Some weeks ago I attended a 'fiesta de quinceañera' (fifteen year-old birthday party). It was a Saturday evening. I skipped the first part, the mass in the main town some kilometers ago. In fact I had a very good reason not to attend the mass (beyond my feelings of having attended enough masses for the rest of my three next lives since I am in Ecuador).
The invitation card arrived over a week ago. It was a lovely bright pink card, girly beautiful. It stated the party will start at 8pm at the 'local de la Junta de Riego' (Water Board premises). Obviously they forgot to mention it was at 8pm 'Ecuadorian time'. Meaning nothing happened before 11pm!!!
The premises were decorated with pink balloons, gift wrapping tape, and some sort of glittering fans on the walls. The place of honor was marked with a bow of balloons. As soon as I arrived I was motioned into the room, not before I was invited to a shot of home-made sugar cane liquor. If anyone is interested, it tasted like someone with a hot and sharp knife stirring your guts. But not such an awful sensation in the cold night. It warms you up very quickly. As soon as I was into the room I found myself (and this is the part where the MTV meets the Andes more powerfully) with a plastic dish full of food. Potatoes, rice, roast quicken, a big chunk of cuy (roast guinea pig) and mote (hominy). As you can see all very Andean.
The party was carefully planned. Before everyone was allowed to dance, the court of honour (fifteen boys and girls) performed the program they have been rehearsed the previous weeks. In fact it looked like a proper wedding (a bit too pink for my taste) with a tiny bride. The ritual of becoming a woman (as the whole party was about it) was in fact quite elaborated. First of all, the godmother of the quinceañera changed the girls' slippers for high-heeled shoes. (Yes I also thought that the wedding pink dress did not match the slippers, though they were pink as well). Then the make-up, and the jewellery. One of the strangest moment took place when one by one each of the boys in the court of honour, took off a suspender from the girl’s leg and put it into their partners’ legs.
The best part was the last dance of the court of honour: a techno pasodoble. I swear I am not making this up. I loved it. Maybe I should try something similar in Spain. Wait for the next summer hit!
Afterwards, the DJ played music and people started to dance. Very few people at the beginning. The feeling was very weird because everyone was sitting around the room intensely looking at the dancers. I felt too aware of my poor dancing skills. However quite a number of people thought was very interesting trying to make the gringa dance.
