Quinceañeras in Texas Monthly Style Issue
10 March 2009, 11:16 AM. By Cindy Casares
Texas Monthly and style? Yes! March’s issue is all about “Texas Style” and they’re leading example of cool? “All-out quinceañeras,” to which they devote hundreds and hundreds of words. It’s as if gaudy Latinos were just invented.
“I had to come to the Rio Grande Valley in hopes of understanding why lavish quinceañeras have suddenly become so popular,” writes journalist Pamela Colloff. We hate to break it to her, but those of us who turned fifteen well over 20 years ago in the Rio Grande Valley were already attending lavish parties that easily cost more than our mother’s weddings. [Ed. Note: Not our own, mind you. We wouldn't be caught dead having a quinceañera. At least that's what we told ourselves as we cried ourselves to sleep each night on our Holly Hobby, gentrified pillow case.]
It’s about time the mainstream press (of Texas, anyway) saw fit to recognize something that’s been happening in its backyard for at least the last quarter century. And we definitely have MTV’s “My Super Sweet 16″ to thank for that coverage, regardless of what Ms. Colloff protests. While lavish quinceañeras have been going on since the dawn of time, the last fifteen years have seen the rise of hip-hop culture in America and with it the proliferation of ghetto fabulous. Make no mistake about it: quinceañeras are all about new money flash. Perhaps a reason why your editor’s mom was dead set against having one. We were neither new nor money. “I had eleven guys dance with me,” one McAllen Texas quinceañera told Colloff, “So there were twelve of us, which I liked, because it was like the twelve disciples.”
At this age, though, we find a new kind of joy in observing the spectacle of this rite of passage for so many. And, for better or worse, there is a definitive style that comes with the scene. Albeit a rather bathed in Pepto Bismol one. (That’s changing, though! According to the latest Quince Girl Expo held in Austin, the new thing is black overlay over pink or aqua or deep turquoise.) Check out the below gallery of quinceañera photos from McAllen, Texas, including the fiesta Miss Miranda Nicole “12 Disciples” Mejia. Long may she reign.
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This brings back memories of my cousin Myra’s quince. Her dress was not as “nice” as the ones pictured, probably because my aunt made her the dress. She made their curtains too and their windows always looked like shit. Myra also didn’t look like these girls. She had more of a Jimmy Dean sausage chub wrapped in satin look. A vision.
Dumbest tradition hand down!
Quinces are fun but lets face it about 80% who have this “welcome to womanhood” party end up pregnant within the year or have the protruding belly by the time they have the quince… so for those girls, this is a bull shit tradition that means nothing.
Myra ended up pregnant the very next year! No one knew until she called from the hospital, in labor! Being shaped like a sausage chub helps to conceal prenancy.
Fredo you MUST post a pic of your cousin Myra! .. sadly I’m not shaped like a sausage but I was the rarity, I got pregnant after getting married 15 years after my quince.
Hah! My cousin Myra would kill if she found out I had posted pics of her fat suasage-y-ness to get laughs. It would ruin her reputation, or something, she still has illegitimate child bearing days ahead of her.
Good story for my blog though…..Mmmmhmmm.
Despite it’s patriarchal background, I think it would have been fun.
Also, it has been a tradition in my family to be pregnant for your quince. Nice, right?
“Suddenly become so popular.” About once a year, some English-language newspapers and magazines in Latino heavy communities write this article. It’s a sad reminder that white people, as much as they like to pretend they do, don’t know all that much about their Hispanic neighbors.
Not much snarky or witty about this comment, just wanted to throw it out there, because I’ve noticed it the past few years.
I was a “chambelan” in my cousins quince in Vegas. There was this part of the dance where we picked her up and then accidentally dropped her mid air. Looking back it was funny but probs not for her.
Did you guys drop her cause she was shaped like a sausage too, like Fredo’s cousin?
I had a quinceñera! and eight years later still no baby! good job me!
maybe it’s because i didn’t really want a quinces in the first place.
And people say Latinos/Hispanics do not help the economy….ppsssh!
i could of sworn that when i stood in a friend’s quinceanera when i was a high school freshman, about 10 years ago, there was a dude from some magazine doing a story on it. non latinos just love the exoticism of it.