Quinceañera : coming of age through digital photography in Cuba

Taking a series of portrait photographs to mark a girl's fifteenth birthday is a common and highly celebrated practice in Cuba. The fifteenth birthday is considered in Cuba to be the marking point at which girls become women, and producing an album of printed photographs in which the fifteen-year-old, or quinceañera, wears special clothes, hairstyles, and makeup, constitutes the center of Cuban coming of age rituals. Girls' fifteenth birthday celebrations (commonly referred to as quinces) are widely celebrated in Latin America, especially in Mexico, Central America, the Hispanic Caribbean, and among Latino popula-tions of the United States. In such rituals, which seem to be largely a twentieth century development, the centerpiece of the celebration typically includes a party at which the birthday girl (quinceañera) wears a long full-skirted gown and adornments such as flowers, jewelry, and a tiara.