Changing Family Identity Through the Quinceañera Ritual

Abstract

Prior research has examined the quinceañera’s role in Hispanic female adolescents’ identity development processes, but few have examined the quinceañera as a site of group-level continuity and change whose relevance persists in a post–Great Recession economy. This gap in the family science literature reflects a larger epistemic shortcoming stemming from the field’s use of White mainstream family processes as the reference from which to operationalize normative family values, attitudes, and behaviors. Using historical and demographic data in tandem with contemporary literature on the consumptive behaviors of Hispanic families, we conceptualize the quinceañera as a consistently symbolic, yet flexibly enacted ritual performed by diverse U.S. Hispanic families as they co-construct family identity against the backdrop of changing immigration patterns, fertility rates, and financial practices.