Child Marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Nearly 1 in 4 girls across Latin America and the Caribbean are married before the age of 18. Girls who are at the highest risk of getting married as a child are usually from poorer homes in rural areas, or from indigenous groups. Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world where there has been no significant decline or change in rates of child marriage in the last 30 years. Perla Vasquez with the Central American Mexican Youth Fund talks to us about child marriage in Latin America and how this discourse differs from other regions of the world.

Due to a lack of data in many countries, the scope of child marriage in Latin America is not known, but there are estimated prevalence rates in countries like Brazil (36%), Mexico (26%), Nicaragua (41%), and Honduras (34%).

Child marriage is not limited specifically to young children and older adults; teenagers often enter early unions with each other or with a slightly older partner, which is a specific characteristic of child marriage in Latin America. Children and teenage girls are especially at risk of early union in Latin America, based on what village they live in and what resources that village may have. Family dynamics and support from the broader community often influence whether a child or teenager will be married early.

In all parts of the world, and in Latin America, teenagers that have entered into unions can’t be left out of receiving sexual and reproductive health resources. Child marriage IS a sexual reproductive health issue; marriage is a vehicle in many countries for women to access sexual pleasure. That means we must provide adolescents entering into early unions and child marriage with comprehensive sex education. Dangerous myths about virginity also aid in young women and girls marrying young, and cultural changes need to take place so that girls don’t see marriage as a sexual contract. The sexual rights of young people should expand so that teenagers themselves understand their own sexual liberation and reproductive health.

Links from this episode

Central American Mexican Youth Fund
CAMY on Facebook
CAMY on Twitter
Information on child marriage in Latin America
Ending Child Marriage podcast

Transcript

Jennie: Welcome to rePROs Fight Back a podcast on all things repro. I'm your host Jennie Wetter. In each episode, I'll be taking you to the front lines of the escalating fight over our sexual and reproductive health and rights at home and abroad. Each episode, I will be speaking with leaders who are fighting to protect our reproductive health and rights to ensure that no one's reproductive health depends on where they live. It's time for repros to fight back.

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Jennie: Welcome to this week's episode of repros fight back. Before we get started with the interview, I have a couple of quick housekeeping things. One, if you love this podcast and want to make sure that others can hear it, the best way to help share it is one to share it on Facebook and Twitter and tell all your friends about it. But two, if you can go and subscribe and rate and review us on iTunes, it really helps other people find the podcast on iTunes, so thank you already too. We have some fun repros fight back swag and as a way to say thank you to all of our great listeners. We wanted to have a contest. So we're going to have, um, a couple of contests over the summer and some over the fall to say thank you to all of our wonderful listeners. So the first one is going to be… we wanna make sure that we're producing content that you're interested in and that you love. So tell us your favorite topic that we have covered so far OR a topic that you would love to see us cover. So reach out to us at reprosfightback on Facebook or Twitter and tell us what have we covered that you love and what would you love to see us cover in the future? And we will pick, um, I don't know, 20 people from that first batch of people who tell us what they love or would love to see us cover and you'll get a fun package of reprosfightback swag. Okay, thank you. So moving on this week we are going to have an interview about child marriage. So a couple of weeks ago I was in Kuala Lumpur for the Girls Not Brides global conference. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of advocates around the world who are working to end child marriage. And I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was there for that conference to conduct interviews with people from around the world who are fighting child marriage. So today we're going to have the second in that series. We already had the first one, which was our last episode, um, to talk about something that just doesn't get as much attention. I know I wasn't as familiar with it. You know, often when we think of child marriage, we think of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Um, but this week we're going to talk about child marriage or unions -it's not always marriage, and Latin America and the Caribbean. So I'm really excited to talk to Perla Vasquez with the Central American and Mexican Youth Fund to talk about what child marriage or unions in Latin America and the Caribbean looks like. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Perla: Hi, I am from Mexico. Um, in Latin America. Child marriage has different colors and textures… For example, in Latin America, we tried to talk more about the teenagers and not only the child because, uh, we have a difference between the translation…So in Latin America is a big, big, uh, problem for teenagers, not necessarily for girls in difference with others. Uh, other countries for example, only the 2% or 1% in some countries is the problem with child marriage, with girls. But the majority, the 18% is a problem with teenagers or adolescents [inaudible].

Jennie: Okay. So what age is that? Are you seeing teenage marriage? Perla: We have this, a difference between…18 or 17. Okay. And the for girls, we're talking more, uh, 12 or less years old. So, um, the other things in, in Latin America, we're talking about the unions, not only the marriage, because we don't have necessary the institutional conditions to have, uh, in your village, you only have, uh, some religious leader at an unnecessary, some, uh, CBL, governmental offices. So, it's easier to only have with a union with some people you like or your family to push to or for us to have our own union with other people but not necessary is the legal marriage. So this is other specific characteristic to Latin America.

Jennie: Yes. So that's definitely a different than what you generally hear talked about, right? You often, when you hear child marriage and you're hearing…younger, forced, legal, so not hearing the conversation around teenagers and unions.

Perla: Yeah. And also the other very complex, uh, discussion in Latin America is the difference between forced and choice. And, and because not, not, it's not only these typical images about the old man with this great, very, very, young child girl. So it's more we are talking about more, uh, the majority of problems is between teenagers. You know.

Jennie: Okay.

Perla: You have a difference between two, three years between the, the partners and also these have different condition to choose some union or not. The difference in Latin America we try to find evidence or data about the, the difference to family support or not to the marriage or union. We try to, to look around of the what happened with the problematic [inaudible] communities in Latin America and we uh, discover if the youth there have more support from their, their families it is possible she decide to not be in some union. But if she didn't have the support she most probably decided to go to have union or marriage. So this is other analysis we tried to find in Latin America.

Jennie: It seems like it's more a choice and less pressure in Latin America. Is that fair? Or more mixed?

Perla: It’s a mix. The typical discourse in other regions is it all is forced, it never is your decision. And with this we discuss in Latin America, some of them is a choice. And I like to talk with a wonderful topic. I, I like to share with other people to listen. Now, this podcast is about love. So in some reflections that people tell me, “but you know, if the love is not true, it's not a condition to get married.” If you are teenager for example, and we discuss I think we discuss, uh, we, we give more time to the rationale… you have to decide with the better conditions or you have to go into their location or whatever. But I think the big issue is about the, how we construct the love, the ideas about the love, how we can change the romantic love or their idealistic love. Do you have, if you are a girl or, youth, you have to be in love with other all men. So this is the good, the better reference or the best reference for your love? No, and we don't talk about the diversity of the love, the sexual diversity of love. Some in other reflections, did child marriage was punish or forced because you have a difference, uh, sexual preference. So it’s like a corrective to the families for some girls. So I think it's very important about the how we construct the love. Jennie: Okay. A lot of times when you hear child marriage talked about, you talk about the things that are, um, girls are missing out on. So missing education, but it seems like if you're talking about teenage unions, maybe that's a little less of a problem in Latin America or is that not true?

Perla: Yeah, I think we have two realities or.. the reality in our minds is related to, uh, we like to stop to the people being married, uh, before 18 years. But the reality, we have a lot, a lot of people are married before their 18th. And we have to create the conditions uh, they decide or not stay in this marriage, eh, condition, the government that have to be, have to give them a locations, self-care to the child, access to the [inaudible]… Or if you like to access to, uh, self-care to the children, you have to be older. So the policy is not thinking in the teenage years.

Jennie: Yeah. Yeah. We're seeing this a little bit in the U.S. context where there's a push in the states around child marriage and the same thing where you can have judicial bypass and whatever to get married under 18, but you might not have the legal recourse until you're over 18 to be able to file for divorce.

Perla: Yeah. And also I think is very complexity for the, the majority of, uh, problem is not the prevent. It is attention. We have a specific problem, uh, with attention for the young people in the policy process, in the social care and education, employment. And these girls and teenagers are invisible for the policies. So, and this is the other point I think is important to push in all there in all parts of the world. We need to give services to married teenagers.

Jennie: Absolutely. We need to make sure that the married girls have access, well everyone should have access to the SRHR services, but particularly married girls as well need access to these services.

Perla: Yeah, and also I like to talk other typical myths in Latin America about the only the poverty issue in the communities… [inaudible]. A poverty issue is a barrier. Structural, social and cultural issue to use the marriage can narrate interchange economic interspace, you know, not only the, these are typical images to Latin America, the poverty, indigenous, marginalize, and non-necessary is that we have indifference levels of the associated sociality, this problem.

Jennie: So this is a podcast that talks about sexual reproductive health and rights. And so some people might not really understand why I’m doing a series on child marriage. Now I know you're also an expert in sexual reproductive health and rights and child marriage. So I thought you'd be the perfect person to talk about why it's important to talk about the two together.

Perla: At the beginning, I like to talk about the pleasure, the pleasure…

Jennie: And that gets left out. So, so often.

Perla: Yeah, I think we'll, we offer lost the pleasure. But I like to talk in about the pleasure because uh, the marriage, the marriage in this cultural way is a mechanism to the woman have sex and have pleasure. Only if you are marriage, you have the right to do that. So I think it's important to separate that in the cultural way for, with comprehensive sexuality education. Because at the beginning we are human beings to our um, sexuality, we have sexuality in all the, of the stage of our lives. And also if you separate, you are able not only for to reproduce. No, and this is very important to the marriage because if we thinking the sex on reproductive rights from teenagers and youth people we understand is not only the marriage they to go way the way to have rights or sex or reproductive rights. So we have to separate that. And also I think the most important about the um, the woman bodies, or the woman, teenagers bodies was the other people like to have the contract for their bodies. So for other people, pushed too to have a child marriage or to push to have the, this link into have your love promise? So I don't know, is love promise the right word? Like you give some love promise to your boyfriend to demonstrate your love at this, your first sexual activity.

Jennie: Okay.

Perla: In, in Spanish is your promise. Love Promise. But I think in English could be different. This works like your first time and you give your promise.

Jennie: It's like your virginity.

Perla: Exactly. Your virginity, like the promise for love. And I think it's important if you, if we have other, we have changed cultural changes where the woman can decide, whatever partner they they're like to have in non-necessary marriage. So this is very important to recognize the sexual and reproductive rights for young people give more options and understanding you don't have to be in marriage, you know, so it's very linking to prevent the child marriage on, understanding sexuality.

Jennie: So do you want to tell us a little bit about what you do? Yeah. Your work.

Perla: Yeah. I'm, um, I, um, I'm with Central American Mexican Youth Fund, uh, it’s a fund to support the [inaudible], uh, youth led initiatives and youth led organizations in Central America and Mexico and also where you start to, to work in Caribbean because I think the Central America and Caribbean is a, having more complications, uh, conditions, political conditions, in the region. We believe that people have very strong [inaudible]. They used to change the, their lives to change their lives to other people in their communities. So we support that. So please follow us on Facebook and the Instagram to um, Central America and Mexican Youth Fund. We tried to support the youth movement in Latin America.

Jennie: Great. Well we'll definitely make sure to get, include all that information in our show notes that people can have easy access to all the Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff.

Perla: Yeah, please. Um, no more about the, how they do people change their lives and change their community.

Jennie: Absolutely. Um, well Perla, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate talking to you. It was fun.

Perla: Yeah, thanks for the invitation. I'm so sorry, because sometimes my English isn't good at all, but thank you.

Jennie: Thank you.

Jennie: Thanks for listening everyone. And we'll see you on our next episode of repros fight back. For more information, including show notes from this episode and previous episodes, please visit our website at reprosfightback.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at repros fight back. If you like our show, please help others find it by sharing it with your friends and subscribing, rating and reviewing us on iTunes. Thanks for listening.

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