Quinceanera

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In the la Quinceanera essay, the name of the store with which Susan Orlean the writer opens her essay with is the Azteca Plaza known as the biggest formal wear shopping center in the world. The dual identity of the culture she is writing about is about the Spanish culture in Mexico. The Quinceanera was originally created by the Hispanic culture and it’s a celebration of mass ceremony that takes place when a Hispanic girl turns 15 years of age. The adolescent woman celebrating her fifteenth birthday, is seated at the foot of the church altar resplendent in an elaborate pink or white formal dress along with her parents.The main purpose for the quiencenera is to celebrate a young female passage into womanhood, to give thanks to God for his blessings on her, her commitment to Catholicism, and to present the young woman to the community or society. From the point of view of the Roman Catholic Church, the current purpose of quinceanera is for religious significance, to build and maintain the Catholic faith. This is done by encouraging the young girls towards taking classes in Bible studies and to go on church-sponsored retreat programs with their parents in order for them to be qualified for theirQuienceanera celebration ceremony. This is evidently the main reason being religious significance. This is evident when Father Sotelo further explain that most of the people coming for this ceremony don’t even know how to pray the our father due to the fact that they do not attend church service at all and that most of them are just interested in gifts and big time parties. The sources of information Orlean cite in this essay is none because it’s a narrative essay. I was expecting to see personal interview citing in her writing due to the fact that she have personally interviewed families and priest about the event, however, she didn’t cited it in her essay and this is what makes the essay a narrative one without supporting evidence cited. She used mainly spoken words and direct quotations from the persons she talked to. She could have cited sources from history of the Quinceanera which has its roots in Mexico. This choice affects Quinceanera in that it does not give a concrete link that strongly support its roots or links to the original event.