Yesterday my daughter had the honor of serving as a lady of honor in the court of a Quinceanera. This is a beautiful Latino tradition for a young woman's 15th birthday.The day started with a formal ceremony and mass honoring Jessica's rite of passage to young womanhood.
A huge stretch limo was hired. Photos were taken a a park and a formal reception was held at a rented hall.
Some people may have gushed at William and Kate's wedding as every young girl dreams of becoming a princess, but this was so much better in so many ways.
The first picture is of the mini-quinceaneran, one of Jessica's cousins who enjoyed the honor of dressing like the honoree. She also won the admiration of every little girl at the park!
Jessica wore an elegant dress, a tiara and carried a scepter. She was truly a princess for the day!She is escorted by her brother. He rode in the limo with about 13 beautiful young ladies! Lucky guy! He took a bit of "razzing" from his friends, but didn't seem to mind too much.
What an incredible day for a wonderful young lady. We returned to the reception hall for homemade Salvadoran food and dancing. There was a ritual "changing of the shoes" where Jessica's father replaced her Chuck Taylor sneakers with high heels. Jess stood up and thanked her family and her friends for helping her become a young woman. Every member of her family helped to prepare the feast and festivities.
Jessica's mother told me that she could not have one because her family in El Salvador was too poor.
She fulfilled the dream for her daughter.
I wish every girl could be a princess for the day.
(My daughter is the ginger-haired, third from left). I hope you enjoy the photos. Blogger would only allow me to upload three. What's up with Blogger these days?
9 comments:
What a wonderful tradition, Neetzy!
The changing of the shoes is a sweet touch.
Jessica's brother certainly is a lucky guy. This whole bevy of Princesses is much easier on the eye than the dumb royal wedding. I wish we had some tradition like that over here.
Shame about Blogger only allowing you to post three pictures. I saw you posted some more on FB. Looks like it was a great party. Delaney looks fabulous, but then redheads always steal the show. I love the last photo here where you've caught one of the girls covering her eyes in seeming despair. Hee hee.
Interestingly, my niece, of Mexican-American descent, decided NOT to have a quinceneara (which would have been this September) and has chosen a sweet 16 party next year instead, although she has a large extended family of Mexican descent. Her mother is disappointed; the Mexican side is shocked/horrified, but she's an independent one. I think some of the traditions of Hispanic culture are very cool, though I'm not in love with all of them.
Dive,
This was a wonderful party and the girls had such fun! This is the first one I've had the privilege of attending as my family has no such tradition either. Delaney kept covering up until I yelled at her. The other young lady was a dancing fool later in the evening!
Writing Goddess,
Very interesting decision for your niece, but I can understand. I found a hispanic-run website encouraging Latinas to mix traditions. Some girls might not want to be seen as different from their American friends, some might not want all the fuss and some might object to the religious aspect of it. It seems quite common for modern girls to choose the "sweet sixteen" party and include some of the traditional ceremony. My girls didn't even want a "sweet sixteen".
I certainly didn't want to hold the type my sister-in-law had for her daughter. It was not nearly as cool as this!
I wish I could have had a changing of my shoes...
But, at fifteen...I was far from ready to give up my Chucks...
All that food, though....ahhhh.
Maria,
The changing of the shoes was such a cool ritual! Here I am at 50 something and more changing my heels to Birkenstocks because of ankle issues but WTF. It was a beautiful coming of age ritual!
And Tres Leches Cake is always worth the ceremony!
There's cake too?
Dive!
Tres Leches cake! Soaked in three different kinds of milk and the middle layer is filled with fresh fruit! Mouthy orgasms!
Oh and Latin Music and the Latin DJ's added Latin rhythms to all the dance music which made it so much more fun! My daughter said the Latin music was much better dance music and I agree!
Oh, my.
I have GOT to get those parties started over this side of the pond.
Dive,
This is the first one I've attended! The first one I've been honored to attend! I ate my first Tres Leches cake at a Latina graduation party last year. Why some republican assholes discriminate against these wonderful people. I do not know.
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