Quinceañera traditions vary even within families, as people from different generations migrate and adapt to new lives and customs. When my daughter turned 15 in 2024, she was the first to celebrate her Quince Años with a big family party in over 15 years! I am so grateful for two of my dear friends who encouraged me to put together a small album of our family Quince traditions as a gift to my daughter. The first is a photo of my grandmother, the only one we have of her as a young woman. She never had a 15s celebration but really wanted to have a quinceañera for my mother in Cuba, in 1962. But at that time, Cuba was in the aftermath of Castro's 1959 revolution. Everything was more difficult, and my mother was very Introverted and shy as an adolescent. She refused to have photos taken or attempt to organize a celebration. The second photo here is the only one of 2 or 3 photos that we have of her as a young adult. Over two decades later and many years into their new life in exile, my Quince was the first our family celebrated. It was all-hands-on-deck, beginning with my dear Ua, in charge of the handmade decorations for the party, ending with the much-anticipated photo shoot. My parents gifted me a "15" on a gold bangle, which I still wear because my father goldsmithed the bangle and set the tiny diamonds. Ten years after my quince, we celebrated my younger sister's, but for long time the quinceaneras were a thing of the past, until we gathered with family and friends in NYC and Miami in 2024 for my daughter's -- to claim our own version of this rite of passage.

– L

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant