From dramas to reality TV to advertising, quinceañeras are familiar across mainstream media in the United States. The celebration event for fifteen-year-old girls has evolved over time and today is immersed in gender politics and consumer culture while speaking to Latina/o/x assertions of culture, belonging, tradition, and assimilation.
Jillian M. Báez, Diana Leon-Boys, and Angharad N. Valdivia edit a collection that draws on the expanding field of girlhood studies to examine the increasing visibility of the event and the figure of the quinceañera herself in pop culture. The contributors focus on quinceañeras as a trope for English-language media's treatment of Latina girlhoods and Latinx cultures but also examine how use of the quinceañera charts deepening openness and inclusivity within Latinx culture.
Timely and thought-provoking, Quinceañeras provides an interdisciplinary exploration of a celebration and its central figure within studies of Latina/o/x identity, race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Contributors: Sonya M. Alemán, Jillian M. Báez, Ariana A. Cano, Dolores Inés Casillas, Mari Castañeda, Michael Anthony DeAnda, Kelly Ferguson, Litzy Galarza, Rachel González-Martin, Jillian Hernandez, Karla Larrañaga, Diana Leon-Boys, Stephanie Melissa Pérez, Angharad N. Valdivia, and Claudia Evans-Zepeda
Edited by:
Jillian M. Báez,
Diana Leon-Boys,
Angharad Valdivia
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780252089343
ISBN 10: 0252089340
Series: Feminist Media Studies
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Table of Contents Introduction Jillian M. Báez, Diana Leon-Boys, Angharad N. Valdivia PART I: Representations of Quinceañeras in Film and Television Chapter One: ""Remixing Quinceañera Traditions in The Fosters and Superman and Lois: Not Just a Birthday Party"" Sonya M Alemán, Claudia Evans Zepeda, and Mari Castañeda Chapter Two: ""A Plastic Cultural Celebration: The Quinceañera for All Ages"" Diana Leon-Boys Chapter Three: ""The Tragic Denial of Citizenship in On My Block's Quinceañera"" Litzy Galarza Chapter Four: ""Documenting/Documentary Quinces: Transitioning into Joy in Latinx/e Community Storytelling"" Rachel González-Martin PART II: Consumption and Exhibitions of Quinceañeras Chapter Five: ""Our Dream Quinceañera Exhibit: Foregrounding Joy and Labor in Gendered Ethnic Production"" Angharad N. Valdivia Chapter Six: ""Quinceañera Ontologies: (Mediated) Latine Girlhoods…and Other Stories"" Stephanie Pérez Chapter Seven: ""Challenging Latine/x Myths in Latinx Digital Media Coverage of Quinceañeras"" Jillian M. Báez and Kelly Ferguson PART III: Transgressive Quinceañeras Chapter Eight: ""Quinceañera Domesticana: Reading Latina Girlhood, Border Politics, and Consumption in Yvette Mayorga's ""Really Safe in My Room in America"" Jillian Hernandez Chapter Nine: ""Designing a Quinceañero: The Quince Celebration and Potentials for Critical Hope"" Michael DeAnda Chapter Ten: ""Cincuentañeras on TikTok: Digital Feminist Celebrations of Señoras and 50th Birthdays"" Dolores Inés Casillas and Karla Larrañaga Chapter Eleven: ""Queerness in Quinceañera Dance Performances and the Engaño Cultural of Quinceañera Spaces"" Ariana Cano Works Cited Appendices Appendix A: Latina Feminist Media Independent Studies Appendix B: Girlhood Studies Reading List Appendix C: Brief Latina Feminist Quinceañera Scholarship Appendix D: Quinceañera Stories Visual Media Filmography
Jillian M. Báez is a professor of Africana, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Hunter College. She is the author of In Search of Belonging: Latinas, Media, and Citizenship. Diana Leon-Boys is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Elena, Princesa of the Periphery: Disney's Flexible Latina Girl. Angharad N. Valdivia is Emerita Research Professor at the Institute of Communications Research and the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
