Quinceanera It is customary for all Latin American cultures to celebrate a coming of age party for their daughters called a quinceanera. Parents commemorate their beloved daughter’s transition from being a little girl to becoming a fifteen year old young lady by inviting family and friends to join in this huge event. A modern day young lady is celebrated with a ceremony, grand party with extravagant decorations, exquisite food, memorable toasts form the godparents, and usually wrapped up with a funky dance. Every little girl awaits the day when she will be treated and given the attention of a princess for a day. It was my pleasure to attend my cousin Daira’s quinceanera, and witness my first quinceanera in Mexico.
It was a Saturday afternoon in Tijuana, Mexico as I arrived at the church. The streets were extremely narrow and they had cars parked on either side - trucks, vans, cars – making it nearly impossible for moving vehicles to run past each other. As I drove up I could not help but notice how all the buildings were built so close together, it was difficult to see where each building began. Once I paid closer attention to the houses I noticed the obvious iron gates which bordered each individual home. The buildings were poorly painted a peachy pink color it seemed as if we were in the middle of a rundown apartment complex because of how dirty each building seemed. Through the gates you could see people carrying on their normal daily routine in their homes like little kids playing with their neighbors, women yelling at their children, and people arriving home. The pavement was grey and rocky which made it challenging to walk, in heels not like the neatly paved streets in California, small craters were found every three steps you took. I felt as if I was the only person suffering when I turned to see how all the natives could flow through all the ground’s imperfections without looking down or even slightly getting out of balance. Finally, I found the church, in between the poorly kept houses was this tall narrow white building that looked as if it had no place in that street.
The building of course was not new but was nicely kept. Once I was getting ready to enter the church, I realized that the kind architect gave people an option to enter the building. You could make your way in by crossing a slab of concrete that seemed to be a bridge, but molded into looking like a steep slide, or you could enter through an overly high. The decision was easy when I remembered that I was wearing heels and did not want to risk falling down that slide-like slope. I quickly made my decision so to not hold the line up of the anxious and excited guests.
The guests seemed as if they were all attending different events. Most of the guests were dressed in sophisticated attire, women with beautiful floor length dresses and men with nicely pressed suits. However, there were also those female guests who dressed as if they were going to the club wearing short and tight dresses with what seemed to be ten inch heels, heavy makeup and bulky jewelry. There was also the in-between crowd of guests who wore less revealing attire, women had stylish knee length gowns, tasteful jewelry, and an overall classy appearance; and the men with slacks, button up shirts with a fancy tie and nice dressy shoes.
The inside of the church was bigger than what I had expected. There were three columns of brown pews, left, center, and right, all with ten rows. The first four rows had engraved writing on the sides reserving the spots for use on regular services, the first two rows were designated to the “Niño’s,” or kids and the second two were for the “Jovenes,” or the youth. As I looked up I noticed a yellow-gold iron gate that wrapped around the second floor where additional seating was available.
The stage was very small however, with only enough room for one white and turquois flower arrangement on each side of the pulpit (the only decoration pertaining to the party), the pastor, and a projection screen that was placed behind the pastor, which was used to display the words to the songs. The musicians were on the left side in between the stage and the pews, all the men were different ages. A middle aged man who seemed to be the leader was the keyboardist and singer, the base player was a young teenage boy who sat on the first bench facing the keyboardist, the guitarist was an older man who sat in his wheelchair also facing the keyboardist, and the drummer, another middle aged man, who had his own little tower upstairs where he faced the challenge of keeping up with the tempo without being able to see the leader. Because there were only a few guests present the ceremony was taking longer to commence than the guests were expecting. There were different groups of people having conversations laughing silently at each other’s jokes, some were sitting on the pews and others were standing up, but all were scattered. The band was still doing some warm up rounds, you could see their concentration as they each fiddled with their instruments. The pastor was talking to the Quinceanera’s mother - who was wearing a beautiful, floor length, turquois, one shoulder dress with gorgeous makeup and pretty jewels - coordinating the finishing touches for what was going to happen next. As a few more guests arrived, they decided to wait no more. Everyone knew it was time to begin when the pastor made his way up to the stage, he was a semi-short, darker man around his early fifties; he was dressed in a nice grey suit with a black tie and black dress shoes. Everything seemed as if it lacked rehearsal. The ceremony began with a song everyone in the audience stood on their feet in respect to Daira, the Quinceanera. She was wearing a very poufy turquois dress along with a small glittering tiara and a shawl made of organza specifically for the church. The dress consisted of a strapless corset that went down to her hipline with neatly scattered white shimmery beading all over. The bottom of the dress had long layers of pure turquoise tulle with sparkly beads hidden throughout. Despite the simplicity of her makeup she looked beautiful. Daira hurriedly made her way down the aisle followed by the five boys in her court who were wearing elegant black suits and a matching turquois tie. As she approached the pulpit the court took a seat in the front row.
As soon as the song ended the pastor asked everyone to go into prayer, he thanked God for the opportunity of having Daira turn fifteen and for her grand celebration, and then he asked everyone to be seated. The guests struggled to hear and understand the pastor as he began his mini-sermon because of the major feedback coming from the speakers. It felt as if five minutes had passed when he began to wrap up his sermon and had the guests stand and say another prayer while the musicians played another tune. Once the prayer was over, the pastor announced that the ceremony had come to cease and the people rushed up to the stage, cameras in hand and started the line to take the pictures. Once the photo shoot was over it was time to head over to the reception hall.
Coming into to my destination there were two buildings the size of a room on either side of where we had to drive through to get to the parking, they were painted with royal blue and had sea creatures. Right behind those two buildings was an area with pure dirt which was used as a parking lot - three rows of cars could with effort – and behind that was a tan wall with dark brown trim and a large open door showing the guests which way the party was. Everything seemed so creepy that I couldn’t even dare imagine what was on the other side of that wall. I began to look at the other guests in order to catch any form of insecurity on their faces, but, everyone casually entered the huge door with confidence and I decided it was time to go in.
Once I stepped one foot through the door I was in shock! It was beautiful! The theme was Paris. As you walk in you are outdoors, everything to your left is rich green grass and separate blocks of concrete with a designated purposes. One of which was for a sitting area that had elegant French styled white leather couches and a matching floor lamp to go along with it. There was another section that had stets of tall round tables, each with its own pair of white bar stools. On the grass were four beautifully decorated round tables with intricate designs. Half of the tables were dressed in black and white damask floor length table cloths, and for the center piece, they had a tall, glass sphere filled with turquoise water and a classy, round, white flower arrangement on top, each table complete with its table setting. The other half of the tables were dressed with floor length, turquoise, satin table covers and a wide damask runner going down the middle, and the center piece was a silver, two and a half foot Eiffel tower that sat on a bed of white of flowers. Each chair had its satin, white cover and a turquoise sash. And right in the middle of the grass was a black iron, seven foot tall Eiffel tower. Continuing straight from where you came in was the entrance of the hall.
The hall was decorated with the same table designs, it was gorgeous. Downstairs there were six wonderfully decorated tables all surrounding the cherry wood dance floor, and in one of the corners was the cute two tiered cake surrounded by chocolate covered treats including apples, marshmallows, brownies and more. The disk jockey was set up on the second floor in a little nook as you came up the stairs with his lights, speakers and DJ system. Passing the DJ, there were five more tables, at the edge there was a chic, black, iron gate with a refined and detailed design that allowed the guests upstairs to view everything that was going on downstairs.
The party began when the DJ announced the arrival of the Quinceanera! The guests cheered as she walked in with her court; when the cheering was done she began to walk around, greet her guests, thank them for coming to her party, and take pictures with them. While Daira was actively greeting her guests the servers brought out the salad. The salad was a delicious blend of light green iceberg lettuce, thin slices of carrots and two cucumbers all smothered in a sweet white dressing. Then it was time for the main course, a chicken dinner. The chicken was sliced through the middle, smothered with crème cheese inside and topped with a gravy-like brown sauce along with sautéed mushrooms. On the side they served mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and a biscuit. It was quite interesting but at the same time very tasteful. There was an endless option of drinks from sodas to juices. During the meal they played a slideshow of the quinceanera with really cute pictures of her family and friends with her.
The party went by fast, before I knew it, the time had come for the Daira’s father and godfather to give a toast. It was a very heartwarming to see how much these men really cared for her and to see all the wise advice they offered her. Then came the father daughter waltz, she looked extremely beautiful as the lights hit her dress making her sparkle radiantly with every twirl her dad gave her. Then out of nowhere, funky Mexican music played from the speakers and it was as if they made a call to the wild! Everyone got up from their seats and began to dance!
I was entertained by simply looking at everyone dancing. Some people really knew what they were doing and others just made up their own moves, but everyone was having a good time. Then out came a man with props and walked around the dance floor giving everyone a different toy. Some people got huge sunglasses, others big ears, there were funny rabbit hats and so on. The party was amazing! It was fun to see how quinceaneras are celebrated south of the boarder. It’s beautiful to see how much effort, time, and design parents bring together in honor of their daughter.