MIAMI — Angelica Garcia celebrated her sixth birthday with a Cinderella-themed party. For her all-important 15th birthday, the Cuban American teen is amping up the fairy tale theme, celebrating her quinceañera with a powder-blue ballgown and an elaborate photo shoot complete with a horse and carriage — while swapping the more formal ballroom waltzes for a “crazy hour” and reggaeton. Far from losing steam, there’s been a resurgence in the coming-of-age tradition celebrated by generations of Latino families.
And in a TikTok and Instagram world, teens want their parties and pictures to be bigger and bolder. “It’s gonna be my own little thing,” Garcia said about ditching the traditional waltz dancing, “because it’s more of my traditional way of dancing in my family — it’s more of a Cuban reggaeton type, and at the end, there’s a little bit of hip-hop.” While embracing the celebration, young Latinas are remaking quinceañeras, from the outfits to the pictures and the parties.
The ballgowns used to be white or beige — now, party planners told NBC News, every color is out on the dance floor. The quintessential quinceañera court — a group of the birthday girl’s friends and family who would perform a traditional, choreographed waltz at the party — has mostly been phased out, as Garcia is doing at her party. And in the social media age, the quinces photo shoot has become the most important part of the celebration, involving outfit changes into flowy dresses and bathing suits and props like canoes, swings and live animals: Garcia’s own pre-quinceañera photo shoot included a horse to match her Cinderella theme.
On the upswing: Blowout parties, a ‘crazy hour’ Quinceañera photographers and party planners in Miami told NBC News that quinceañera parties in banquet halls had died down a few years ago, as more teenage girls had decided to travel for their fifteens — some going with their families to places as far away as Europe or on “quinceañera cruises.” Ivette Franqui, owner of Ivonne Photo in Miami, adapted to this change in the quinceañera business by traveling with the birthday girl to photograph her on vacation. “We started doing destination shoots about seven, eight years ago, because parties were really in the decline for a while,” Franqui said.
Yet over the past couple years, more Latina girls are celebrating with blowout bashes — and many of them are ditching rituals to leave more time for partying. While many girls are still doing the traditional first dance with their father, some have abandoned other traditions like changing their shoes from sneakers to heels. Franqui said that quinceañeras are paring down the tradition and leaving more room for fun.
“Remember, they give you five hours for the banquet hall, so they figure if it’s gonna take me an hour to two hours doing traditional things, then I have less time to party,” Franqui said. Indeed, quinceañeras are adopting the Latin American party custom of “la hora loca,” or “the crazy hour”: Just as the dancing is slowing down, the DJ turns up the music and people come out in costume to hype up the dance floor. Sometimes it’s dancers in Brazilian Carnival-style outfits, sometimes it’s a robot on stilts.
Daniela Fernandez, who runs Bella Quinces, a one-stop quinces shop in Miami, told NBC News that rather than gather a group of begrudging teenagers for after-school waltz rehearsals, some quinceañeras are doing smaller, more casual dances with a group of friends. “The girls, they just want a party,” Fernandez said. Capturing ‘never going to be 15 ever again’ Despite changes to the quinceañera, the most important part of the celebration for Latina teens and their family has consistently been the quinces photo shoot.
But now, quinceañera photos are more elaborate and glamorous than ever, said quinces photographers and girls who are celebrating. Both Fernandez and Franqui said they work with the birthday girl to capture their interests and who they are in their photos. “Whether people travel or don’t, or do a party or don’t, I feel like every parent will say the pictures are the most important aspect of turning 15, because it’s the only thing that they’ll have forever,” Franqui said.
Fernandez said that while some girls might be reluctant to take quinces photos at first, they come around when they see themselves transformed into a young woman in the final photos. “You’re never going to be 15 ever again in your entire life,” Fernandez said. Another quinceañera, Maria Alfonso, opted out of the ballroom party and decided to just take photos — at four different locations and in 12 different outfits.
Though now she’s wishing she had done a party to celebrate the coming-of-age moment. “I really think that parties are fun to celebrate with your friends and show people that you’re becoming a woman,” Alfonso said. “But I felt like if I would have had one, I would have been really shy.
I don’t know, I just don’t think that it was my thing.” Fernandez said that while some girls are very timid when they come in for their photo consultation and party planning, many Latina teens nowadays know exactly how they want their makeup to look, how they want to pose, and what they want to wear. “They know what they want,” Fernandez said, “versus when we started 20 years ago — they acted more like little 14-year-old girls.
” Social media has changed quinceañera photography and teens’ expectations, according to Fernandez. “I think Instagram, I think social media has changed the way the girls want their pictures to be taken,” she said. “They see all these models and all these things, and I think that’s kind of what they lean into.
” A social media conversation over whether quinces had become too mature emerged in the wake of a viral TikTok video showing a quinceañera and her friends twerking to Latin music in lieu of a traditional court dance. “In front of family is crazy,” one TikTok user commented. Yet quinces, in line with Latin tradition, have always been associated with maturing and coming of age.
Alfonso said that for her, turning 15 means having more freedom. “There’s other things that you can do that you couldn’t do before,” she said. Yet young women and their families are still sentimental about the celebration’s significance.
The quinceañera, Garcia told NBC News, just means she’s growing up. For her mother, Julia, it’s “a magical moment.” “I cannot express how seeing the transformation of her, with the makeup, with the hair, with the dress,” Julia Garcia said.
“It’s like living in a magical moment where you see your little girl transform into a beautiful princess.” ‘It’s in them’ These parties are still quintessentially Latino, even when celebrated by teens with mixed cultural heritage or whose families have been in the U.S.
for generations. Franqui said she’s photographed a family of Asian quinceañeras who have all taken photos for their fifteens at their Latina grandmother’s request. Garcia’s mother said their family in Cuba was surprised to see videos of their older daughter’s quinces, where all the girls were dancing to Latin music.
She says they sent messages saying, “I’m surprised to see that your daughters are American, and they have this Cuban in them.” But Garcia’s mother says her Cuban American daughters love Latin music, love to dance and love quinces. “It’s in them, that Latin culture,” she said.
And amid elaborate photo shoots and a not-your-grandmother’s quince reggaeton bash, both Garcia and her mother treasure the quinceañera tradition for the focus it puts on the birthday girl’s coming of age. “Everyone should get the moment—” Garcia said, with her mom finishing her daughter’s sentence: “—to be the special girl.”.
