Quiero mis quince: Panama Style

The quinceañera, or something equivalent to a "Sweet Sixteen" party, is a celebration that takes place at a girl's fifteenth birthday. This particular party was thrown last night for my former host mom's granddaughter. It was an all-day affair and a good time was had by all.

8:00AM: It begins

The first and most important thing you need to know about Panamanian parties is that they're super loud. This is the stereo system that ended up at the party. However, it started out on the front porch of my host mom's house while the ladies prepared food. Starting at about 8, the music was blasting out of these speakers and ruining my chances of a calm Saturday.
The second thing you absolutely must know about Panamanian parties is that the music selection is laughably thin. I can nearly say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the playlist is between ten and fifteen songs, and usually shorter than that. If you're really curious, I suggest you look up one of the following songs to get an idea of the music I'm stuck with all the dang time:
-Samy y Sandra Sandoval, "La cucarachita" (I acutally like this song. In my opinion, it's one of the only palatable songs within the típica genre.)
-Prince Royce, "Corazon sin cara" (You will hear this song at least five times during any party. This style of music is known as bachata.)

The food

Pictured here is a tamal. This was one of the several things prepared on a large scale for the party. Tamales aren't as common in parties as arroz con pollo and ensalada de papas, rice with chicken and potato salad. A word about arroz con pollo. The semantics behind the order of words is super important in understanding the Panamanian diet. It's rice with chicken, not the other way around, because the ratio of rice to chicken is about five to one. Lots of rice, little bitty pieces of chicken and veggies. They eat a lot of rice.
Anyway, the food took several hours to prepare. I helped out a bit by peeling potatoes and carrots. I believe the food was ready at about lunchtime. The tamal in the picture was my second lunch, at about 3. I'd already eaten, but I figured I couldn't turn down free food.

The decorations

Next to my house is the representative's office/meeting place. Whenever there's an event, it is usually held there. It was the site for the party. I helped blow up some of the balloons in the picture, but my hands were not adept enough to make those balloon flowers you see. The color scheme was purple and pink, if you can't already tell. Notice the heart in the center of the picture with the name "Kemberly" written on it. As far as I know, my host mom's granddaughter is named Stephanie, so I was very confused when everything in the program said Kemberly. Not Kimberly, but Kemberly. When I said Kehmberly, I got funny looks. I was thinking, "It's not my fault you spelled it wrong..."

Pictured above are the handmade party favors and the cake, which were both very nice.

9:15pm: Finally, the party

The party itself was very interesting. There was a full program and everything. Groups of family members made entrances to music, which led up to the entrance of the quinceañera.

Then there were lots of little rituals connected to relics. Her mother presented her with a ring, which symbolized her transition into womanhood. Her godfather presented her with a stuffed teddy bear, reminding her that she will always be her parents' little girl. In the picture, you can see her siblings helping her take off a pair of sandals. She passed on the sandals to her six year-old sister, who I guess is next in line in the family. She then gave flowers to important members of her family and candles to her closest friends.

Here you can see my host mom, flanked by "Kemberly" and her uncle.

Here you see all the candles being lit. The attendants of the party made a circle around the quinceañera, lit the candles, and then sang her Happy Birthday in Spanish.

At the end of the program, they put on waltz music and the quinceañera danced with her family and friends. Here she is dancing with her little brother.

Even though there was a lot of sitting and waiting around involved, it was a very nice party. I thorougly enjoyed myself, despite the fact that I didn't do any dancing. However, at 3 in the morning when the music was still going strong and it woke me up, I was ready for it to be over.