Is the Party Over? : New Church Guidelines on Quinceanera Celebrations Put a Damper on Tradition’s Booming Service Industry
Yolanda Rossi Garcia, a seamstress and designer for more than 25 years, recalls a time when it seemed as if her staff could not sew fast enough. Just months ago, her seven seamstresses were stitching up a taffeta and silk storm of ruffles and bows for quinceanera gowns, a traditional white formal--similar to a bride’s--worn by a Latina celebrating her 15th birthday.
Garcia hired extra salespeople to help fill the orders coming into her downtown Los Angeles shop, which specializes in creating the quinceanera look, complete with a headdress and bouquet. Almost all of her mannequins were adorned in the elaborate frocks, stopping potential customers in their tracks.
That was certainly the case last year when Garcia and her staff at Bridal City averaged 75 quinceanera dresses--her No. 1 seller at $125 each--a month.
But since January, Garcia says she has not had one quinceanera order, “only cancellations.” She has had to lay off four of her modistas , or dressmakers. Even the mannequins reflect the shop’s 60% downturn in quinceanera sales. Only one of them is wearing the specialized dress.
For many other merchants, the economic forecast looks bleaker. Luis and Julie Yanez, the owners of a Reseda fashion shop, face possible bankruptcy before the year is over. And they blame the Roman Catholic Church.
So do about 400 other members of the Grupo Latino Por Nuestras Tradiciones (Latino Group for Our Traditions), an organization of small businesses that was formed after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles issued new quinceanera guidelines at the start of the year. The group includes merchants, ranging from florists and caterers to printers and tuxedo rental shopkeepers, who provide services for quinceanera parties that usually cost, on the average, about $3,000. Families and close friends frequently pitch in to defray the costs.
The archdiocese issued the guidelines to encourage Latino families to simplify the quinceanera. The tradition had, in the eyes of the church, become too secular, too social and too costly. (Until recently, at least, the daylong event included a Mass for each celebrant, elaborate dresses for 15 girls, and a fiesta with a banquet, mariachis and a dance.)
But since the first of the year, hundreds of merchants report as much as a 60% decline in quinceanera sales and services in an industry estimated at $30 million in Southern California, according to Luis Yanez, the Grupo’s president and spokesman. He adds that many dress shops that cater to the quinceanera trade may close before the year is over.
Father Anastasio Rivera, director of the archdiocese’s Latino ministry, says he is saddened that these dress shops are facing tough times. “The church is not interested in seeing anybody go out of business,” Rivera says. “This (the guidelines) was not done to put them out of business. The point that I am making is that the church’s angle is neither in terms of promoting or denigrating anybody’s business. The church is concerned with the spiritual formation of these young people.”
He says the new guidelines also were designed to increase awareness and understanding of the tradition among priests. The quinceanera, he points out, is a custom that has been passed from mother to daughter through the generations and is not a sacrament like a baptism or first communion.
Rivera says the guidelines also suggest that a monthly quinceanera Mass be recited so that several girls can be honored at one time. There are not enough Spanish-speaking priests to handle individual requests.
Another suggestion is that the quinceanera do without or have fewer than the usual 14 teen-age attendants (and their 14 escorts) at the Mass. Each couple, according to the Latino custom likened to a debutante ball, represents a year in the quinceanera’s life.
Again, Rivera says that the church’s suggestion “is in favor of simplicity in the ceremony.” But the guidelines, he adds, are to be tailored to the needs of each family and parish.
“The kind of costs or expenses that a family wants to undergo is up to the family,” he says. “The church is not going to intrude on the family’s privacy and tell them what to do. The role of the church here is the teaching role, one of stressing religious renewal and faith formation for our young people.”
Rivera, who has met with a delegation from the Grupo Latino, says the group’s main gripe with the guidelines is the monthly quinceanera Mass. In a recent meeting with the Grupo’s delegation, Rivera says, “they kept insisting that there should be a private Mass for every single young lady. I said we just don’t have enough priests for all the pastoral needs in the archdiocese.
“If the business people feel that the guidelines are impacting on their business, then my great hope would be that there would be some way that the church and business community can come together. We need to work together in terms of the coordination of these ceremonies and for the religious education of these young people,” Rivera says.
“The legitimate concern for all the community,” he adds, “is for the welfare of our young people.”
Members of the Grupo Latino point out that for many Latino teen-agers and their families, a traditional quinceanera with all the trimmings is a proud tradition they hate to see reduced to a simple birthday party or no party at all.
Angela Castillon, who turned 15 last month, and her parents put the brakes on her quinceanera after the guidelines were announced.
“I had been looking forward to it, but we still had a nice party,” Castillon says. “We went to Mass and a restaurant afterwards.” Her mother, Maria, says the Canoga Park family saved money by not having the quinceanera, even though the economics for the event was not the deciding factor.
“We didn’t want to go against the church,” she says.
Garcia hears similar stories from mothers and daughters calling to cancel, yet, another quinceanera order “because of the guidelines.”
She says parents tell her they are disappointed “but they want to do what is right in the eyes of the church. I understand their point of view. I’m upset with the guidelines, not the parents, because I think it’s so unfair that our traditions are being rewritten.”
She says even though she might have to lay off personnel in the next few months she will stay open because she does a brisk business in weddings and debutantes.
“I’ve been around for a long time and I can go into the jewelry business if I want to,” she says. “I’ll keep the wheel going.”
But not every quinceanera merchant can speak with such confidence.
Bruce Schmerling, president of Tuxedo Connection and the Latino Grupo’s vice president, says his tuxedo rental bookings are down “a good 40%” since January. He explains that because a quinceanera’s attendants need escorts, the young men prefer to wear tuxedos.
Some of his stores used to report orders for 60 tuxes a week for quinceaneras. “Some of those shops haven’t ordered one tuxedo,” he says.
He adds that he has heard “horrible stories” from merchants about mothers wanting deposits on gowns or bands returned “because priests have recommended against having the quinceanera. “
Hyman Hendler, the owner of Hyman & Sons, a fabric company in downtown Los Angeles that supplies many quinceanera shops with materials and accessories, calls the situation tragic.
“I sell to the smaller shops like those in the (San Fernando) Valley that depend on events like the quinceanera to make a living. If this is affecting my business, it’s affecting them,” says Hendler whose own business is down about 20%.
“I’m going to survive because there are so many angles to my business,” Hendler says, “but it’s the small guy that’s getting hit right now.”
Nora Gudiel, the owner of Melissa’s Bridal in Baldwin Park, a shop she opened in December, says: “Maybe I made a mistake opening my place.” She had hoped to do big business in quinceaneras. Not anymore.
“I’ve lost a lot of business. And I think a lot of people really don’t like the guidelines. They say it is not right what the church is doing with our traditions, but they must do what the church says even if it hurts.”
Julie Yanez doesn’t know if she will be able to keep her shop open after the summer.
“We’re suffering,” says her husband, Luis. “Like others, we were waiting for the prom season to hold us over. But my guess is that by the end of the year many of us will be closing. We’re feeling the pinch right now, and the worst is yet to come.”
