North America Initiation Rituals: Quinceañera a Catholic Coming of Age Rite

Title: North America Initiation Rituals: Quinceañera a Catholic Coming of Age Rite

General Information about Item:

  • Initiation Rituals
  • Culture: Latinx and Catholic
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Mexico/America
  • Informant: Serena De La Cruz
  • Place Collected: Dartmouth College Library, Novak
  • Date Collected: 11-2-18

Informant Data:

  • Serena De La Cruz, age 21, is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2019. She was born and raised in San Diego, California. Her ethnic background is Hispanic and Mexican American. She went to a public high school in the city. At Dartmouth, Serena is in Kappa Delta sorority, is a Spanish drill instructor and works at the library. She is planning to major in Geography modified with Medical Communities.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The U.S. Latinx culture has deep roots in respecting their cultural customs, traditions, and religion from the past. The main religion practiced by this cultural community is the Catholicism. In the U.S. a way many their Latinx families continue to pass down their cultural and religious customs is through the Quinceañera. The Quinceañera is an important way for a girl of Mexican American decent to stay connected to their ethnic history. After completing the Quinceañera a girl becomes incorporated into the cultural community in a meaningful way.
  • Social Context: The Quinceañera is practiced by most self-identifying Latinx members no matter their economic and geographic situations. TheQuinceañera can vary in how elaborate the ceremony and party is, depending on the particular socioeconomic state of the individual family and community. This coming of age ceremony is not only important to the girl and her family, but also the cultural and Catholic community she is a part of.

Item:

  • The ultimate root of the Quinceañera is Catholicism. The Quinceañera is ultimately a Catholic rite of passage, despite the party and entertainment aspects of the ceremony. For my informant, though she did not have the traditional church ceremony, she had her deacon come to her Quinceañera. This was a way to respect the Catholic traditions that are involved with the Quinceañera. The deacon made a speech in her honor and blessed her during the ceremony. These are both very important traditional aspects of the Quinceañera. When analyzed as an initiation rite, the different Catholic traditions that are involved in theQuinceañera is part of the transition stage.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

 

Transcript:

  • “I think the hallmarks are the girls fifteenth birthday. She’s a women and I think Catholicismis still really incorporated with it. There’s a church ceremony and the party after where you invite all your friends and family. It’s a very family orientated party… It’s a lot of cultural things mixed with Catholicism things. We had our local deacon he came. And we didn’t have a church ceremony but he basically came and talked to my family and everyone that was there about me and my parents. They did a blessing over me.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • She did not have a church ceremony, but she had been to many Quinceañera’s that had them. She thinks that the church ceremony is still and important aspect of the Quinceañera.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It is interesting to see how the Quinceañera’s traditions are intertwined with both religious and cultural symbolism.

Analysis:                

  • All initiation rituals consist of three main stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. For the North American Sweet Sixteen and Quinceañera, the separation stage consists of the girl getting prepared and planning for the ceremony. This includes, for many girls, their first time wearing tall high heels, getting the makeup professionally done, and wearing elaborate gowns. The transition stage is marked by the various ceremonial traditions. The ceremonial traditions include the opening of gifts, the dance between the father and daughter, reading of speeches, and blowing out candles. The incorporation stage of the Sweet Sixteen and Quinceañera is the party after all the ceremonial traditions are completed. The girl celebrates becoming a women with her friends, family, and community.

Comparison:

  • Comparison within the subgroup: In general all the informants that spoke about their Quinceañera always mentioned something about It makes sense that every informant would mention Catholicism when talking about their Quinceañera because Catholicism is the base of the ceremony. Most girls who have a Quinceañera often have a church ceremony for the first half then a party afterwards.
  • Comparison to the rest of subgroups: Many of the culturally based initiation folklore include tasks and physical activities as an aspect of the initiation rite. A comparable initiation rite to the North AmericanQuinceañera and Sweet Sixteenfrom another subgroup was the Jewish Bat Both the Quinceañera and Bat Mitzvah are rooted in religious beliefs and customs. Both have a church ceremony portion of the ceremony that represents the transition stage of the initiantion rite. The church ceremony of both  the Quinceañera and Bat Mitzvah are followed by a party that represents the incorporation stage of the initiation rite. Since, both these religious based initiation rites are common in America, customs from both are commonly borrowed in Sweet Sixteen celebrations. In the context of the rest of the our group, this piece of folklore is another example of a tradition that is a transition point in a person’s life.

Collector’s Name: Darien Jones, Dartmouth College, Russian 13, Professor Valentina Apresyan, Professor Mikhail Gronas, Fall 2018

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Initiation
  • Catholicism
  • Quinceañera

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *