It’s the time of year for fancy dresses, limo rides, and all the photos. Yes, it’s prom season, but in Texas, that also coincides with another tradition: quinceañera season.
These celebrations of young women are prominent across all parts of Texas and typically include a big party and, of course, lots of food.
Tacos of Texas podcast host Mando Rayo joined the show to talk about some of the festive foods. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: I was going to say congratulations, I understand your family is preparing for a quinceañera this year. How is that going?
Mando Rayo: That’s right. Yeah, my daughter’s turning 15.
We offered her the whole experience around “we can have a party or you can have a travel experience.” And even though she’s very, you know, modern, she loves some of the old-school traditional things. So yeah, we’re doing a big quinceañera this month.
So fun. Okay, let’s talk about the tradition. “Quince” is “15” in Spanish and the quinceañera is the epic birthday party of that year. But is it more than that? I mean, is it about kind of community? Talk to me about it.
So, you know, the quinceañera is actually rooted in a lot of our history. It goes back to pre-Columbian times, even the Aztecs and the Mayans, but as well as with the introduction of Catholicism. And so now it’s this blend, I would say, of those things that kind of came together.
But ultimately what it is, is kind of a coming of age… Could be for both a young man or young woman. There are quinceañeros as well. They’re not as common, I would say, but definitely it’s this coming of age and its idea around really thinking about what’s the next stage for young ladies, right?
And so with that comes bringing family, extended family, community together to celebrate this part of her life.
So, since it’s a birthday party, these could happen any time of the year, and they do, but it’s also true there’s the quinceañera season. Why is it that we see a lot of these in the spring?
I mean, you know, the spring is the perfect time for it. The weather’s nicer. You could have it in a ballroom, you could have in a backyard, indoor, outdoor, as well it’s a great time with the end of the school year, during the summer, or even before school starts. So that way, you actually make sure that you have all your friends that can attend, and especially if you have a court, right?
There’s some traditions, I would say, that are part of that, where you have the court, which is all your friends, come together. They all take months practicing a dance or two and introducing kind of this festivity.
So it’s definitely this idea around, like, the spring is the perfect time for that.
I mean the flowers, everything, right? How long have you been planning your daughter’s quince? You mentioned at least months, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, we actually, you know, we started talking about this like maybe a couple of years ago when my daughter went to her first quinceañera and then she was hooked.
Yeah, so it takes a good year of planning, depending on how big and the scale of it. And so for us, it’s super important to bring in community. And that’s a traditional thing that we do, is the madrinas and padrinos – or the godparents.
It’s a way for people to celebrate the quinceañera, provide a gift of like “hey I’m gonna be the madrina or padrino of the barbacoa” or “I’m going to be the the madrina or padrina of the photo booth, for example. So that way you know it’s not this heavy burden on a family.
There are some families that do it all, but for us it’s super important to have community as part of that celebration. To be honest, we have about 20 madrinas and padrinos to make this festivity happen.
Oh my gosh, a lot of love. Wait, you already mentioned the barbacoa. What is the food that’s typical to these celebrations? What are you guys planning?
The traditional way is like, “okay, who’s going to cook the main dish,” right? The main dish can be barbacoa, even like tamales. I mean, very traditional dishes. And then everybody else kind of brings in a different side or what have you.
I mean I’m going to have tacos.
You have to. I think it’s required.
We’re gonna have tacos, we’re going to have empanadas, we are going to have aguas frescas, we’re gonna have a paletero, we’re going to have like a dessert bar and a papas locas bar.
