Rosa says that now that she is ‘a little bit older’ she is beginning to understand the world. And you only have to listen to her for a few minutes to confirm that this is true. At fifteen, she speaks with a moving clarity. For her, adolescence is not a time of rebellion, as adults so often say. ‘It is, rather, the stage of being me’, of discovering herself, finding her voice and taking control of her own history with free thought.

My research on the 15-year tradition in Mexico began in October. I was fortunate that this great and generous family opened their doors, their time and their emotions to me and allowed me to share and document this very intimate process.

Rosa’s 15th birthday party was not just a childhood wish, but a bridge to her mother, Koko. ‘I’ve always been told that I look a lot like her when I was young… I wanted to be a reflection of her for my 15th,’ she told us one afternoon, while her mother was making preparations. She wanted to dance, share with her family and friends and enjoy herself. But she also wanted to make her own mark. She wanted the party not to be a copy, but something of her own. Something that speaks of her.

Koko, her mother, has been a silent figure behind all this. Working woman, head of the household, strong and serene figure and main breadwinner. It hasn’t been easy, but it was never about luxuries: it was about presence, about care, about giving her daughter a meaningful moment. She said that in her childhood she did not have the opportunity to talk to her mother about what it meant to be a woman in Mexico. So she has done her best to raise Rosa in a different environment, where talking and taking care of herself is the main thing.

Working with medium format analogue photography was my way of accompanying this story. As this celebration comes from afar and transforms, it is a way of honouring tradition while giving it a new vision and language.

Rosa knows that growing up implies taking care of oneself. That being a woman in Mexico, as her mother has told her, also entails a difficult conscience: that of being alert. But she does not want to live in fear. She wants to celebrate, to live her youth with the freedom that sometimes seems like a luxury.

Today, being a woman in this ritual is not the same as before. Rosa did not only celebrate the passage from girl to young woman. She was a bridge between the inherited and the chosen. She is a young woman who raises her voice and embraces her mother as a heroine.