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Rachelle Reyes poses in her quinceañera gown at Maymont. (Photo by Jc Vera)
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Rachelle and her attendants perform at her quinceañera celebration. (Photo by Jc Vera)
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Rachelle receives a blessing during the ceremony at the Church of the Sacred Heart Parish in South Prince George. (Photo by Jc Vera)
Blue and shiny keepsakes from Rachelle Reyes’ quinceañera gleam in her home in Shady Hill mobile home park in Chesterfield County.
On a small table in her bedroom rests a 3-foot-high doll with ringlets in a blue princess gown, a blue fabric-covered Bible and a sparkling tiara. Her blue, poufy, floor-length gown with a blue gem-crusted, strapless bodice hangs protected inside plastic. A 2-by-3-foot framed photograph of a smiling Rachelle in that gown and tiara from a photo shoot in front of a bridge and waterfall at Maymont hangs in her parents’ bedroom.
“I always wanted to have a quinceañera,” says Rachelle, a 17-year-old sophomore and National Honor Society member at Carver College & Career Academy in Chesterfield County. She wears dark-rimmed glasses, keeps her hair (which is bleached at the ends) pulled back in a ponytail and has dimples on both cheeks when she smiles. “It was one of my goals. I loved the Disney princesses. On the day of that photo shoot a little girl saw me and said, ‘Is that a princess?’ I told her, ‘Just for one day.’ ”
Quinceañeras (quin-ce-a-ñe-ras) are Mexican and pan-Latin American celebrations that mark a girl’s 15th birthday. They are traditional coming-of-age or coming-out events. Quinceañeras are positive events with images of smiling, elegantly dressed Latino teens. They are identity-affirming, an opportunity to express the personal love that God, family and community have for the teens, says the Rev. Shay Auerbach of Sacred Heart Church, who has presided over “dozens and dozens” of the ceremonies in the South Side Catholic parish.
“It is, I feel, especially important for a young Latina to feel valued since she can so often be overlooked — certainly by the wider culture, which tends to write off or marginalize people of color, especially women,” says Auerbach. “Our society often has low expectations of Latino youth — and conveys that to them effectively through any number of message systems. Sometimes this can even happen in families, especially if the family may have an antiquated idea of what the role of a woman is. It encourages dreaming among a population where so often people think a future is determined by so many other factors.”
Rachelle’s ceremony was captured in a two-and-a-half-hour video by Jc Vera, a photographer who specializes in quinceañeras.
The morning of the celebration, a hairstylist and makeup artists came to the Reyes’ home. A limousine driver picked up the five boys who acted as Rachelle’s chambelanes, or attendants, bucking the tradition to pair seven chambelanes with seven teenage girls who act as damas. Then the Reyes, Rachelle’s attendants, a few close friends and the padrinos, or sponsors who help pay for expenses, headed to the Church of the Sacred Heart Parish in South Prince George for a mass.
After the service, Rachelle posed for photos with her chambelanes and the group then gathered at the Bon Air Community Association for the party. Rachelle danced with her father, Arturo, as a deejay played a traditional waltz, then danced with her mother, Maria, to the Miley Cyrus tune “Butterfly Fly Away.”
Tables were laden with home-cooked carnitas, rice, beans and salads for all, as well as a three-layer cake decorated with a ribbon of blue flowers on each tier.
Rachelle performed choreographed dances with her chambelanes, and then, after a fog machine set off a smoke detector, the party resumed and she changed into jean shorts and cowboy boots with her attendants in Western wear to dance to Mexican regional zapateado music. For the rest of the event, the DJ played traditional Mexican music and Caribbean bachata.
The festivities vary, depending upon where the girl is from, according to Auerbach. “It’s done a little differently depending if the family is from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Salvador or Guatemala,” he says.
They’re festive and fun, and can take weeks and often months of preparations. They can also be expensive.
A dress can cost from $300 to $3,000. It’s not uncommon for families to spend $20,000 on the event with the related expenses — the food, the hall, the DJ, the decorations. Some local families who were interviewed say they decided to opt out of the tradition for cost or other reasons. Despite the expense, quinceañera was important to Rachelle’s parents, who are both from Mexico. Rachelle’s father works in construction. Her mother never had a quinceañera; in fact, she never got to go to school in Mexico because she was from a large, poor family. She now works removing asbestos.
“It brings back memories of us celebrating her together and of her reaffirming her faith,” Maria Reyes says in Spanish, while flipping through her daughter’s quinceañera photo album and watching a video of the events on a recent afternoon. “I feel pride for her that she has what I couldn’t have. We celebrated her as the princess, as the lady of honor. When I watch this, I feel emotional and I want to cry.”
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Model Kaitlynn Cabascango with makeup by Liza Benavides and gown provided by Angy’s Boutique in Chesterfield (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Model Kaitlynn Cabascango poses with a Lamborghini provided by First Class Limo (Photo by Jay Paul)
Business and Dreams
A plethora of South Side vendors demonstrates the demand for services for the coming-of-age parties.
The Reyes bought Rachelle’s dress from Olivia Limon Kidd, who runs a business, Club Quince, out of her Midlothian home. She provides teens with high-end, custom-made dresses with full, flowing skirts and bodices from Morilee and DaVinci that have “youthful modesty with tasteful yet womanly sweetheart bodices.” Kidd also provides tiaras and handmade cloth bouquets for keepsakes. She often acts as a party planner and mistress of ceremonies, helping to facilitate the most popular themes like Paris or “Beauty and the Beast.”
“The traditional Mexican dress style is completely white,” says Kidd. “White is for purity. Now styles have changed. Here, people from El Salvador and Puerto Rico like light colors. Now the trend is darker blues and hot pink.”
Mario Dawson, at La Sabrosita Bakery on Midlothian Turnpike, creates complicated, multi-layer pastel tres leches cakes for quinceañeras, complete with bridges and figurines representing the girl and her attendants. Across the parking lot, Hamburger’s Party Rentals displays tiaras, thrones, pillows, quince dolls and other related event needs. Near Rachelle’s home, the Variedades Ruby stall in the Jefferson Davis Flea Market provided the Reyes family with numerous accoutrements for the event.
A choreographer taught Rachelle and her attendants their dance moves. Many of the popular venues south of the James such as the Cultural Center of India, the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel and the Smoketree Community Center are already booked for quinces on weekends through the summer.
On a blustery April afternoon, First Class Limo owner Henry Gonzalez orchestrated a high-end photo shoot with 17-year-old Kaitlynn Cabascango wearing a pink, off-the-shoulder organza gown provided by Angy’s Boutique in Chesterfield. Makeup artist Liza Benavides applied dramatic foundation and eye shadow to the teen model’s face.
Producing eye-catching photographs in charming and iconic Richmond locations with Gonzalez’s yellow Lamborghini would give future clients ideas to book his vehicles for their events. In Facebook posts, Gonzalez stressed photographer Alondra Sotomayor’s knowledge of the rhythm of quinceañeras.
Mi Hacienda Mexican restaurant manager Javier Ornelas says the Midlothian Turnpike restaurant, decorated in the style of a traditional tiled Mexican courtyard with a fountain, hosts about two quinceañeras per month, for 50 to 300 guests.
“In our culture we have a thing called colados, that’s like party crashers,” says Ornelas. “We’re notorious for not sending in RSVPs and then showing up and even bringing a friend.”
The solution: Provide plenty of food for the extra guests. The mood is always celebratory and welcoming.
Auerbach also engages young congregants, not just the girl herself, with the idea of dreaming of a future and working to get there. He uses the example of their parents, who had dreams and now are here in the U.S. and at various levels have had their dreams realized. He tells them that if they don't work to plan their future, that means letting someone else decide it for them.
“Quinceañeras are about community, it’s about religion, it’s about identity, it’s about dreams, it’s about success, it’s about standing up to racism and discrimination and saying this is who we are,” says Auerbach. “The family can also say, ‘Look at what we accomplished.’ ”
Rachelle Reyes has already compiled her to-do list of goals to accomplish. "I want to have a high GPA. I want to focus on school. I am going to graduate early,” she says. “My plans are to go to college and to study forensics. I want to graduate college and get a job that I want and that I will really enjoy."
