The birth of twins is not a very common fact, after all, only one in 250 births involves twins, however, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul called Candide Godi, the city of twins, has the largest proportional number of twins in the world. .
Upon entering this city, you can see a welcome sign that reads: “Candide Godi, Terra dos Gomeos”. It is known around the world as “the twin capital of the world” because one in ten women has given birth to twins in the city.
- This twin city is located in a remote region of southern Brazil.
- With a population of just over 6.
- 500 inhabitants.
- In the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
- On the border with Argentina.
Currently there are 90 twins in the municipality, and more specifically in the district of Linha Sao Pedro there are 44 twins, this is nothing new, because if you look at the historical statistics, they are just as surprising, between 1959 and 2014, 35% of the births were twins in Candide Godi.
All this means that in this commune, the ten women, one of them gives birth to a twin, so this population has the largest proportional number of twins in the world, which also attracts the attention of the Brazilian city and its twins. It is the fact that most identical siblings are blond and blue-eyed.
The inhabitants of Candide Godi are aware of this peculiarity of their commune: they have their own twin festival that is celebrated every year, bringing together all the twins of the region.
The locals themselves can’t explain what’s going on in Candide Godi. Some believe this may be due to misuse of nuclear energy, water composition or even “foreign intervention. “Currently, two hypotheses are treated quite crediblely: one is the intervention of a famous Nazi doctor in the population, and the other is based on a genetic theory, called the founding effect.
This hypothesis follows the research of Argentine historian and journalist Jorge Camarasa; this book, collected in a book entitled The Angel of Death in South America, describes the experiences of Nazi physician Josef Mengele in the 1960s, specifically those made in Brazil. after his exile in Latin America, at the end of World War II.
This Nazi physician was in charge of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he used Jews as guinea pigs for his atrocious experiments to demonstrate the supposed superiority of the Aryan race, for these acts of cruelty, he is now known as the Angel of Death.
One of Mengele’s greatest obsessions was fraternal and identical twins, a necessary way to uncover the secret of multiple pregnancies to increase the Aryan race.
That’s why, when he arrived in Candide Godi, he turned this isolated little town into a human laboratory. Since his arrival in 1961, the number of twin births has increased in Candide Godi. Some witnesses in the city remember their stay, some pregnant women were treated by the doctor with strange potions and injections.
A thorough genetic study of the population of Candide Godói would have shown that the reason for the existence of the twin city is not the intervention of the Nazi doctor. Most of the city’s descendants belong to a very small group of people. Which means that almost all colonizers are related and therefore share many genetic traits.
This genetic phenomenon, known as the foundational effect, is characterized by the formation of a new population from a small number of individuals, which is rare in the human species. However, some cases have been presented throughout human history, voluntarily or imposed.
The gene shared by many people in the city of Candide Godi is TP53, common in 43 women who conceived twins, this gene is associated with fertility and facilitates the pregnancy of twins, but it is not entirely decisive, it only predisposes some women to multiple pregnancies.
In addition, studies have shown that the abundance of twins in Candide Godi predes the arrival of Mengele. It is possible that this particularity of the town was the differential factor for the Nazi doctor to decide to settle in the city.
Therefore, the existence of the strange city of the twins could not be explained by Mengele’s alleged intervention, but by the biological and genetic origin of the population.