WITNESSarchive

W–039 · Documentary photograph and sources

Lina and Gerardo

Five-year-old Lina’s abdomen was growing, and her father took her to hospital. Her family had come looking for help; Dr Gerardo Lozada discovered that she was pregnant. It was the spring of 1939, at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pisco, Peru. Within weeks the child would give birth, and her name would appear in newspapers around the world.

1. Lina and Gerardo

Lina Medina and her son Gerardo sit on the grass beside a dog. This image appeared in A Noite on 18 March 1941.
Lina Medina and her son Gerardo sit on the grass beside a dog. This image appeared in A Noite on 18 March 1941.
Provenance and sources for frame 1

The copy was found at Bygonely and checked against the 18 March 1941 issue of A Noite, held by Brazil’s National Library. It existed by that publication date; the day and place of the exposure, photographer and rights holder are unknown. Displayed file: 640 × 480 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

Lina Medina was taken from Pisco to Lima. Doctors attributed the possibility of pregnancy to exceptionally early puberty; her age was checked against a baptismal record brought in by her father, Tiburcio. On 14 May 1939, Lina delivered by caesarean section at a Lima maternity hospital. She was five years, seven months and twenty-one days old. Her son was named Gerardo after Lozada. That year, the Peruvian doctor Edmundo Escomel described the case in a medical journal. Photographs of mother and child were already travelling beyond Peru.

2. At the hospital after the birth

Lina lies in a hospital bed while a medical worker beside her holds the newborn.
Lina lies in a hospital bed while a medical worker beside her holds the newborn.
Provenance and sources for frame 2

A 1939 hospital view reproduced by Bygonely. The photographer, exact date and rights holder have not been identified. Displayed file: 640 × 482 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

3. Lina with her newborn

Lina sits in a hospital bed with her newborn son in her arms.
Lina sits in a hospital bed with her newborn son in her arms.
Provenance and sources for frame 3

A second 1939 hospital view reproduced by Bygonely. The photographer, exact date and rights holder have not been identified. Displayed file: 1280 × 720 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

Police investigated the sexual assault of the girl. Tiburcio Medina was arrested on suspicion of involvement, then released for lack of evidence. The perpetrator was never identified. The identity of the person who impregnated Lina remains unknown.

4. With Dr Lozada

Dr Gerardo Lozada with Lina and her son, who is in a pram.
Dr Gerardo Lozada with Lina and her son, who is in a pram.
Provenance and sources for frame 4

A photograph dated approximately 1940 in the Bygonely copy. The photographer and precise date have not been established. Displayed file: 453 × 640 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

5. The doll and the pram

Lina holds a doll beside her son’s pram, with a medical worker nearby.
Lina holds a doll beside her son’s pram, with a medical worker nearby.
Provenance and sources for frame 5

From the El Comercio photo archive. This larger file replaces a smaller duplicate; the publication gives no precise date or photographer. Displayed file: 2681 × 2000 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

elcomercio.peView image file

Soon there was another dispute: who would decide her future? Her father arranged a trip to the United States for medical examinations. Peruvian authorities prevented her departure and placed her in state custody on 7 June 1939. Tiburcio appealed to the Supreme Court and regained guardianship in 1940. While family and state fought in court, the child’s story continued to circulate in the world press.

6. Beside the doll

Lina beside Gerardo and a doll, with a chair behind them. A Noite printed this picture with the one showing the dog.
Lina beside Gerardo and a doll, with a chair behind them. A Noite printed this picture with the one showing the dog.
Provenance and sources for frame 6

A Bygonely copy checked against A Noite of 18 March 1941. Its presence on that newspaper page establishes the series connection, but not the order in which the images were made. Photographer and rights holder unknown. Displayed file: 456 × 640 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

In childhood photographs, Lina sits with Gerardo and a dog; in other pictures, her son is older. The Brazilian paper A Noite printed four images on 18 March 1941, including the one with the dog, now often captioned “Seven-year-old Lina with her two-year-old son, 1940.” That age does not fit the calendar: Gerardo did not turn two until May 1941. The day the pictures were taken is unknown, but the newspaper page proves that they existed by 18 March. Later portraits show Lina as an adult.

7. Lina holds her son

Lina carries young Gerardo in her arms.
Lina carries young Gerardo in her arms.
Provenance and sources for frame 7

A later family view from the El Comercio photo archive, placed in the early 1940s. The file retains its white borders; the precise year and photographer are not given. Displayed file: 880 × 492 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

elcomercio.peView image file

8. A walk with Gerardo

Lina and Gerardo walk hand in hand, with animal figures behind them.
Lina and Gerardo walk hand in hand, with animal figures behind them.
Provenance and sources for frame 8

A later family view reproduced by Bygonely. Its precise date and photographer are not known. Displayed file: 420 × 640 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

Lozada remained part of the family’s life. As she grew older, Lina learned shorthand and worked as his secretary; he also helped with Gerardo’s education. Lina married Raúl Jurado. In 1972 she gave birth to a second son, thirty-three years after the first. Gerardo had a family of his own and earned a living at various jobs, including demanding manual work.

9. Four photographs in the newspaper

The complete A Noite page of 18 March 1941, with four family pictures. Its original layout and a caption misstating Lina’s age at the birth have been retained.
The complete A Noite page of 18 March 1941, with four family pictures. Its original layout and a caption misstating Lina’s age at the birth have been retained.
Provenance and sources for frame 9

The complete page three of A Noite, 18 March 1941, from the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil. This is a raster rendering of a newspaper page, not a separate photograph. Two additional images remain in the page as published, without being cut out. Displayed file: 1427 × 2000 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. Full image record in Russian.

hemeroteca-pdf.bn.gov.brView image file

10. The story in LIFE

A LIFE page with William Krehm’s “What Has Become of Lina Medina?” and photographs of Lina and Gerardo.
A LIFE page with William Krehm’s “What Has Become of Lina Medina?” and photographs of Lina and Gerardo.
Provenance and sources for frame 10

A LIFE page published on 15 December 1947, reproduced via El Comercio. This is a later document about the family, not an image from 1939. The small type is limited by the available file resolution. Displayed file: 880 × 492 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

elcomercio.peView image file

Gerardo died of a bone-marrow illness in 1979. He was forty. Years later, gynaecologist José Sandoval found his medical records at Almenara Hospital. Sandoval read the newspapers of 1939, studied doctors’ notes and spoke with relatives, piecing together the lives of mother and son beyond the publicity that had surrounded them as children. Lina did not obstruct his research, but declined to speak about what had happened to her.

11. Son, mother and doctor

An older Gerardo with Lina and Dr Gerardo Lozada.
An older Gerardo with Lina and Dr Gerardo Lozada.
Provenance and sources for frame 11

A later family picture reproduced by Bygonely; the year and photographer are not established. Displayed file: 640 × 480 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

bygonely.comView image file

12. Lina in 1967

Lina as an adult, outdoors with a bag. The image has been matched to a Bettmann collection record.
Lina as an adult, outdoors with a bag. The image has been matched to a Bettmann collection record.
Provenance and sources for frame 12

Matched to Bettmann / Getty Images record 515039586, dated 18 October 1967. An older agency caption makes an unverified accusation against a relative; WITNESS does not repeat it as fact. The photographer is unidentified. Displayed file: 472 × 640 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

gettyimages.com.auView image file

When Sandoval’s book appeared in 2002, people in Peru again asked about the support the state had promised Lina when she was a child. A Reuters correspondent spoke with Raúl Jurado; Lina herself refused an interview. The press rarely reported on her later life. In 2019, El Comercio wrote that she had been widowed since 2009. For decades her name remained in newspapers and medical books. She chose not to recount her experience.

13. Gerardo at work

Gerardo Medina as an adult at a workbench with tools.
Gerardo Medina as an adult at a workbench with tools.
Provenance and sources for frame 13

A portrait of Gerardo in adulthood from the El Comercio photo archive. Neither the year nor the photographer is stated. Displayed file: 2008 × 1276 pixels. No free licence has been established for this file. The photographer is not identified in the cited record. Full image record in Russian.

elcomercio.peView image file