ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christian Rodríguez - Documentary photographer
TED Fellow Christian Rodríguez explores themes related to gender and identity, working with communities all over the world.

Why you should listen

Christian Rodríguez is developing two main long-term projects: "Teen Mom," about teenage pregnancy in Latin America; and a personal project on magical realism, the Latin American literary trend. His work has been exhibited in festivals all over the world, such as GetxoPhoto, PhotoEspaña, Paraty Em Foco, Photo Phnom Penh Festival, Photobook Bristol, Photoville and the "Bienal de Fotografía" of the "Centro de la Imagen" (Mexico), and it has been published internationally, including National Geographic, the New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, El Mundo and others.

In addition to his work as a photographer, Rodríguez is creator and director of SAN JOSE FOTO International festival in Uruguay. He has been awarded the Roberto Villagraz Scholarship of EFTI (Spain), Nuevo Talento Fnac (Spain), Ojo de Pez Human Rights First Prize (Spain) and Getty Instagram Grant 2016 among others. Rodríguez gives workshops and lectures in Latin America and Europe, and he is a member of Prime Collective. He became a TED Fellow in 2017.

More profile about the speaker
Christian Rodríguez | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2017

Christian Rodríguez: What teen pregnancy looks like in Latin America

Filmed:
1,222,731 views

Christian Rodríguez is a photographer and filmmaker -- and the son of a teenage mother. For the past five years, he has documented teen pregnancy in Latin America, creating intimate and dignified portraits of mothers as young as 12 years old. In this moving, visual talk, he shares his work and explores how young motherhood traps girls in a cycle of poverty and exploitation.
- Documentary photographer
TED Fellow Christian Rodríguez explores themes related to gender and identity, working with communities all over the world. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

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For the last five years,
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I have documented the lives
of teenage mothers in Latin America.
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I started with a series of photographs
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about the moment of birth
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in my country, Uruguay.
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(Video) (Screaming)
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(Grunting)
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(Newborn crying)
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I am the son of a teenage mother
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and my sister became
a teenage mother when she was 16.
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I began exploring the theme
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to better understand
myself and my origins.
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In developing countries,
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7.3 million girls under the age of 18
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give birth each year.
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Projections suggest
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that the teen pregnancy rate
in Latin America
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will be the highest in the world
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for the next 80 years.
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In Mexico, almost one in two
sexually active adolescents
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get pregnant between the ages
of 12 to 19 years old.
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Teenage pregnancy
is not just about young pregnancies.
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It is about gender violence,
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physical, symbolic, psychological
and economic violence.
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Girls who become pregnant
before they are 18
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rarely achieve an adequate
standard of living.
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The pattern of poverty
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and limited access
to education and health care
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are a common thread
among teen pregnancies.
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If a girl in Latin America
gets pregnant before she is 16,
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the risk of maternal death
increases fourfold
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over a woman in their 20s.
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And somehow, in spite of all this,
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motherhood also imparts a status
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and a respect to the adolescent
in her community.
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Her child becomes her life project.
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A high percentage of girls
under the age of 18 are single mothers,
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as was my mother.
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When I was learning to be a parent,
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I began to focus on the relationship
between father and child,
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a subject rarely given much attention.
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I wanted to highlight the ways
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in which we need
to educate boys differently
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without turning them into macho men.
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In some cases, families
send boys to school but not girls.
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The persistence of teen pregnancy
heightened the gender equity gap
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and the continued existence
of traditional roles.
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If we were to allow
equal opportunities to girls,
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they could gain independence.
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Educating girls is key
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to breaking cycles of teen pregnancies.
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Girls getting pregnant
between the ages of 10 to 14
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are an extremely vulnerable population,
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and they can be easy prey
for men twice their age.
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There are many cases of violence,
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incest and sexual abuse
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perpetrated against this group.
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This is Gloria.
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She became a teen mother at the age of 12,
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a result of the ongoing
abuse by her father,
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who was also raping Gloria's two sisters,
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ages 8 and 16.
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In this portrait,
she has butterflies in her hair,
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symbols of resurrection.
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For me, it's extremely important
to portray this mother with dignity.
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Pregnancies among girls
younger than 15 is a growing trend,
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not only in Latin America,
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but many developing
countries in the world.
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Our region is marred
by bad social and cultural inequalities,
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and teen pregnancy
further increases this divide.
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I am committing
to being part of the solution
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by making work that implicitly
and emphatically
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calls for human rights for girls.
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The day life projects
for boys and girls become similar,
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teenage pregnancy will decrease.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christian Rodríguez - Documentary photographer
TED Fellow Christian Rodríguez explores themes related to gender and identity, working with communities all over the world.

Why you should listen

Christian Rodríguez is developing two main long-term projects: "Teen Mom," about teenage pregnancy in Latin America; and a personal project on magical realism, the Latin American literary trend. His work has been exhibited in festivals all over the world, such as GetxoPhoto, PhotoEspaña, Paraty Em Foco, Photo Phnom Penh Festival, Photobook Bristol, Photoville and the "Bienal de Fotografía" of the "Centro de la Imagen" (Mexico), and it has been published internationally, including National Geographic, the New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, El Mundo and others.

In addition to his work as a photographer, Rodríguez is creator and director of SAN JOSE FOTO International festival in Uruguay. He has been awarded the Roberto Villagraz Scholarship of EFTI (Spain), Nuevo Talento Fnac (Spain), Ojo de Pez Human Rights First Prize (Spain) and Getty Instagram Grant 2016 among others. Rodríguez gives workshops and lectures in Latin America and Europe, and he is a member of Prime Collective. He became a TED Fellow in 2017.

More profile about the speaker
Christian Rodríguez | Speaker | TED.com