Sunday, January 28, 2007
missing flavor
Last night my family and I attended our first Quince (birthday party for a young Latin female who turns 15). It's a major event in the life of a young lady of Spanish heritage. This one was for my daughter-in-law's sister.
Well I learned a lot about Quince. We had always heard that it's almost like a wedding reception and/or a debutante party. Well, that may be true for some Hispanic cultures, but not for Columbians, who just treat it like a very big party. Big, as in 70 invited guests.
The party started at 9 p.m. which is still pretty early for people who like to party at night like the Hispanics do. Any party would be just about winding down then if it was for any kid in the rest of America. It was held out side (thank heavens for mild South Florida winters) and it was catered. Because it was a mixture of kids and grown ups the menu was crepes. Yeah, French food at a Hispanic celebration). The music was pure kid, but heavy of the Latin kid, so it was Latin dancing, salsa and Ltin hip hop with a few "party songs" like the Electric Slide and YMCA mixed in for good measure.
As I sat there listening to the music and the language mix around us I realized that if I moved from South Florida I would miss the music and the lively atmosphere. When I think about parties up north in Philly and Pittsburgh and New Jersey I realized they all followed a pretty predictable pattern, I guess the Hispanic parties do too, but I really like leaning about the "predictible" ones where I live now. To me it brings exciting new flavors to my life and I would really miss them all if I moved elsewhere.
Well I learned a lot about Quince. We had always heard that it's almost like a wedding reception and/or a debutante party. Well, that may be true for some Hispanic cultures, but not for Columbians, who just treat it like a very big party. Big, as in 70 invited guests.
The party started at 9 p.m. which is still pretty early for people who like to party at night like the Hispanics do. Any party would be just about winding down then if it was for any kid in the rest of America. It was held out side (thank heavens for mild South Florida winters) and it was catered. Because it was a mixture of kids and grown ups the menu was crepes. Yeah, French food at a Hispanic celebration). The music was pure kid, but heavy of the Latin kid, so it was Latin dancing, salsa and Ltin hip hop with a few "party songs" like the Electric Slide and YMCA mixed in for good measure.
As I sat there listening to the music and the language mix around us I realized that if I moved from South Florida I would miss the music and the lively atmosphere. When I think about parties up north in Philly and Pittsburgh and New Jersey I realized they all followed a pretty predictable pattern, I guess the Hispanic parties do too, but I really like leaning about the "predictible" ones where I live now. To me it brings exciting new flavors to my life and I would really miss them all if I moved elsewhere.
