Quincena Guests

Roberto, our head worker, invited us to attend his daughter’s 15^th birthday party.  Turning 15 in Mexico is a huge thing for young girls.  Families mortgage the house so a daughter can have the event of her "Cuincena" dreams.

The girls typical choose a really flashy dress.  Always in bright colours.  Here’s Sergio standing beside Guadalupe.  It’s hard to belive that she is only 15 years-old. Check-out the gloves!

The young women also selects several of her male friends (and sometimes relatives) to be her escorts.  They are call “Chambelanes” and they get all gussied up in tuxedos.  Lupita had six guys all  in these black suits with green vests.  She also had six girlfriends in matching cocktail type dresses.

A big part of the event is a danced staged with the gal and her escorts.  This is almost always choreographed and requires hours of rehearsal.  Lupita actually did four numbers with her troupe – the poor guys doing their best despite almost no rhythmique ability.

Then the show-stopper is a waltz with Dad.  Here’s Roberto doing his best.  Honestly it was so sweet it brought tears, literally, to my eyes.

While this is a humble family, the event was over the top.  They had two stages.  First there was a typical Mexican band with a singer you can just make out in a green jacket and cowboy hat.  Then there was a salsa band and the whole thing finished off with Mariachis.  They even had cock fighting although I’m not sure what that has to do with a girl’s birthday party.  We passed on that spectacle (all perfectly legal here).

It seemed that the entire village (Amatlan – around the corner from us) was invited and they ordered food for 1500 people – yes fifteen hundred people.  As you can see, the tequila and beer flowed freely.

The cake was four levels high.  Unfortunately we had to leave before it was cut.  We had a blast.  Roberto thanked us a million times for coming.  Too sweet.