How significant are birthdays to you? Some people might not care for big celebrations, but for others… they are a huge deal. An example of a birthday party that is incredibly significant and a big deal, is a quinceañera. It’s what most girls dream of when they’re little. 

    A quince is a celebration that occurs on a girl’s 15th birthday party. On the day of a quince the birthday girl gets ready and puts on a big poofy dress of her choice, then gets to her banquet hall where her party is happening, she makes her big entrance while everyone admires her. After that, a ceremony of her choice happens, such as giving 15 roses to the most important people in her life, or a change of shoe where the dad, or person of choice, changes her shoes to heels. After that everyone enjoys a meal together and everyone takes pictures with the birthday girl. Finally, the quinceañera may have chosen to do a surprise dance, which is a choreographed dance routine performed by the quinceañera and the people she chooses to do it with. After the surprise dance is done, everyone gets up and dances and enjoys the party.   

     A quince represents the coming-of-age of a girl, a tradition that most Hispanic cultures have. The meaning behind it is that when the girl turns 15, she goes from being a little girl to a woman, and this is celebrated through a quinceañera. Parents and other family members pay a lot and work hard for their daughters to have this party because it means a lot to most people and their culture.  

   The process of planning a quince isn’t easy at all. Sure, it is exciting, but it’s a lot of work and money. When planning my quince, I started brainstorming the color of my dress, my decorations, and the ceremonies I wanted since I was 12. At 14 was when I started looking for my banquet hall and picking out the decorations and finding my dress.  

   Ana Bonilla, a sophomore here at Miami High, said that the process of planning her quince was stressful, but at the same time she “knew what she wanted” so it wasn’t hard. Ana says, “The hardest part was doing what I wanted instead of what everyone else wanted.” She says that was the hardest part because everyone had opinions on what she should and shouldn’t do, but she didn’t let that cloud her judgement on what she wanted.  

  Another sophomore here at Miami High Darling Sandoval says she started planning at 13, and right when she turned 14, she got her banquet hall. Then she looked for her dress. Darling says that it was a lot of money, and her mom worked hard to pay it off. Darling says her process was also stressful.  “The specific dress I wanted was hard to get, and when I picked it up it was dirty, so I had to wait another day to get my dress,” she said. 

     Sometimes before you turn 15, or even sooner than that, parents ask you if you want a quince. Sometimes they make you choose between a quince and a car. I chose the quince, simply because I only turn 15 once. There’re more opportunities of getting a car but your big special day can only happen once.  

    Darling says, “At first, I didn’t want one because I thought it was a waste of money.” Her reasoning behind that was that it’s a lot of money just for a day, but when she got to 8th grade, she started seeing other girls have their quince, and she started understanding the meaning behind it and she wanted to experience it for herself.  

     Ana, on the other hand, always knew she wanted a quince because she saw her sister’s quince and her experience and wanted to have that for herself. She also states that since she was little, she loved princesses, and she knew that on her quince she was going to feel just like a true princess. She says, “I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world.”  

   The day of your quince always feels unreal. You don’t really process it until you’re there at the party. It’s a feeling you can’t really explain. It’s just magical. The day of my quince I wasn’t nervous at first because the realization of the day I had been waiting so long for was finally here. Nerves started kicking in when I got to the party before my big entrance, but after that I was just enjoying myself with family and friends.  

   Ana says her quince was pretty eventful.   Ana says, “My favorite part was dancing with everyone, especially my parents and seeing how emotional they got.” Another part she enjoyed a lot was her big entrance, when everyone was looking at her and soaking in the beauty of her big poofy dress and crown. She says she felt like a true princess the whole time.  

   A piece of advice for girls having a quince soon or planning on having one is to just have fun and enjoy it. Don’t be too stressed about having everything perfect. Just live in the moment. Darling says a good piece of advice would be to start planning it years before and making sure you know what you want so when the time comes, everything goes smoothly and there’s not too much pressure on you.  

    Advice Ana has for girls planning a quince is “prepare emotionally, physically, and mentally.” She says that the day of your quince, and even the planning of it, is a lot to take in so you should be prepared.