DNI, that is, the first time we take it out, a stamp appears on the certificate acknowledging our right to have DNI, and what happens is that someone forgot to put that note in the margin that they are now demanding from us ”. “We have been doing this for two years now and there is no way to correct this error,” they lament.
And it is that the sisters have gone through all possible instances and until now they have not found a formula that allows them to recover their lives, because, without a valid ID, they cannot leave the Island, they cannot access aid or training, they cannot they can even buy a car, or sign a work contract. “In my case, I got a job just before starting this mess, and thanks to the fact that the National Police gave me a paper as if it was in the process of being renewed, I was able to sign the contract, and I have to thank that in my work they have been understanding with my situation”, explains one of the sisters.
They say that “we asked for nationality by consolidation, which is the same as saying that, due to an administrative error, nationality was granted, but they denied us because they say there were other methods to obtain it”, they say indignantly because with “other methods” They were sending them to immigration, to apply for residence and then nationality, “something impossible because we were born here and we have ID.” “It doesn’t make sense what is happening,” they insist.
After this refusal, they returned to the Justice of the Peace in Candelaria, and to the Registry, “and every time we go they tell us to do something different.”
The last thing they have tried is to obtain nationality by letter of nature. “We ask for it for our grandparents, who are Spanish. As far as we know, before, nationality was only given by the man, and since my grandfather is Spanish, both on the father’s and mother’s side, well, we are asking for it there.” They still have no response to this last procedure.
The sisters cannot leave the island, make an appointment or open a bank account because they do not have a valid ID
When asked how their parents did it, they explain that “when they came to Tenerife, before we were born, they put their papers in order, first requesting the NIE, and then the DNI. They completed the process and have nationality.”
They assure that the lawyers to whom they have resorted “are hallucinating.” “In Candelaria (at the City Hall) they told us to try to get the paper that certifies that you can go to ask for the DNI, and when we asked where to ask for that, they told us that we had to go to Madrid, but I can’t get out of the Island”, exclaims Ydayalix.
Estefanía adds that “I cannot do any paperwork online because I have to have an updated ID for everyone, the appointment is blocked. In the police computer there is a notice that does not let us do any paperwork.
He says that “I had even bought a pistol to play Airsoft, and when I go to register it, they tell me that they can’t process it because they couldn’t see my criminal record file because it’s blocked.”
Both sisters admit to being tired and desperate. “We were born and raised here, have a valid driver’s license, work here, and are denied that we exist, at least administratively.”
lonely and tired
They admit to having felt alone, “advancing in fits and starts, asking four and five times without receiving an answer, from one place to another; the only answer we receive is that we are in an administrative limbo, we understand that, but that they do something, it is not our fault”.
“I so regret asking for my father’s name change. We did it for inheritance reasons, that we were just ordering everything, in case there was a problem, and what we got was getting into a mess, with which the process in which my family was also paralyzed ”.
The last hope of these sisters is to go to the deputy of the Common to present their case. They need direct dialogue with the administrations because, as they have recognized, it has been very hard to keep bumping into the different instances, receiving refusal after refusal, and without offering them viable solutions to their situation. These are two years in which, they admit, they have been losing strength trying to get out of that administrative limbo into which they accidentally entered, and in which, not without humor, they admit that it would have been better to start calling their father Alberto.