Julia Alvarez. (2007). Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA. Penguin Publishing Group.

Julia Alvarez. 2007. Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA. Penguin Publishing Group.

Julia Alvarez, Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA. Penguin Publishing Group, 2007.

Julia Alvarez. Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA. Penguin Publishing Group, 2007.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101213407
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B000U913ES
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101213407
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780452288300

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Julia Alvarez

title

Once Upon a Quinceanera

dateAdded

2016-05-26T17:01:00-04:00

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=203973
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Once Upon a Quinceanera Coming of Age in the USA

crossRefId

203973

subtitle

Coming of Age in the USA

id

4cae6694-c1a5-470c-aaa2-f8821f449b23

starRating

2.7

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: OnceUponaQuinceanera_9781101213407_203973
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 739286
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101213407
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 8/2/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/OnceUponaQuinceanera9781429542074.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: OnceUponaQuinceanera_203973
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B000U913ES
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 8/2/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/OnceUponaQuinceanera9781429542074.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: OnceUponaQuinceanera_9781101213407_203973
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9781101213407
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 8/2/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/OnceUponaQuinceanera9781429542074.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: family
2. • value: relationships
3. • value: Nina
4. • value: Princess
5. • value: anthropology
6. • value: Feminismo
7. • value: culture
8. • value: non-fiction
9. • value: Coming of age
10. • value: Nueva York
11. • value: Cultura
12. • value: mujeres
13. • value: fiesta
14. • value: Evolution
15. • value: Latina
16. • value: feminism
17. • value: afterlife
18. • value: Popular Culture
19. • value: History
20. • value: Pop Culture
21. • value: Mujer
22. • value: Sociology
23. • value: Queens
24. • value: memoria
25. • value: chica
26. • value: historia
27. • value: teenage girl
28. • value: julia alvarez
29. • value: quince
30. • value: how the garcia girls lost their accents
31. • value: in the time of butterflies
32. • value: quinceanera
33. • value: relationship books
34. • value: in the time of the butterflies
35. • value: julia alvarez books
36. • value: afterlife julia alvarez
37. • value: julia alvarez afterlife
38. • value: julia alvarez spanish

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Alvarez, Julia
   • name: Julia Alvarez

imprint

Plume

publishDate

2007-08-02T00:00:00-04:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

Once Upon a Quinceanera

fullDescription

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a “phenomenal, indispensable” (USA Today) exploration of the Latina “sweet fifteen” celebration, by the bestselling author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of Butterflies

The quinceañera, a celebration of a Latina girl’s fifteenth birthday, has become a uniquely American trend. This lavish party with ball gowns, multi-tiered cakes, limousines, and extravagant meals is often as costly as a prom or a wedding. But many Latina girls feel entitled to this rite of passage, marking a girl’s entrance into womanhood, and expect no expense to be spared, even in working-class families. Acclaimed author Julia Alvarez explores the history and cultural significance of the “quince” in the United States, and the consequences of treating teens like princesses. Through her observations of a quince in Queens, interviews with other quince girls, and the memories of her own experience as a young immigrant, Alvarez presents a thoughtful and entertaining portrait of a rapidly growing multicultural phenomenon, and passionately emphasizes the importance of celebrating Latina womanhood.

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 8
2. • value: Grade 9
3. • value: Grade 10

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from April 30, 2007
     Skillfully blending memoir and social science, Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) explores the quinceañera, the coming-of-age ceremony for Latinas turning 15. She spent a year researching and attending “quince” celebrations, finding out what rituals are favored and what they mean to the girls. She researched what the gowns and photo sessions cost. She interviewed people working in the “quince” industry, from party planners to cake bakers. After all, with more than 400,000 American Latinas turning 15 every year, and with the average quinceañera costing $5,000, the financial, if not the cultural importance of the “quince” should not be underestimated. Alvarez structures her book around one particular girl's ceremony, from the dreamy planning stages through the late hours of the actual, dizzying affair. By intercutting the party narrative with stories from her own youth, Alvarez reminds herself—and readers—that at some point we were all confused, histrionic adolescents. Both sympathetic and critical, she doesn't dismiss the event as a waste of hard-earned savings or as a mere display of daughters for the marriage market; nor does she endorse it as the essential cultural tradition connecting Latinas to their roots. Instead, Alvarez wants readers to focus on creating positive, meaningful rites of passage for the younger generation.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2007
     Across Latin America, families celebrate girls' 15th birthdays with elaborate, culturally loaded parties. With burgeoning Latino communities, the quinceañ eraor quince (the term describes both the teenager and her fiesta)has emigrated to the United States. Acclaimed novelist and essayist Alvarez ("How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents") traveled from Queens to Miami to San Antonio, attending parties and meeting teenagers, their families, representatives of the growing quince service industryphotographers, seamstresses, and party plannersand researchers and activists interested in the condition of today's young Latinas. With high levels of poverty and relatively low expectations for career and financial success, the outlook for Latina teens can be as grim as their quinces are hopeful, resplendent with poufy dresses, extravagant cakes, and symbolic last dolls. Alvarez contemplates the tensions inherent in the ritual: a celebration of young women as princesses, informed by patriarchal worldviews; a bank-busting bash for financially insecure families; a traditional ritual drawing from disparate cultures and influenced by supersized, web-based U.S. lifeways. Alvarez considers her own rocky coming-of-age and the deeply mixed messages of the contemporary quinceañ era but cannot deny the joy of the 15 year olds themselves as they relish their once-in-a-lifetime fiestas. This thoughtful study is recommended for public libraries.Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Worthington Libs., OH

     Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2007
     Alvarez, a much-loved authorSaving the World (2006) is her most recent noveloffers an insightful look at the Latino tradition of the quinceanera, an elaborate, ritualized fiesta on a girls fifteenth birthday. Though she arrived in the U.S. from the Dominican Republic in the early 1960s, shortly before her own coming-of-age, Alvarez never had a quince. Intrigued with the tradition, she has now made up for missing hers byimmersing herself in thispopular rite of passage for a year, traveling to various Latino communities in the U.S. anddocumenting all the details of the quince: the mandatory limo, the photographer, the court and their professionally choreographed dances, the cake, and, above all, the gown. She also delves into the history of the ritual itself, from Mayan ceremonies to Spanish balls, and the reasonsthe quinceanera is thriving today in the U.S., especially as a wayfor girls to keep in touch with their culture. Alvarez enlivens the discussion with flashbacks to her own adolescence in Queens, adding another facet to her enlightening look at an important event in the lives of Latinas in America.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 27, 2007
     With a voice that is at once huskily mature and sweetly girlish and with a native sense of Spanish pronunciation and rhythm, Broadway star Daphne Rubin-Vega was an inspired choice to narrate Alvarez's examination of the Latina girl's “sweet 15” celebration, the quinceañera, a booming industry now as immigrant families in the U.S. show off their success by throwing fabulous parties for their daughters. As Alvarez interviews and observes teenage Latinas while reminiscing about her own turbulent adolescence in the 1960s, Rubin-Vega alters her sultry tone expertly to contrast the younger generation's brash American attitudes with Alvarez and other older immigrants' more skeptical views. In the second half, Alvarez's writing turns comparatively dry and preachy when she shifts from describing concrete experience to discussing her research into the development of tradition and advocating for a better support system for adolescents. Still, there's plenty to savor in this production, and anyone looking for insight into a phenomenon that will only grow as the Latino population in the U.S. increases will appreciate this skillful presentation of Alvarez's insights into the culture. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Reviews, May 30).

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 1, 2014
     

     Available in English and Spanish versions, this reprint of the 2007 original, which is out of print, follows the experiences of several quinceaneras (the name for the celebrant as well as the celebration) as a lens through which to examine the experience of immigration, Latina culture, and coming of age. The author also reflects on her own experience as a Latina immigrant and as such this book remains one of the most enjoyable anthropological works on the topic, despite its age. (LJ 7/07)

     Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

popularity

69

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/4cae6694-c1a5-470c-aaa2-f8821f449b23/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

4cae6694-c1a5-470c-aaa2-f8821f449b23

starRating

2.8

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/1523-1/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1523-1/4CA/E66/94/{4CAE6694-C1A5-470C-AAA2-F8821F449B23}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Family & Relationships
2. • value: Sociology
3. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

8/2/2007

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9780670038732

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a “phenomenal, indispensable” (USA Today) exploration of the Latina “sweet fifteen” celebration, by the bestselling author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of Butterflies

The quinceañera, a celebration of a Latina girl’s fifteenth birthday, has become a uniquely American trend. This lavish party with ball gowns, multi-tiered cakes, limousines, and extravagant meals is often as costly as a prom or a wedding. But many Latina girls feel entitled to this rite of passage, marking a girl’s entrance into womanhood, and expect no expense to be spared, even in working-class families. Acclaimed author Julia Alvarez explores the history and cultural significance of the “quince” in the United States, and the consequences of treating teens like princesses. Through her observations of a quince in Queens, interviews with other quince...

sortTitle

Once Upon a Quinceanera Coming of Age in the USA

lexileScore

1180

crossRefId

203973

subtitle

Coming of Age in the USA

publisher

Penguin Publishing Group

bisacCodes

1. • code: FAM003000
   • description: Family & Relationships / Life Stages / Adolescence
2. • code: SOC005000
   • description: Social Science / Customs & Traditions
3. • code: SOC044000
   • description: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / American / Hispanic & Latino Studies