MEXICO CITY (AP) — The smell of hairspray clouds Alexa Flores López as she gets the finishing touches of an intricate updo on her thick black hair. When Alexa found out she was going to have a quinceañera — the traditional celebration for a 15th birthday in Mexico — she could barely contain herself. “She got super excited, like her heart would come out!" said her mother, Carmen López Díaz.
"She was just counting down the days.” At the Federico Gomez Children’s Hospital in Mexico City, volunteers clad in white and blue nurse uniforms scurry to attend to birthday girls and boys. They curl hair, do makeup, and adjust bow ties.
It's all for the hospital's annual “Mis XV” or “My Fifteenth” event. Whether the young patients are in treatment for a serious disease or have overcome cancer, the hospital celebrates the coming-of-age of these teenagers. After going through expensive treatments, some families can't afford to pay for a party — with the hospital providing them an alternative.
“We've really just bought shoes because the hospital handles everything," said Díaz. The hospital started throwing the event in 2017 after volunteer nurses caught wind that a beloved patient would turn 15 soon. They took it as an opportunity to organize a celebration for her and eventually turned it into an annual hospital event that's been going strong for seven years.
In Mexico, the “quinceñera” or “fifteenth birthday” is a huge rite of passage for adolesce.