Aracely, 15, holds her infant. “What I hope is to keep moving forward… to see how I can get my boy ahead. The hard thing, maybe… when he gets older and he leaves… that’s when is going to be hard for me. When he is older. Because he is the one who will help me get ahead.
Aracely is one of the half a million of Guatemalan girls who marry and give birth before they can legally vote, drink, or buy cigarettes. According to a 2012 UN Population Fund survey, 30% of Guatemalan women aged 20-24 were married by 18, and that number may be even higher in rural areas. Teenage births are so common that there’s even a law requiring mothers under 14 to have C-sections, because their hips are too narrow to give birth.
