It took my family so long to plan and save money for my cousins and my quenceanera. A quenceanera is a little like a sweet sixteen but for Mexicans, and there’s a meaning to it. It’s when a girl becomes a young adult. She has a father-daughter dance, it should be the first time you’ve ever danced, that wasn’t the case with my cousin and I, but we still danced with our dads. It use to be that the girl turning fifteen would wear a white dress, but by the time we turned fifteen it could be any color you wanted, but we still wanted white. We decided that we were going to have it on the fourth of July, because it was on a Saturday and over the summer so no one had an excuse that they have to work or their kids had school. Almost everyone came. We invited so many family members, it was an excuse for our parents to get the family together again. My cousin and I didn’t know what it meant to have a quenceanera, we just wanted a party and to invite all of our friends. While planning the ceremony our moms kept explaining to us what it was and what it meant. My cousin ended up not inviting any friends, and I just invited three of my closest friends.

The night before, everyone that lived our of town started getting here and my aunt had cane asada at her house in Eudora. While the guys were cooking the meat, the girls were setting up for the party, and the kids were playing outside or eating. I went home a little early to go sleep and start getting ready for the next day. Waking up at eight was the worst thing ever for me, I was not use to waking up that early anymore. As soon as I woke up, my cousin and I went to the salon and got our hair done by our cousin’s friend, Teal, and our cousin Olymia did our make up. Right after getting our make up done we went straight to Eudora to put on our dresses. The camera guy wanted to get pictures of our dresses and the jewelry we were going to wear that night. We had a mass ceremony at eleven in the morning, it felt like the morning went by so fast because it took us so long to get ready.

We went straight to St. Johns church, our dresses barely fit in the Expedition. On the ride there I was feeling so many mixed emotions and thinking about everything. As soon as that was over, we went on a limo ride to South Park to take pictures. Taking pictures lasted so long and it was such a hot day. We were dripping with sweat after we got done. We were running out of time with the limo, the guy dropped us off at the Knights of Columbus, where the party was at. No one was there, there was no way for us to get in because the doors were locked. We were all very hot trying to get a hold of someone so that we could at least get in their cars to cool down, but everyone was busy. Finally after thirty, minutes the owner of the place came to let us in. The first thing I saw were the tables, they were so pretty, I loved them. Once everyone else and the food started to show up, I started eating, I was a little hungry, I ate a small breakfast that day. I ate very little, everyone kept trying to talk to or take pictures with me, It was kind of hard to say no.

I was getting a little scared because it was getting closer and closer for us to have that father-daughter dance. Right after that, our grandpa’s danced with us, then all of our uncles and godfathers. We had to force one of my uncles to do it because he didn’t want. Right after that we all just danced for a few hours, then we had a surprise dance that we were getting ready for a really long time. It was hard but we did it. Everyone loved it. We had two different cakes we each got to pick what we wanted them to look like and the flavors. They were both little, but enough for everyone that went, and we also had extras. They sang happy birthday to us. In our family when its someone’s birthday they have to take a bite out of the cake, and if you have family like mine they shove your face into the cake, and that’s what happened to me when we had cake. My dad and cousin shoved my face into the cake, they were the reason I didn’t have any cake. We had to leave the place before one in the morning, so we moved the party to my aunts house in Eudora. She made pozole, it’s kind of like pork stew. They say that it prevents you from getting hangovers, so all the drunk adults loved it, but I love it because it tastes so good. By four, I went home, opened my presents, and went to bed. The party wasn’t over yet for our family. The next day we went to the lake and had some more carne asada, our family loves having cook outs. The adults played volleyball while the kids swam.

Everyone got along and had fun all weekend. I know now that my quenceanera wasn’t just a birthday party for me or an excuse for the family to come, it was a symbol of me becoming a women and pretty much showing my parents and family that. It was such a stressful few months to plan it all out, but had the best time of my life. I wouldn’t change anything, I loved it, the way it turned out, even the waking up early part. I just wish I could be fifteen again so my family could come back, but this time longer than just a weekend. Most of them left Sunday morning or afternoon.