San Diego, California (CNN) -- At last, a Wisconsin mother and her long-lost son met Saturday for the first time since her estranged husband spirited him away to Mexico more than 30 years ago. It was an emotional reunion in the San Diego airport, heightened by the fact that the mother speaks only English and her 37-year-old son only Spanish. David Amaya Barrick, whose father took him across the border at about age 2 from Chicago, was biting his nails just before his mother, Kathy Amaya, now 60, appeared before him in the airport. They embraced, hugged and kissed -- the first time they've laid eyes on each other in about 35 years.
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Mother tell her long-lost son: "I love you and ... and I'm not going to let you go."
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Her son, now 37, tells her in Spanish: "I love you and I missed you a lot."
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David Amaya Barrick was taken from Chicago to Mexico as a boy by his father
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He is discovered to be a U.S. citizen while illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
He was a drummer in a band in Mexico and now likes San Diego's proximity to @placeholder and its cultural atmosphere.