"Substitute Mother" / Greta Rico
Mexico, 2022
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In Mexico, femicide—the gender-based killing of women—has become a widespread and systemic form of violence. On average, ten women are murdered every day. These killings leave behind not only grief, but unresolved trauma and often, orphaned children. From 2017 to 2021, nearly 31,000 minors in Mexico were orphaned as a result of femicide. While most national attention focuses on the murder itself, far less is said about what happens afterward—about who raises the children and how families survive in the aftermath.
In Substitute Mother, documentary photographer Greta Rico turns the lens inward, telling a personal and national story at once. After her cousin Fernanda was murdered in 2017, Fernanda’s sister Siomara became the caregiver to Fernanda’s 3-year-old daughter. The project documents Siomara’s life as one of thousands of Mexican women who are thrust into caregiving roles following femicide—unrecognized by the law, unsupported by public services, and carrying the long-term emotional, financial, and psychological burden of a crime that continues to reverberate through families.
Rico’s story challenges the notion that violence ends with death. Instead, it explores how gender-based violence reproduces cycles of harm, forcing women—mothers, aunts, sisters, grandmothers—into unpaid, unprotected caregiving roles in a society that offers no infrastructure for support or justice. These women raise children amid unresolved trauma, legal impunity, and ongoing insecurity.
About Greta Rico
Greta Rico is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller whose work focuses on gender-based violence, human rights, and the systemic effects of inequality in Mexico and Latin America. With a background in journalism and international cooperation, she uses long-form photographic narratives to explore how institutional failures impact the lives of women and marginalized communities.
Her work has been supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, National Geographic Society, and Open Society Foundations, among others. Greta is a member of Women Photograph and has been selected as a fellow with the Magnum Foundation, CatchLight, and World Press Photo’s 6x6 Global Talent Program. Her photography has been exhibited in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, and published in outlets including The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and El País.
In addition to her fieldwork, Greta facilitates storytelling workshops and collaborates on public education initiatives aimed at addressing the ongoing crisis of femicide and state impunity in Mexico. She is based in Mexico City.
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