Xochiquetzal S?nchez Escobar portrayed in her bedroom at her home in Juchit?n, Mexico on February 18, 2016. Despite her teenage rebel style, Xochi, as she is known, dressed in the traditional Zapotec style for her engagement party. She is 17 and five months pregnant. The daughter of a single-mother former missionary and nun, Xochi says she had always talked about having a baby in her teens because she thought her mother was old when she had her at 28. She kept her pregnancy secret from her mother until February. After the baby - a boy, David Mateo - is born in June, she plans to move with her boyfriend to a house where they will live together and he will have his tattoo studio, and they plan to marry next June. She plans to finish her final year of secondary school in the town of El Espinal in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca next year, with her mother looking after the baby in the mornings while she is in class. Being a schoolgirl housewife does not worry her, she says, although she admits she cannot cook. Her grandmother, who lives with the family, is thrilled at the prospect of a great-grandchild. Xochi dreams of giving birth in water, but is not sure that will happen. While Mexico has outlawed marriage under the age of 18, many young girls become unofficial wives and mothers much earlier. In Juchit?n, teenage pregnancy is expected, even prized. Mexico ranks first in teenage pregnancies among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development?(OECD). (Photo by Benedicte Desrus) *** Please Use Credit from Credit Field ***
