Mexican Quincenera Celebrations
My son is engaged to a smart and beautiful Mexican American woman. She has many family members that live between the two borders towns in Arizona–San Luis, AZ and San Luis, Mexico. Her family travels frequently between the two halves of the city to visit and celebrate family events. About a year ago, she invited us to her cousins’ Quincerera. I will admit that I had never heard of the tradition before so I had to be schooled about it. Here goes!
It is a traditional coming-of-age ceremony for young 15 year old girls. It is the Mexican(Hispanic)/Latin American traditional version similar to what we have celebrated through time with our sweet 16 parties, Débutante balls, bat mitzvahs, or rusmspringa depending on the culture. In the Mexican culture (since we went to one of those) it is a huge event that is quite elaborate. Much like a wedding, there are traditional clothes, items, and a religious ceremony. It is meant to signify the child traversing into the world of adulthood. The ceremony reflects on God, family virtues, and the importance of accepting the social responsibilities of adulthood.
Like a wedding the girl wears a beautiful long gown and has a court of honor made up of her closest friends and family members. It can be all girls, all boys or a combination of both. At the quincenera we saw, the girl was dressed in a gorgeous red, poofy, princess gown with flat shoes (we’ll come back to that) and she had a court of nine girls and nine boys that stood on either side of her at the altar of the church. They were dressed in gowns and tuxs. The quincenera had a head piece that was replaced during the long ceremony by a traditional tiara. It signifies that she is a “princess” before God. Other items that girls often receive during the ceremony are a cross (keeping faith with God), a bible (reminding of the word of God), and a scepter ( which is supposed to represent taking responsibility over her own life). She, sometimes, also uses a “Last Doll’ as part of the ceremony. This is to commemorate the last aspects of the child she was who is now going to focus her attention on being a young woman. Sometimes the Last Doll is ceremoniously given to her younger sister.
Here are some examples of the items:
After the religious service, there were pictures to take and some down-time till the reception. It was a huge event. Families save for long periods of time to put this on for their children. After the service, we went with my son and her fiance to visit her grandmother and we took our little guy to a McDonald’s play-land to let him release some energy. When it was time for the reception we went to the location. It was a banquet hall with a wooden dance floor in the center. It is so elaborately decorated with lights and elegant tables an had a DJ for music. I couldn’t believe how much money must have been spent for this event to happen. Everyone was so nice and even though we don’t speak much Spanish they made us feel welcome. Our little guy went straight to the dance floor and it was all we could do to pull him away to eat a little. He danced for hours till we dragged him home around 11pm. The rest of the people stayed till late in the night and, I understand, went to an after party. The food was amazing! There were also other traditional parts of the reception that occurred.
Changing of the Shoes: So, I mentioned this before, it is a symbolic tradition to, again, represent moving onto adulthood. For the whole ceremony and reception till this time, the quincenera wears flat shoes. At a point during the evening, the father (or it can also be another important male figure in the family) sat her down in a chair in the center of the dance floor. He brought her a pair of high heeled shoes which he placed on her feet after removing her flat shoes. Then, they had a father/daughter dance. It was very sweet AND old-fashioned, but it is very traditional. Our quincenera is a musician who is part of a large Mariachi band and so they entertained the audience with songs and speeches from family and friends. It really was like seeing a wedding ritual but for a 15 year old. It was so interesting and we had a great time. I have to say our little guy was quite the star of the dancing though!!!!
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