Customer Reviews
A wonderful look at a tradition that is holding steadfast but changing at the same time 
2008-01-16
Award-winning novelist Julia Alvarez has turned her gift for human analysis toward some very real young people in ONCE UPON A QUINCEANERA, a probing and utterly readable look into the tradition of the "quinceanera," the coming-of-age party celebrated by Latina women around the globe.
In the wake of MTV's success with sweet 16 shows (in which young girls and their families spend wedding-sized amounts of money on a party where the bling outweighs any cultural significance the occasion might have) and the growing cost of a decent Bat/Bar Mitzvah in these concerned-with-wealth times in America, Alvarez looks at families, native and immigrant, who are still living below the well-to-do line and yet spend upwards of a year's mortgage payments or college tuition to make sure that their young daughter enters the "adult" world in style.
It's not just the money that disturbs Alvarez. Having come to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic around the time that she would have celebrated her own coming-of-age, she watches anxiously and sometimes enviously upon girls who don't seem to understand why this tradition is so important to young Latinas. Viewing it only as that --- a giant bling-filled party to impress their friends --- takes away from the rich traditions built into the ceremonies of the quinceanera: the changing of her shoes from flats to heels during the party, signifying her march into adulthood; the doll she carries, the last vestige of childish pursuits she's allowed to enjoy; and the church ceremony, where her grown-up responsibilities are acknowledged before God and the community.
Alvarez, who never had her own quince, delves with planners and family members into what, if anything, they remember from their own quinces and how they might incorporate the more stealthy values associated with the rituals into these girls' lives. When she speaks with the young women themselves, it's clear that most of them look upon this as their moment to become a "princess" --- indeed, one has her friends dress like Disney princess characters --- and that the money and energy that their parents, some of whom are struggling in this harsh economic system, are putting into this event is their right. They are, for good or bad, like the average American teen who thinks Beyonce is queen of the world and Jay-Z, her prince, is exactly what everyone should be looking for.
At times, it's devastating to read the accounts of how these children are so expectant but don't really understand the changes that this bash is supposed to represent --- and it's clear that Alvarez finds it sad as well. Traditions maintained are supposed to mean something --- but in present-day America, they can be just another excuse to act like overgrown kids or irresponsible adults. She keeps her cool and withholds serious judgment on these children of American entitlement, recognizing with poignancy the struggles of their parents to hold on to dear cultural strengths while trying to assimilate into the broader Bush-driven selfishness and extravagance.
The book's most appealing moments come from Alvarez's descriptive look at the craziness surrounding the day of the event and from her own recollections of growing up in the same area in Queens where she follows one family through this intense experience.
ONCE UPON A QUINCEANERA is a wonderful look at a tradition that is holding steadfast but changing at the same time. And, most of all, it's about the difficult job mothers and fathers have raising beautiful young daughters in these superficial times.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
Not what I was looking for, but good nonetheless 2007-09-24
I just finished the book Once upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez. I picked it up, hoping to gain more insight into the rituals and religious significance of the quince. When I've said this to people, they almost always tell me something to the effect of, "oh, that's easy. It's a hispanic girl's coming-of-age." Yeah. No kidding? I'm looking for a little more depth here.
If my encounters' answer was too vague (not to mention obvious), Alvarez's response was way too deep. It was not so much about the celebration itself, but more of an examination of the issues adolescent girls face in the US in general, compounded by the additional issues particular to young latinas. It was a very interesting study in the success and failure of said girls, feminism minus man-hating, and the pros and cons of the quinceanera. But not as an outsider looking in. Alvarez herself had a difficult time finding the balance between being the good Dominican girl, and pursuing her own dreams and interests-loyalty to la familia, pursuing her education and being an intellectual, staying afloat professionally in a male-dominated time where it was difficult to be hispanic, let alone a woman.
Though it was not what I was looking for, I liked it. Though I myself am not hispanic, I found myself identifying with Alvarez throughout the book. It was interesting and entertaining.
-kendra
Big Box Pro Video Productions
Corpus Christi, Texas
Leaves essential questions unanswered 
2007-09-13
This book was a disappointment to me. First, the book is disorganized. It isn't organized into particular chapters reflecting linear and organized observations. Rather, the book seems to embrace a stream-of-consciousness approach which is confusing and difficult to follow. Particular ideas and observations appear and reappear, rather than each being deeply examined in a section of the book devoted to their study.
The book is part personal reflection on the author's life, part description of one particular Quinceanera celebration, and a smattering of observations and inferences about feminism/cultural mixing/racism/consumerism thrown in to confuse (I'm sure the author meant to enhance) the overall "narrative".
The book's disorganization might be a result of the fact that the author did not seem to have a clearly defined audience in mind. I am not sure how many teenage Latinas will read it (as a public school teacher, I don't see many who would be able to digest the content). Thus, the more likely audience is more-educated people, probably educated women looking for insight and analysis of an important cultural ritual and its effects on individuals, families and society.
Personally, I had expected the book would be a cultural or anthropological study of the Quince ritual. There were many things I was hoping to learn from the book. I am always wondering what cultural influences lead these Latino/as to start families so young and be satisfied with low levels of education. I always presumed that their parents immigrated to this country, often dangerously and illegally, to give birth to these children here so they could have a better life than their parents. Why do these children (in the classroom at least) refuse to work hard and refuse to think about the future more than the present? As a white educator, I feel that understanding rituals such as Quince may help my understanding of the pressures of Latino culture. Sadly this book failed completely to help me understand these families' situations.
This may be in part because the author chose to spend half of the book recounting her own youth and immigration experience, which seems to bear little resemblance to the backgrounds of the majority of poor, uneducated Latino immigrants today. Her father was a doctor and the family emigrated to Queens in 1960. The author was sent to Abbot Academy in Massachussetts for high school, on scholarship (for the first year--in subsequent years the family paid full tuition as her father's income rose). It was here that the author began her life in academia (she is now an English professor) and where she was introduced to feminism.
Here is one of the primary conflicts buried in this book. The author's father was a doctor. Thus, the family had financial resources, and also valued education. The author went to private high school, and her parents paid for her to go to private college as well, where she embraced her inner feminist. To me, it seems that she actually has more in common with the backgrounds of privilege than with privation. Perhaps that is why she works so hard to express her support for the Quince ritual--embracing it allows her to be empowered by her Latino heritage, and her mythical working-class origins.
The author understands the Latino families' desire to celebrate their children. She is loath to condemn the spending or the sexualization of the Quince girl, although she expresses a mild disapproval at times. The author really seems to struggle to reconcile her need to embrace the traditions of "diverse" Latin cultures with her experiences with American feminism. Lost in this struggle is any elucidation on the effect the Quince ritual has on Latino youth in the US today.
A top pick for any public lending library, especially those strong in Latin culture. 
2007-09-03
The party accompanying a Latin girl's coming of age or sweet fifteen celebration is one of the highlights of her life, and in ONCE UPON A QUINCEANERA author Julia Alvarez attends the 'quince' of a young Queens woman to relate the confusion and planning over this special event, including interviews with other quince girls and her own memories to trace the origins and enactment of the ceremony. A top pick for any public lending library, especially those strong in Latin culture.
