On Saturday night, just east of downtown Los Angeles, a trendy young throng gathered on East Olympic Boulevard in Boyle Heights, bathed in the pink glow of the Don Quixote dining hall.
Inside, Anita Herrera, a Los Angeles native who now lives and works as an artist in Mexico City, had arranged the event and fundraiser, El Quince, with a group of other artists. They reinvented and embraced the style and rituals of early 2000s Southern California quinceañeras, which commemorate a girl’s transition into maturity at the age of 15.
“I wanted to push this conversation and push the boundary of this idea that a party is actually art,” says Ms. Herrera. “It is actually one of the highest forms of contemporary art.”
Tickets benefitted Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), which assists local artists in realizing their projects around the city and beyond. The group is commemorating its fifteenth anniversary.
Quinceañeras have evolved over time, with some becoming more elaborate. There are both garden parties and large-scale events held in opulent venues. More recently, adolescent guys have taken the limelight, staging their own coming-of-age celebrations. However, the essence of the quinceañera remains: a sense of belonging and communal celebration.
Ms. Herrera, who has family roots in the Mexican state of Michoacán, was born and reared in Huntington Park, Calif., a community just southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Pacific Boulevard, which runs through the area, is a cultural hub of dress and suit shops, party supply businesses, and vendors catering to quinceañeras and similar parties.
However, she did not have a quinceañera when she was 15.
“I wanted my parents to use the money for something else,” Ms. Herrera explained.
Los Angeles, particularly Huntington Park, continues to serve as a source of inspiration. Her most recent projects include a series of themed events intended to encourage talks about navigating conflicting identities. The Diaspora Dialogues “are about creating spaces where even if you don’t understand the same language, you can still understand the same communal language of celebration, and it’s not just about Mexican culture,” Ms. Herrera said.
The hall at Don Quixote, a popular venue for quinceañeras, weddings, and baptisms for almost 40 years, was decked in sky blue and white. There was an enormous multitiered cake in the center of the stage, beneath a blue-and-white balloon arch, complete with little bridge staircases and a sparkling fountain.
“I chose the pastel baby blue for the night because it’s nostalgic to me, and it was a universally loved color of that time,” says Ms. Herrera.
The exhibition featured a portrait of the LAND-affiliated quinceañera court, as well as a collage of photos provided by community members and party goers from their own albums. Diego Medel, a dress designer, created a beautiful and sparkling periwinkle quinceañera gown.
Throughout the dining hall, people were dressed in full glam, with an homage to Y2K flair. There were pastel and metallic slip dresses, glittering suits and boxy jackets, micro braids, pigtail buns, and hair jewels.
“I didn’t have a quinceañera because I couldn’t afford it,” said Ashley Sherengo, a marketing director clad in a short, pastel pink, butterfly-printed dress with matching hair clips.
“That’s why I was super excited to go to this event,” she told me. “Now that I’m 32, reliving these moments as an adult feels super special and nostalgic.”
