How the Latin Party of the 15 years is peering among the young people from Madrid

In the Community of Madrid they live more than one million From Latin Americans, people born in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela Peru or Uruguay (the complete countries around twenty) who work in businesses in the region, go to the same parks as the native population and have children who study in the same schools. That is why it is not strange that customs and traditions be infected. And that something like ’15 -year party’a celebration that until not so much celebrated only Latinas, start to turn on Madrid’s homes.

Nothing that did not happen before with other traditions.

Quinceañera To the Spanish. That in Spain parties of the 15 years are celebrated is no novelty. As the Latin population increased in our country, customs, traditions and products that until not so much was difficult to see on this side of the Atlantic were also extended. The quinceañera party It is a good example. The also known as ’15 -year -old party’ or quino is a celebration with which families mark the transit of childhood to maturity.

And what are they? The staging can vary from one celebration to another or between regions, but there are some elements that are often repeated: Dresses Princess Styles (even with Cancán and Tiaras), bright colors, friends, chamblanes, cakes, dances … Everything, of course, focused on the great protagonist, the young woman who celebrates her 15 years and, with them, the transition from girl to adult woman.

In the quinceañera celebrations it is common for this step to symbolize in different ways. In some countries, parents change the young woman’s footwear, replacing shoes with heel shoes, or the protagonist delivers her last doll to stage that leaves the childhood behind. Although There are those who go back The roots of the celebration of pre -Columbian cultures are not strange that the holidays include Christian action masses and sermons of priests.

Expanding phenomenon. You may not know its details or history, but surely the concept sounds like you and you have seen photos of Quinceañeras In networks. Normal. A Fast search In Google shows news of 2017 or even 2014 in which there was already talk of how the holidays were spreading in Spain. At that time the norm was that behind those celebrations there would always be a young woman of Latin American roots. Today it is no longer so. A few days ago The country public A report in which he reveals that they are already organizing ceremonies for Madrid girls, Spanish families and without cultural ties with Latin America.

“From 30 events, 10”. The phenomenon is better understood with the help of María Carolina Triviño, director of We will be Latina company based in Madrid that has specialized in this kind of ceremonies. While works above all with families from Honduras and Paraguay, it is no longer uncommon for their door to call Spaniards who want their daughters to celebrate the Quinceañera. “From more than 30 events, 10 have been for Spanish. And they always start the same: they came to a 15 -year party as guests of their Latin friends and encapricated,” Comment Triviño

The influence comes through both friends and networks. In Tiktok they can be found A good handful Of videos about 15 -year parties, material in which as triviño acknowledges, girls are inspired to choose costumes and cuts. The country He has also spoken with Ana Rodríguez, a 50 -year -old from Madrid, to whom one day his daughter told him that he wanted to celebrate “his 15”. She had never heard of the party. His daughter yes, through her groups of friends and Tiktok.

“It’s like Halloween or Pope Noél”. The ceremonies “of the 15” among young Spaniards may be new. Its context, no. Input because it is not the first celebration or foreign tradition that rootes in Spain. Before other parties have already done it through cinema or by simple imitation. “It’s like Halloween or Santa Claus, they don’t ask where it comes from, they just want to celebrate it because they see it around them,” Rodríguez comments. She herself confirms that in her environment, in Pozuelo, there are more Spanish who want to celebrate their own parties.

“They don’t understand”. “Spanish parents don’t understand anything, but their daughters are clear: they want 15 photos, like their Latin friends. The other day a father told me: ‘This is going to be like Halloween. Before no one celebrated it and now everyone does it'”, agrees Sergio Saavedra, founder of a company dedicated to rent dresses for quinceañeras. Photos and costumes are two pillars of the party. “Latin girls do not want to give up their own and the Spanish do not want to stay out,” Point out Another entrepreneur who has seen a business opportunity.

Not so strange. Another explanation that quinceañeras ceremonies They are rooting in Spanish homes is that the concept, in reality, is not so alien to us. Decades ago in Madrid, ‘parties of the 15’ were not seen, but they were held long when the young women fulfilled the age of majority.

Between each other there are differences, but also similarities: celebrations centered on young people, dresses, social acts and a ceremony that in the end seek to highlight the passage of childhood to maturity. Today they continue to be held, although they are usually associated with certain social extracts.

It is culture, and it is demography. If there is something that explains the pull of the Quinceañeras It is nevertheless demography. In Spain, many more Latin Americans reside today than a few decades, so it is normal for society to soak up its traditions. On January 1, 2024, the INE counted in the Madrid region just over one million people born in Latin American countries, which means that one in seven Inhabitants was born in Latin American countries. The data multiplies by which it was recorded at the end of the 20th century, when it did not even reach 100,000. And it is not An exclusive phenomenon from Madrid.

A party, a business. The ’15’ parties share a more peculiarity with other celebrations from abroad: in addition to tradition and culture, they are a huge business. A few years ago Vice interviewed to several families from Peru, Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia, and found that all had spent thousands of dollars in the celebrations, sometimes after spending a long season saving.

“Many families (…) do not hesitate to spend very large sums, which can exceed the equivalent of $ 30,000 and borrow for years to offer their daughter the party of their dreams,” Point out The photographer Delphine Blast. In Spain there are specialized companies that They explain That the budgets with which they usually operate between 1,000 and 3,000 euros, although there are cases in which this fork He shoots with expenses of dresses, food, drink, photos or even limousines.

Images | Micadew (Flickr) and DC Atty (Flickr)

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