The film Quiceanera takes you on a 14 year old girls journey of finding out she is pregnant while preparing for her quiceanera. It demonstrates how Latino traditions have carried out in LA and the conflicts between generations here. The film connects the audience to the gentrification in Echo Park really well and demonstrates the heartbreak that families (mostly Latino) are going through in the area. Throughout the story the main character builds a strong relationship with her great uncle and gay cousin who seem to be the outcasts of the family.
The main character Magdalena gets pregnant at 14 even though she did not actually have sex with the boy, Herman. Her family is living comfortably in Echo Park with her dad being a pastor and the mom selling tamales. When her mom realizes what has happened she tells the father and he kicks Magdalena out of the house. She moves in with her uncle Thomas who sells champurrado in the neighborhood and has his own house with a big garden and his pet dogs. Her cousin Carlos already lives with Thomas because the family had basically disowned him for being a trouble maker and gay. Throughout the movie the 3 of them build a strong relationship because Carlos steps up to help with the baby and Magdalena is supportive of his lifestyle.
Carlos falls right in the center of the issues of gentrification within the movie, he finds himself in a mess with the gay white couple who moved in next door. They all admire him because he is like something exotic to them. At their house warming party, friends are constantly talking about how much the market has gone up there. Towards the end, the always happy uncle receives a heartbreaking notice of eviction. He loved his house and his garden and his dogs and even walking the neighborhood every day as the champurrado man. As an effect of gentrification, the family can not seem to find him anything that they can afford that isn’t tiny. The scene that really was heartbreaking is when he sits in his garden crying because the entire film he was such a happy man.
He died shortly after and in a way he died with his house. Many places in LA are undergoing gentrification and those being kicked out are mostly Latino. They cannot afford the extreme increases of the area and they are being forced out of their homes. Most families in Echo Park were getting buy with minimum wage jobs; families like the one in this movie. I could really relate to this movie because the uncle reminds me so much of my grandma. She lives in Anaheim in her house that she has had for almost 50 years and she has a big garden that has always been a part of her life. She loves her plants and taking care of them. She is pretty healthy for her age and keeps herself busy, all of the neighbors are also Latinas and they get together all the time and take walks or play cards. This film made me realize how this could happen to her especially since she lives right by Disneyland and it would devastate her just like the uncle. Health does go hand in hand with happiness it seems once someone has lost the will to live, they die.
This film is something most Latino people in LA can really identify with and enjoy. This is a quote of a part that made me laugh because I used to ask questions like this all the time as a little kid:
” Why is Tio Thomas eating worms?”
“It’s not worms it’s the fat from the meat.”
