What is "quinceanera"

n. (alternative spelling of quinceañera English)

n. (cx Latin America English) The fifteenth birthday and particularly the celebration and ceremony surrounding it for a young woman.

(; feminine form of "fifteen-year-old"), also called , , , or simply , is a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday with cultural roots of Latin America but celebrated throughout the Americas. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood. Latin myths and tradition tell about how girls were prepared for marriage by age fifteen or else they became nuns. In the years prior to their fifteenth birthdays, girls were taught to cook, weave, and about childbearing by the elder women in their communities in preparation for their expected lives as married women. The celebrations today vary significantly across countries; celebrations in some countries, for example, have taken on more religious overtones than in others.

In Brazil, a Portuguese-speaking country, the same celebration is called , or . In the French Caribbean and French Guiana, it is called . The grandest parties are comparable to the debutante balls formerly found in the United Kingdom and the United States. The is celebrated according to their national traditions by many Latino communities in the United States. It also celebrated in some parts in Spain and Portugal.

Quinceañera (English title: Sweet 15) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Carla Estrada for Televisa in 1987. Quinceañera was the first telenovela to talk about substance abuse, date rape and gangs, and is considered to be the first telenovela made for teenagers.

Quinceañera was named by the Associated Press as one of the 10 most influential telenovelas ever to air in Latin America, and Univision tlnovelas viewers named it one of their all-time favorite Mexican telenovelas. In 2010, Quinceañera was placed #7 on the People en Español's "20 Best Telenovelas" list, and in 2012, Terra named it as one of the 50 best telenovelas of all-time.

Adela Noriega, Thalía, Ernesto Laguardia and Rafael Rojas starred as protagonists, while Sebastián Ligarde and Nailea Norvind starred as antagonists.

"The Best Telenovela of the Year" ( Premios TVyNovelas 1988)

Quinceañera (, referring to a coming-of-age ceremony in Latin American communities) is a 2006 American independent drama film written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Set in Echo Park, Los Angeles, the film follows the lives of two young Mexican American cousins who become estranged from their families—Magdalena (played by Emily Rios) because of her unwed teenage pregnancy and Carlos ( Jesse Garcia) because of his homosexuality—and are taken in by their elderly great-uncle Tomas (Chalo González).

The film was inspired by Glatzer and Westmoreland's experience as a white gay couple moving into the gentrifying neighborhood of Echo Park, a predominantly Latino working-class community. They wrote, cast and filmed Quinceañera over four months in 2005 after securing a US$400,000 budget from investors. It was filmed in Echo Park with the assistance of Glatzer and Westmoreland's neighbors and a cast of largely nonprofessional actors. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2006, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. It was released in the United States on August 2, 2006, to mostly positive reviews and earned $2.5 million at the box office.

Quinceañera is a young Latina woman's celebration of her fifteenth birthday.

Quinceañera may also refer to:

• Quinceañera (telenovela)
• Quinceañera (film), 2006 drama
• La Quinceañera (film), 2007 documentary
• Quinceañera: Mama Quiero Ser Artista (singing competition), a reality TV show broadcast by Telemundo starting in 2006
• " Quinceañera", an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place