Quinceañera

There have been moments in my life where I'm utterly baffled by the reality of the moment in front of me. It happened when I was in Bangkok for a friend's sister's wedding. It happened when I was dancing on the plaza of Andahuaylillas during one of the biggest religious festivals of theyear. And it happened last Saturday when I was at a stranger's quinceañera.* For those who don't know, a quinceañera is Latin American version of a Sweet Sixteen (except that it's on the 15th birthday). If you want to know what quinceañeras are like, you've come to the wrong source. I've only been to one. I can't tell you what all quinceañeras are like, but I can tell you about this one.

First of all, timing. The invitation said 8. We decided to meet up with some local friends at our house and all go around 9. Of course we didn't leave at 9. We arrived at the party at 10, and it was only a 5 walk from our house. We were almost to first guests to arrive. The only other guests there were the parents of two of my violin students. I sat down next to them to chat and ended up hanging out with them most of the night.

Second, ceremony. Birthday parties are generally pretty low on ceremony. There's a cake, you put little wax sticks on top and set them on fire while everyone sings the ritual song, the birthday celebrant blows out the fire (thereby dropping bits of their spit onto the top of the cake), and then everyone has a slice. Presents are also traditional. At Sol's quinceañera, there was all that and more. She had a court of male-female partners, who were introduced as they filed in. Finally she entered with her grandfather, who passed her off to her escort. Then came the dancing. The same waltz played on repeat for about 15 minutes while Sol danced first with grandfather and then with every male member of her court and her escort danced with her mother, Sol's sponsor** (who was Carmen, one of our main contacts at the parish), and various other female members of Sol's family. It had all the recognizable awkwardness of adolescents who want to be grown up but aren't sure how.

Finally the waltzing ended and it was on to the toasts. Mercifully, these didn't go on for very long. Her mother, Carmen, her grandfather all toasted. There champagne for the toasting, which was certainly lacking at my 15th birthday. Then we all lined up to congratulate Sol and give her our gifts. After the pile of gifts was complete the MC told Sol to shout out “let the party start!” It reminded me of how every baseball game has a someone shout “play ball” before the game can start. The music got going and everyone got to dancing. There was no more waltzing, the music was a well done mix of electro, cumbia, reggaetone, huayno, with a bit of salsa and saylla thrown in.***

We danced. And danced. And danced. All the while we wondered when the food was going to come. We sat down to rest. Sometime after midnight we asked if there would actually be food, or if the forks and knives had just been set out for decoration. We were assured it would be there soon. So we got up and danced some more.

The food did arrive...at 2 in the morning. It was the latest I've ever had a chicken dinner. To be clear, a chicken dinner in the Andes is roast chicken with a side of 2 or 3 potatoes. Because this was a fancy event, there was also a small salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. We gratefully ate up. We stayed a little longer to dance some more. When we left at 3, we were the last ones to leave. It was a really fun night with some of the people we work with at the parish. It had the added benefit that the trip home was a 5 minute walk and not a one hour drive in a seatbeltless taxi.

This is just one of the many examples of how we receive great welcome here even though we're foreign, have accents, and bumble around through our work a lot of the time.

Final thought: If I was feeling surprised at finding myself at a stranger's quinceañera, then Ignacio, the student who had just arrived to Andahuaylillas that morning, must have been absolutely shocked to be there himself. At least I knew some of the guests. He was just meeting everyone for the first time.

*I didn't know Sol, whose party it was, but we do know her mother from work.

**Like a godmother.

***Some of those are genres that aren't known in the States. Look them up if you're curious.