quinceañera: a latina's journey to womanhood. mary d. lankford. (86)

while looking for books about hannukah, i came across this gem. it's been sitting on my shelf for about a month now (i renewed it, so it's not overdue) but finally got around to reading it and actually learned a lot about quinceañeras.

sadly and regrettably i did not have a quince. however, i was in my friend sofia samano's court, so i have experienced a quince first hand. i went to mass and of course danced the waltz, but i never got to be the belle of the ball. or should i say la reina de la fiesta. oh well. maybe in another life or my thirty birthday. cos seriously i need a cake like this in my life:

so thanks to the book i learned some new things about quinceañeras and was also reminded of some great traditions. first, i learned that i would have never survived life as an aztec.  this is assuming that i still have my atheist/agnostic tendencies and independent spirit in precolonial mexico.  but as the book explained, "in mexico's native american aztec civilizations, girls of twelve or thirteen attended two types of school, the Calmacac or the Telpucucali.  those who entered the calmacac school prepare for a lifetime of religious service.  girls who enrolled in the telpucucali school prepared for marriage."  seriously god or marriage, the only options in life, isn't great to be a woman?  if this was all i was offered in life, i would have had a serious disney princess moment about keeping with traditions.

anyway, to continue our history lesson, after the spanish conquered the aztecs in 1521, this tradition of aztec rites become catholic-ified because the spanish are catholic.   fifteen became the age for young women to choose between marriage or god.  looks like spanish colonial me would have hated life as well.  and as the book explains "these rites received the name quinceañera from the spanish word for fifteen, quince, and birthday, anos." does this whole choose between god and marriage still exist?  should i be a nun or a wife?  though i guess in both ways you are a wife, of god or some machismo senor with a tendency to get drunk and cry to sad songs.

and maybe it's just the feminist in me or the old maid in me but this whole marriage talk at 15 kinda scares me.  i mean you haven't even lived life yet and your folks are sending you to mass to learn about marriage?  (btw i don't know if this is true so please clarify if i am wrong).  i mean even the book referred to the fact that the girl having the quince looked like a young bride in her dress!  ekkkk!

but there really is nothing to worry about because today's quinces are just an excuse to party. and who doesn't love a party?  one of the traditions that the book mentioned and which i absolutely love was the presenting of heels.  (that is not it's offical name but what i'm going to call it).  so the dad of the girl presents her with her first pair of grown up shoes aka heels and she has her first dance as a "woman".  awwwwww.  how cute, right?

the book was actually a good book for kids to read about quinceañeras.  also for adults that didn't have any latin american friends growing up.  though they should make an updated version cos there were some crazy 80's dresses in in that i loved but might not be everyone's cup of tea.

cover girl.

in sandra cisneros' "caramelo", i learned that rita hayworth was mexican!?!?! thanks to madonna, all i knew of hayworth was that she "gave good face". so i wikipedia-ed it and sadly discovered she isn't mexican, her father was spanish and her mother was irish-english. the mexican rumors started because she worked in mexico, according to this website . so sad that her mexicanness was a bust, however, while reading her wikipedia article, discovered she starred in a number of movies with fred astaire and one with gene kelly. this inspired me to check out "you were never lovelier" and "cover girl" from the library.

growing up, i watched a lot of musicals with grandma bea, especially gene kelly and fred astaire movies, however i don't recall rita hayworth being in any of them. i know grandma bea had me watch "cover girl" when i was little but i didn't remember hayworth or even the movie. as i watched "cover girl", bits and pieces started to come back to me. i remembered gene kelly's "alter ego" dance (though it could have been featured in one of those "that's entertainment" specials). and as much as this makes me sound like a lush, i remember her drunken part . . . i also remembered the oysters tradition. but other than that it was a "new" movie to me.

rita hayworth was lovely and entertaining. i had no idea she could sing and dance! she also had the most amazing costume and outfits. that is one thing that i hate/love about old movies, the fashion! i love it all but am sad that i can't find it at the mall or in a boutique. though i will be on the lookout for a coat like this at my local goodwill:

it was also great to see how things have come back around. in the broadway number, cover girls are featured on different magazines and i was surprised there were so many flower headpieces that would have been right at home at coachella. there was also a huge brimmed hat (think samantha in "sex and the city: the movie") that i would give my left kidney for.

but back to the movie. so a quick synopsis, hayworth played a dancer named rusty that worked a club owned by (she was also his girlfriend). she entered a magazine contest to be a cover girl and won because she looked like the long-lost lover of the magazine owner (turned out he was in love with rusty's grandmother). so after the contest, rusty gets bigger and better opportunity and sadly leaves gene kelly. i would tell you what happens but you should check it out for yourself. the ending is very cute.

i will say that i for one would never leave gene kelly. maybe it's because i have grown up watching him as a leading man but he is like the ideal man (he might be the reason why i have a thing for boys with brown hair over blondes). he can sing, he can dance, and when his character is in love, gets a look on his face like there is no other girl in the world for him but her! swoon!!! he is so dreamy and i fall in love with him every time i watch one of his movies. and of course the same goes for "cover girl", i would love to spend my nights with him, shucking oysters for pearls!

the whole time i was watching, i was bothered because rita hayworth reminded me of someone. in the end i decided it was geena davis in "a league of their own."

also the whole time i was watching i couldn't help thinking to myself how much phil silvers looked like
stephen colbert:

am i right or am i right?

but all in all, a very sweet film and if you have't seen it, you should!

ps this DVD was available thanks to measure b!