As a girl in a Latina/o or Chicana/o family, having a Quinceañera is every girls dream. For some it means the transition from “niña a mujer” (childhood to womanhood) while for others it is just a religious celebration. As a young Latinas or Chicanas we see some of our sisters, friends, and cousins in big bridal looking dresses with a tiaras. As a result, we dream to have one of our own. In the film, Quinceañera (2006) directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland illustrate the story of a young girl Mexican American named Magdalena who is waiting for her fifth-teen birthday to transition from child to women. Magdalena grows in a Mexican American religious family in Echo Park, California. The film demonstrates how the family structures of a Mexican American family are threatened when Magdalena becomes pregnant before her fifth-teen birthday celebration and even before being marriage. As a result, her father Ernesto a preacher at church is outraged and tells her how she brought shamed to her mother, family, and their Christian church because she committed a sin. Her father even blames Magdalena for getting pregnant for letting her be around her “friend” Herman. The character of Magdalena demonstrates how women many Latina/o or Chicana/o families are put in ashamed when their daughter gets pregnant at young age.
In most Latina/o or Chicana/o families are constructed with conservative ideologies. Fathers of Chicana/o and Latina/o families construct patriarchal structures that want their families to follow and to not worry for what other people are going to say. Parents set values and rules for their children to follow. However, Magdalena shows how family structures are broken when she challenges the norms and set of values her parents taught her. Like Magdalena’s family, her father is more concern of how she caused a sin and disrespected the family honor because she conceived a child with her Herman who leaves her and does not provide for her. With no support from her Herman and family Magdalena finds comfort in her Tio Tomas’s home. The also film discusses about another issues that challenges Chicana/o and Latina/o families when Magdalena moves in their Tio Tomas and cousin Carlos who also got kicked out of his house for being gay. Carlos who is portrayed as a masculine male as well caused shame and disgrace for his family especially for his father who kicked him out from sisters Quinceañera at the beginning of the film. Carlos situation discusses how in Chicano families identifying as “gay” or LGBTQ is against the families beliefs and values. Identifying as gay man challenge the family patriarchal structures of machismo. Parents mostly fathers want their sons to grow up be machos. For Carlos his father was at shame and was not accepted for being different.
The film Quinceañera both character Magdalena and Carlos breaks the frame of la familia perfect (the perfect family). Some Chicana/o’s or Latina/o’s families symbolize the nuclear family structures because they want to their families to follow traditional norms in a Chicana/o family. Magdalena’s character is seen as disrespectful to her parents for breaking the family rules of getting pregnant at a young age because in Chicana/o house holds the females in the family are set to follow the rules that their parents impose on them. Women who get pregnant at a young age are often criticized some people believe in the ideologies that they ruined their life for becoming young mothers especially when the father of the child does not support. The Quinceañera film portrays how family structures are composed by patriarchy, values, and beliefs. As a result, wives and children are expected to follow certain family norms and rules. However, the film demonstrates how families are sometimes threaten when they are face with situations that they do not accept or expect to happen in their family such as a young pregnancy or identifying as gay that can threaten family beliefs and values.