MOTOR RACING-FANGIO/EXHUMATION-FILE Motor racing's Fangio's body exhumed to settle paternity claims

Record ID: 144704

  • Title: MOTOR RACING-FANGIO/EXHUMATION-FILE Motor racing's Fangio's body exhumed to settle paternity claims
  • Date: 8th August 2015
  • Summary: UNKNOWN FILE LOCATION (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** VARIOUS OF NEWS CONFERENCE FEATURING HOMAGE OF FANGIO
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABMF9OF35EAXPX8DR7U6JXX1O7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Formula One great Juan Manuel Fangio's body was exhumed on Friday (August 7) to try to resolve paternity cases brought by two men claiming to be the five-time world champion's son.
    Judge Rodrigo Cataldo ordered the exhumation, carried out at the cemetery in the Argentine town of Balcarce where Fangio was born and died in the presence of officials of the Juan Manuel Fangio Foundation, to take DNA samples from the body.
    Former racing driver Oscar Espinosa, who had a brief spell in Formula 3 and was commonly known as "Cacho" Fangio in motor racing circles, and Ruben Vazquez have brought separate paternity claims.
    Vazquez, 73, told reporters he was not after money when he sought to clarify whether he was Fangio's son. He simply wants recognition, he notes. The issue is not a new one, he says.
    "The physical features (in common with Juan Manuel Fangio) began to show, and that's when people started to say to me there was a resemblance. At first, I denied it. I wanted to deny it, but well, it's not (a situation) you want, but feelings make it so that you can't deny it. It has to come out, and to start this struggle," he told Argentine media while attending the exhumation.
    Vazquez claims his mother, who died in 2012 aged 103, had signed papers in the presence of a notary public claiming Fangio was her son's father.
    "If I don't know my identity, neither do my children, my granddaughters too. We're going through life without knowing who we are. The idea of 'not knowing' is just what we're saying, because in fact, I already know," he added to local reporters.
    Espinosa's mother Andrea Berruet had a long relationship with Fangio until 1960 and the 77-year-old is reported to have provided as proof of Fangio's paternity a bunch of letters the world champion wrote to Berruet asking after him.
    Fangio, who won his five titles in the 1950s and died aged 84 on July 17, 1995, never married and was thought to be childless.
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