Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Selects: What's a quinceañera anyway?
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hi folks, Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend.
- 0:05Speaker 1: I hope you're with your friends, your family, your loved one.
- 0:08Speaker 1: If you don't like anybody at all, hope you're by
- 0:11Speaker 1: yourself and you're having a good time. I just hope
- 0:13Speaker 1: you're well in general. This episode is from May fifteenth,
- 0:16Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and it's called What's a Kintanira? Anyway, I
- 0:22Speaker 1: didn't know until we did this episode, so listen and
- 0:24Speaker 1: find out.
- 0:25Speaker 2: If you don't know, Welcome to stuff you should know.
- 0:31Speaker 2: A production of iHeartRadio.
- 0:39Speaker 3: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and
- 0:42Speaker 3: there's Charles w. Ch'bryant. There's Jerry, and this is a
- 0:45Speaker 3: very special day for us.
- 0:47Speaker 1: It's a very special day for Jerry because she's celebrating
- 0:51Speaker 1: her her very special day because today Jerry turns sweet fifteen.
- 0:56Speaker 3: Right, well, technically it's her chiple Kintigne.
- 1:00Speaker 2: No.
- 1:00Speaker 1: Jerry started producing the show when she was five. Oh yeah,
- 1:05Speaker 1: he was wonderin.
- 1:07Speaker 3: She's a child prodigy three, A lot of temper tantrums. Yeah,
- 1:11Speaker 3: but we got through that time, we did the Terrible fives.
- 1:14Speaker 1: And now she's just a pretty little lady in her pink, lacy,
- 1:18Speaker 1: satiny dress.
- 1:19Speaker 3: Yeah, that dress is a lot, even for a King
- 1:21Speaker 3: Signora dress. Jerry agreed. I can I go ahead and
- 1:25Speaker 3: say I don't do the R role very well, So
- 1:29Speaker 3: I'm just gonna say Keen Sognia okay instead of Kingsanna.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Yeah, that wasn't very good either, right. I used to
- 1:36Speaker 1: do a good R role because of German, but I
- 1:38Speaker 1: feel like I've lost it a bit.
- 1:40Speaker 3: And I guess it's actually an n roll King Signetta.
- 1:44Speaker 3: It's those good right, yeah, but if I try to
- 1:47Speaker 3: keep it up, it's it's I think it's gonna fatigue
- 1:49Speaker 3: everybody pretty quick. So Keen Sannira.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Well, and the last thing we want to be here
- 1:54Speaker 1: to jackass white dudes. Well, that's how we do it,
- 1:56Speaker 1: laying it on too thick, too forty something white dudes
- 2:00Speaker 1: are about to talk about. Keintignertis like, we know what
- 2:03Speaker 1: we're talking about. Well, we did the research, and I
- 2:05Speaker 1: think it's uh. I think it's good to cover stuff
- 2:08Speaker 1: like this.
- 2:08Speaker 3: I did too. I had very little understanding about this,
- 2:12Speaker 3: just from what I've seen on like MTV or whatever,
- 2:15Speaker 3: you know, did they have a show they have one
- 2:19Speaker 3: called like my sweet sixteen or whatever that I might
- 2:22Speaker 3: be conflating with. But I swear I've seen Keinton like
- 2:26Speaker 3: I knew some of this stuff somewhere. I don't know where, though,
- 2:30Speaker 3: somewhere just in the just being plugged into culture, I
- 2:33Speaker 3: knew it, I guess. Yeah.
- 2:34Speaker 1: Well, I lived in Los Angeles, as you know, and
- 2:37Speaker 1: they have obviously quite a Latin population, and I looked
- 2:42Speaker 1: up Hispanic and Latino.
- 2:44Speaker 3: I wanted to get it all right, good, good, let's
- 2:46Speaker 3: hear what you got.
- 2:47Speaker 1: Well, it says that they can generally be used interchangeably
- 2:49Speaker 1: these days. But I think Latino can like I think
- 2:55Speaker 1: Hispanic refers to whether or not you actually have Spanish
- 2:57Speaker 1: speaking roots.
- 2:59Speaker 3: Oh is that right?
- 3:00Speaker 1: But Latino can be like Brazil and places in South
- 3:05Speaker 1: America as well, if I'm not mistaken.
- 3:07Speaker 3: I heard once that Ronald Reagan was the person who
- 3:10Speaker 3: coined the term Hispanic, or at least popularized it.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Really Yeah, well it was that tattoo across his upper
- 3:16Speaker 1: back Hispanic for life.
- 3:18Speaker 3: For life, yep, with the number four.
- 3:22Speaker 1: But at any rate, you know, lived in LA and
- 3:24Speaker 1: there's you know, a large Mexican population, So I would
- 3:27Speaker 1: see kingtonettas going on all the time. When you're just
- 3:31Speaker 1: driving around on a weekend. I would see stuff and
- 3:34Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, it's not prom it's summer,
- 3:37Speaker 1: Like what's going on.
- 3:38Speaker 3: It's like Prom times ten.
- 3:40Speaker 1: And then some somebody hit me in the head and
- 3:42Speaker 1: they're like, you dummy, dumb white guy from the South.
- 3:46Speaker 1: It's a king signettas right, And so I was like, well,
- 3:49Speaker 1: you know what, one day, I'm gonna do a podcast
- 3:51Speaker 1: about that.
- 3:52Speaker 3: They said, what is a podcast to make up for
- 3:54Speaker 3: all this? You said, just watch that's right. So one
- 3:58Speaker 3: thing I saw was with Latin, you know, like with
- 4:02Speaker 3: Latino or Latina, there's that ingrained masculine. But something I
- 4:07Speaker 3: saw pop up in a couple of sites is they
- 4:10Speaker 3: would replace the O or the A with an X
- 4:14Speaker 3: just to make it the word gender neutral, like Latin X.
- 4:18Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I don't know how you pronounced it. I
- 4:20Speaker 3: didn't get that far, but I saw it imprinting a
- 4:23Speaker 3: couple of different sites, so where they were trying to
- 4:25Speaker 3: remove the gender from you know, Latino or Latina and
- 4:29Speaker 3: just make it gen gender neutral. Because there's there's a
- 4:34Speaker 3: I haven't seen it, but there's an HBO documentary about
- 4:36Speaker 3: KINGTONIERZ and one of them is for a trans girl. Okay,
- 4:42Speaker 3: would it be pronounced LATINX? Maybe? I mean I have
- 4:48Speaker 3: to see it written down. How is the X in
- 4:50Speaker 3: like wahaka? Isn't it like hot? Whaha? So maybe Latin woa?
- 4:56Speaker 3: I have no idea. That's where I'm going with here
- 4:59Speaker 3: we go.
- 4:59Speaker 1: I didn't want to be too dumb dumbs and we're
- 5:01Speaker 1: so far down dumb dumb lane.
- 5:03Speaker 3: It's not even funny. No, so let's try to get
- 5:07Speaker 3: this back on the rail, shall we. I think what
- 5:09Speaker 3: we just did was great because we explored some questions
- 5:12Speaker 3: we had. But now we can talk about everything we
- 5:15Speaker 3: know about kingsing gartis.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Right, which is we've been dancing around this thing. This
- 5:21Speaker 1: is the fifteenth birthday celebration for young ladies young women
- 5:27Speaker 1: in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States
- 5:33Speaker 1: kind of all.
- 5:33Speaker 3: Over the world. This can take place. Yeah, and it
- 5:40Speaker 3: seems to be so it's a it's actually a very
- 5:45Speaker 3: traditional thing to where Catholic, like the catholicness of the
- 5:53Speaker 3: girl and her even pre Catholic origins fine together with
- 6:02Speaker 3: what I guess you would call like is a universal
- 6:06Speaker 3: coming of age celebration that also focuses on the individuality
- 6:12Speaker 3: and tastes of the girl. You put all those things together,
- 6:16Speaker 3: you have a King Signeta, which is a fifteenth birthday party,
- 6:21Speaker 3: which is a coming out party for a girl as
- 6:24Speaker 3: she transitions from girlhood into womanhood. It happens on this
- 6:29Speaker 3: day and they throw a huge celebration, and there's a
- 6:32Speaker 3: lot of really cool traditions that you're going to find
- 6:34Speaker 3: at like every King Singetta that have some a neat
- 6:39Speaker 3: origin story to them or a neat symbolism to them.
- 6:41Speaker 1: And also some great music, some delicious food, and family
- 6:47Speaker 1: coming together for an important day.
- 6:49Speaker 3: It's really great. Not just family, the whole community is
- 6:52Speaker 3: meant to, you know, like extended family, people in the
- 6:55Speaker 3: community that have had an impact on the girl's life,
- 6:58Speaker 3: like a teacher, people been for the expense of this.
- 7:01Speaker 3: It's like a real communal thing. Should we go back
- 7:04Speaker 3: in time? Okay, let's or did you want to go
- 7:08Speaker 3: to the future? No, No, we'll go back in time
- 7:11Speaker 3: all right.
- 7:11Speaker 1: So the origins of this they date back all the
- 7:14Speaker 1: way to the Aztec Indians. Obviously in the fourteen hundreds
- 7:17Speaker 1: and fifteen hundreds they were performing these festivals because girls
- 7:24Speaker 1: back then were marriage ready at the age of fifteen.
- 7:28Speaker 3: That's kind of what it symbolized, right, And like it
- 7:31Speaker 3: wasn't just the Aztecs, like around the world and cultures
- 7:34Speaker 3: around the world, like you would find some sort of
- 7:37Speaker 3: coming of age or rights of passage into womanhood. And yeah,
- 7:41Speaker 3: when you came out the other end, it was like
- 7:43Speaker 3: you were on the market then from that point on,
- 7:47Speaker 3: that's right.
- 7:47Speaker 1: And they had ceremonies, they had speeches talking about how
- 7:52Speaker 1: important it is to become a wise, upstanding member of
- 7:56Speaker 1: society as a young woman. Then the Spanish come along.
- 7:59Speaker 1: Of course, they invade what we now call Mexico over
- 8:03Speaker 1: through the Aztecs, and that brought in a European influence
- 8:07Speaker 1: to this whole experience. And this is where things got
- 8:10Speaker 1: a little more, a little more like debutante.
- 8:15Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually I looked into this a little further, Chuck.
- 8:18Speaker 3: And they can't say for certain where keinsignetaz came from,
- 8:23Speaker 3: but they think the Aztecs. But their source comes from
- 8:28Speaker 3: a single nun working in Mexico who wrote an account
- 8:33Speaker 3: that had been given to a priest forty years earlier. Wow,
- 8:36Speaker 3: from another priest who had supposedly in the fifteen twenties
- 8:41Speaker 3: interviewed some Aztec high priests about their culture. So that's
- 8:46Speaker 3: where the whole idea that there was a rite of
- 8:48Speaker 3: passage at age fifteen comes from kind of shaky. And
- 8:51Speaker 3: then other people say, well, no, this is obviously a
- 8:53Speaker 3: Spanish colonial influence, like being presented at court. But the
- 8:58Speaker 3: idea that it's a rite of passage in womanhood is
- 9:01Speaker 3: so universal that it probably is a combination of the
- 9:04Speaker 3: two of them. No one can just say for certain though,
- 9:07Speaker 3: what the origin is specifically.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Yeah, and apparently until the nineteen sixties it was really
- 9:14Speaker 1: kind of an upper class thing. But then in the
- 9:17Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, as Latinos immigrated to the United States and
- 9:23Speaker 1: they became more part of American fabric, they really kind
- 9:27Speaker 1: of really kind of spread throughout the US and Latin
- 9:30Speaker 1: America as becoming across all socioeconomic classes. And we'll get
- 9:36Speaker 1: to this a little more later. But wonderfully, like you said,
- 9:39Speaker 1: in poorer communities, you see entire communities chipping in some
- 9:43Speaker 1: money many times, or the godmothers and godfathers of padernos
- 9:48Speaker 1: and madarinas like that.
- 9:50Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good to help pay for this stuff.
- 9:53Speaker 1: I saw this photographer did a really great photos series
- 9:57Speaker 1: of Quintinetas celebrations in poor neighborhoods in Mexico and photograph
- 10:04Speaker 1: these really beautiful photographs of these these young women in
- 10:06Speaker 1: their dresses sort of in the middle of a very
- 10:09Speaker 1: depressed neighborhood and just showing how important it was that
- 10:15Speaker 1: they still had this celebration.
- 10:18Speaker 3: Even though they it was a burden financially on their families. Right. Yeah,
- 10:24Speaker 3: I think Mexico City got together in two thousand and
- 10:27Speaker 3: seven and some of the businesses, some of the some
- 10:31Speaker 3: nonprofit groups held like a big mass kinsingerra and now
- 10:36Speaker 3: they do it every year for girls who wouldn't otherwise
- 10:39Speaker 3: be able to have one. Yeah.
- 10:41Speaker 1: I also read a New York Times article where there's
- 10:44Speaker 1: a lot of bias, like when it comes to things
- 10:46Speaker 1: like this and bar and bought Mitzvah's and debutante balls,
- 10:50Speaker 1: where it's very easy for someone to say, like, you know,
- 10:55Speaker 1: if you're poor living in Mexico City, why are you
- 10:58Speaker 1: wasting And that's an air quo quotes your money on
- 11:01Speaker 1: this celebration when your family doesn't have much money, and
- 11:05Speaker 1: they say, you know, you never hear this kind of
- 11:06Speaker 1: criticism for bar mitzvahs and bot mitzvahs or debutantes, regardless
- 11:12Speaker 1: of socioeconomic status. So it's just a very important, important
- 11:17Speaker 1: part of their culture that should be shouldn't be looked
- 11:21Speaker 1: down upon just because they may not have the kind
- 11:24Speaker 1: of money to throw a big one, you know what
- 11:27Speaker 1: I'm saying.
- 11:28Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm sure. One of the things, though,
- 11:31Speaker 3: you just kind of hit on the head is that
- 11:33Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's a part of latinix culture,
- 11:40Speaker 3: which is one reason why it's become so big in America.
- 11:44Speaker 3: It's a way of people of Latino heritage to say,
- 11:48Speaker 3: you know, this is my heritage too, and this is
- 11:50Speaker 3: how I'm going to come of age in America. But
- 11:53Speaker 3: because it's also in America and these are American born
- 11:57Speaker 3: girls of Latina heritage, they they have come over time
- 12:02Speaker 3: to kind of meld together with what Americans look at
- 12:05Speaker 3: and say, that's just one enormous sweet sixteen party, right,
- 12:09Speaker 3: But there's there's some details in there that you'll find
- 12:12Speaker 3: out at Kinsonnira that you won't at a sweet sixteen party,
- 12:15Speaker 3: and we'll talk about those right after this. Well done,
- 12:42Speaker 3: all right, Charles, So we are going to start the day.
- 12:46Speaker 3: It's a frantic day, It's a hectic day. From everything
- 12:50Speaker 3: I understand from what I've read, this is a and
- 12:53Speaker 3: actually like a cool day for a girl, but also
- 12:56Speaker 3: very stressful. All right.
- 12:58Speaker 1: It's like a it's like a wedding or a prom
- 13:00Speaker 1: or anything where there's a lot of pressure on this one,
- 13:05Speaker 1: you know, six hour experience.
- 13:08Speaker 3: But think about this. With a wedding, you've got your
- 13:11Speaker 3: s O to plan the wedding with. With prom, you've
- 13:14Speaker 3: got a handful of other girls to plan. You know
- 13:17Speaker 3: what you're doing with prom, and plus proms already being
- 13:20Speaker 3: planned for you by your school or whatever. This is
- 13:24Speaker 3: like your day, and part of your responsibility is the
- 13:27Speaker 3: King Signeta, which by the way, King Signeta literally translates
- 13:31Speaker 3: to the girl who is fifteen. Yeah, so this is
- 13:35Speaker 3: technically your Fiesta de kin Signetta or something like that. Right.
- 13:39Speaker 3: Part of your responsibility as King Signetta is to show
- 13:42Speaker 3: that you can take part in this planning. On the
- 13:45Speaker 3: one hand, it's to allow it to reflect your personality
- 13:49Speaker 3: and your taste, so you're the one who needs to
- 13:51Speaker 3: choose all this stuff. But it also shows that you
- 13:53Speaker 3: can be a grown up too, and undertake months of
- 13:56Speaker 3: planning leading up to this thing and basically pull it off. Correct,
- 14:00Speaker 3: you are right, Okay, So the whole thing starts with
- 14:04Speaker 3: a trip to church, which is not right, which is
- 14:08Speaker 3: not what you're going to find a normal American like
- 14:11Speaker 3: say sweet sixteen party.
- 14:13Speaker 1: No, And it depends on the church where you're going
- 14:16Speaker 1: to have and you know, sometimes the celebration also occurs
- 14:20Speaker 1: at the church. Sometimes that occurs at a different spot,
- 14:23Speaker 1: kind of like a wedding, you know, sometimes you'll have
- 14:25Speaker 1: the reception somewhere else.
- 14:27Speaker 3: Right, that's not how it started, which we'll talk about
- 14:29Speaker 3: that in a minute, but go ahead.
- 14:30Speaker 1: But it depends on the church where you're a member
- 14:33Speaker 1: or where you're having this initial ceremony. But the girl
- 14:37Speaker 1: before this all happens for weeks ahead of time, may
- 14:39Speaker 1: actually be required to attend classes in advance of this,
- 14:44Speaker 1: so they're prepared.
- 14:45Speaker 3: They know what to expect, right they well, yeah, that's
- 14:51Speaker 3: about it, as far as the weeks ahead part, well
- 14:53Speaker 3: as far as the church and all the planning, yeah,
- 14:55Speaker 3: of course. Right. So on the day they arrive at
- 14:58Speaker 3: the church, and you were saying, like, you know, now
- 15:01Speaker 3: it's kind of evolved to where you have like like
- 15:03Speaker 3: a wedding, you have the ceremony of the church and
- 15:05Speaker 3: then the event elsewhere, well you can, right, and that's
- 15:08Speaker 3: becoming more and more the way. But one of the
- 15:11Speaker 3: reasons that is becoming the way is because in nineteen
- 15:16Speaker 3: ninety in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued like
- 15:20Speaker 3: a set of guidelines that basically put the kibosh on
- 15:24Speaker 3: this idea of the kingsonira as a big lavish affair,
- 15:28Speaker 3: and it really dampened this burgeoning I guess industry or
- 15:33Speaker 3: tradition or whatever. It put a damper on it for
- 15:37Speaker 3: a little while because families didn't want to go against
- 15:39Speaker 3: the Church, so they kind of toned down the kings andiras.
- 15:43Speaker 3: But the reason the Church was doing this is because
- 15:46Speaker 3: there were too many kingsoniras, not enough Spanish speaking priests.
- 15:50Speaker 3: And then also the Catholic Church has always had an
- 15:53Speaker 3: awkward position in this tradition. It's not a Catholic tradition.
- 16:00Speaker 3: It's a cultural tradition by a group of people who
- 16:02Speaker 3: are predominantly Catholic and involve the Church as part of
- 16:06Speaker 3: this tradition. But this tradition, if anything, is a syncretized tradition,
- 16:11Speaker 3: remember when we were in Guatemala. The melding of Catholic
- 16:15Speaker 3: beliefs and pagan pre colonial beliefs indigenous beliefs is syncretism.
- 16:22Speaker 3: This is an example of that. There's like as tech
- 16:26Speaker 3: rituals supposedly mixed with this. The whole thing starts at
- 16:31Speaker 3: a Catholic church with a mass, so the church has
- 16:34Speaker 3: kind of had alternately hands on and hands off view
- 16:39Speaker 3: of this whole thing, and in nineteen ninety the almost
- 16:42Speaker 3: put a complete damper on it. But since then it's
- 16:45Speaker 3: just kind of said, Okay, we'll just start off at
- 16:47Speaker 3: the church and we'll have the party afterward elsewhere. Yeah.
- 16:51Speaker 1: And I've also seen that a lot of churches now
- 16:54Speaker 1: are straying away from me is because they feel like
- 16:56Speaker 1: there's just a lot of disrespectful behavior, like you know,
- 17:01Speaker 1: people partying on the pews and taking pictures with their
- 17:05Speaker 1: phone and texting, and.
- 17:07Speaker 3: Like they kind of forget that they're in a church, right,
- 17:10Speaker 3: which I mean if you step back and think about it,
- 17:12Speaker 3: having a girl's fifteen year birthday party in an actual church, Yeah,
- 17:17Speaker 3: that's a terrible idea to begin with, probably about yes,
- 17:20Speaker 3: so it makes sense to do this kind of solemn
- 17:24Speaker 3: ceremony at the church and then party elsewhere, which I
- 17:27Speaker 3: think is pretty much par for the course these days.
- 17:30Speaker 1: All right, so before the mass takes place, this young
- 17:35Speaker 1: woman has and Kristen Conger, remember Kristen.
- 17:39Speaker 3: Of course, what's the name of their podcast, Unladylike, unlady Like?
- 17:43Speaker 1: That's right, yeah, Kristen Caroline formerly of stuff Mom never
- 17:47Speaker 1: told you Now with Unladylike, she wrote this article and
- 17:50Speaker 1: she said that custom calls for fourteen damas or maiden attendance,
- 17:56Speaker 1: to represent the fourteen years of her life up into
- 17:58Speaker 1: that point. I saw elsewhere seven. That's what I saw too,
- 18:03Speaker 1: to be paired with seven young men. You want to
- 18:06Speaker 1: pronounce that shambalons.
- 18:08Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how I took it, shambalans, but chambalon.
- 18:13Speaker 1: I read in another place. I was like, well, wait
- 18:15Speaker 1: a minute, which is it? And it apparently can be
- 18:17Speaker 1: seven to fifteen. So yeah, depending on I guess how
- 18:21Speaker 1: many really close friends you have, kind of like picking
- 18:24Speaker 1: out your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
- 18:27Speaker 3: Yeah, and I saw plenty of videos of kinsigners where
- 18:31Speaker 3: like there were three girls, there's a four. Yeah, but
- 18:35Speaker 3: I think under strict tradition of the King Signetta. You
- 18:38Speaker 3: would have fourteen girls and fifteen dudes. You got fourteen damas,
- 18:44Speaker 3: fifteen Chambalains and then one I got it, and then
- 18:49Speaker 3: one Chambalaine day on air, which I totally missed up.
- 18:54Speaker 3: But it's it's basically the escort of honor. Who is
- 19:00Speaker 3: the King Signetta's date? That's right.
- 19:04Speaker 1: And again I'm sure that there's some leeway. The Kingsiannetta
- 19:07Speaker 1: cops aren't gonna come by because you don't have enough
- 19:11Speaker 1: friends helping you. They have larger fish to fry on
- 19:14Speaker 1: Kingsannetta Day.
- 19:16Speaker 3: Right, although the whoever is helping you plan this, it
- 19:20Speaker 3: would probably love it if you had fourteen guys and
- 19:22Speaker 3: fourteen girls because they all have to be outfitted. Oh yeah,
- 19:26Speaker 3: in exactly what you want them to wear, because it's
- 19:28Speaker 3: your party. That's right.
- 19:30Speaker 1: And I don't think we mentioned, but the dress is
- 19:32Speaker 1: a very big part of the celebration. Traditionally it's either
- 19:36Speaker 1: pink or white, very satane. I mean it looks kind
- 19:39Speaker 1: of like a prom dress, a big frilly, floor length gown.
- 19:44Speaker 3: But that also is eight feet wide, yeah, exactly at
- 19:48Speaker 3: the waist like out it's extraordinary. It's like a princess dress. Yeah,
- 19:52Speaker 3: like I want to Kenzannira, Well we can throw you on, buddy, Okay,
- 19:57Speaker 3: don't do that. Sure you don't get all pretty for
- 19:59Speaker 3: the camera. I definitely would find a nice stress, all right.
- 20:03Speaker 1: So the first stop, though, like you said, is the church,
- 20:06Speaker 1: and this is where a lot of the ceremony takes place.
- 20:10Speaker 1: They receive a blessing from a priest, the young woman
- 20:14Speaker 1: commits herself to her, protecting her virginity and her spiritual devotion,
- 20:22Speaker 1: and then they leave a bouquet of flowers near the
- 20:24Speaker 1: Virgin Mary statue. And then traditionally they would give away
- 20:29Speaker 1: a porcelain doll, one of their childhood dolls, or again,
- 20:33Speaker 1: tradition varies. These days, it might be a step teddy
- 20:37Speaker 1: bear or something else that just meant something to the girl.
- 20:40Speaker 3: One thing I saw was a ki Signetta barbie.
- 20:43Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right, Well they'll pass that along to
- 20:46Speaker 1: a younger sister or another relative, another female relative, to
- 20:50Speaker 1: basically say again symbolic of I'm entering young adulthood and
- 20:55Speaker 1: I'm passing on this silly barbie to you.
- 20:58Speaker 3: What's the name of that the ultima Muneka? Oh, I
- 21:01Speaker 3: don't know. I didn't see that ultima muneka. It means
- 21:04Speaker 3: the last doll, and it shows that she's leaving girlhood behind.
- 21:10Speaker 3: And you can guess which which one of those, the
- 21:13Speaker 3: ceramic doll or the old toy or the brand new
- 21:16Speaker 3: barbie the younger female relative wants these days. Sure, yeah, yeah,
- 21:22Speaker 3: So so that may or may not happen at the church.
- 21:26Speaker 3: The thing that seems to be what definitely happens at
- 21:28Speaker 3: the church is the girl is presented with a rosary,
- 21:31Speaker 3: a prayer book or a Bible and leaves flowers at
- 21:35Speaker 3: the altar and or the statue of the Virgin Mary,
- 21:39Speaker 3: and then receives a blessing. Right, so let's say that
- 21:42Speaker 3: all that happened at the church and the girl has
- 21:46Speaker 3: been blessed. Sometimes it's part of a regular mass, like
- 21:48Speaker 3: she may stand up and come up to the altar
- 21:50Speaker 3: and get a special blessing. If her parents are pulling
- 21:54Speaker 3: all the right strings, maybe she can get her own
- 21:56Speaker 3: mass for it. But she may also be sharing that
- 22:00Speaker 3: mask with other quin sigietas. There's a bunch of different
- 22:02Speaker 3: ways to do it. But once the mass is done,
- 22:04Speaker 3: once she said like I am committing myself to the
- 22:08Speaker 3: Catholic Church and I'm a very spiritual girl, and thanks
- 22:12Speaker 3: for the blessing. I'm out e five thousand. She's heading
- 22:15Speaker 3: off to the party. That's right. Get that just like
- 22:19Speaker 3: a good wedding.
- 22:20Speaker 1: Get that part over with quickly so you can get
- 22:23Speaker 1: your party on right.
- 22:25Speaker 3: So whilst she's getting into the limo, we'll take another break. Okay,
- 22:28Speaker 3: all right, look at her trying to stuff that dressing.
- 22:30Speaker 3: Then okay, chuck. So she has gotten in the limo,
- 22:58Speaker 3: she's driven off, and now they're going to the venue,
- 23:02Speaker 3: which is basically anywhere that you would also hold like
- 23:05Speaker 3: a wedding reception, you could hold a King Signira party.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it could be. It really depends on
- 23:11Speaker 1: the budget of the family involved. They could rent out
- 23:14Speaker 1: a large hall, or they could it could be in
- 23:17Speaker 1: the backyard of their own home or at a friend's house.
- 23:20Speaker 3: Yeah. And again this is not just on the parents shoulders.
- 23:24Speaker 3: It's very customary and very traditional for the girl to
- 23:28Speaker 3: approach family members. Yeah, members of the business community, just
- 23:34Speaker 3: anybody she can think of to say, hey, costs are
- 23:37Speaker 3: really adding up and can you, you know, chip in
- 23:41Speaker 3: a little bit. And like the King Signira will be
- 23:44Speaker 3: sponsored by multiple people besides just her parents. Yeah, and
- 23:48Speaker 3: I did.
- 23:49Speaker 1: I also read in that article on that really great
- 23:51Speaker 1: photo spread the guy did he interviewed the family members
- 23:54Speaker 1: and one of the families he said how long have
- 23:56Speaker 1: you you know, they didn't have much money, and he said,
- 23:58Speaker 1: how long have you been saving for this?
- 24:00Speaker 3: And they said for fifteen years? Oh.
- 24:02Speaker 1: Man, Like they started socking away money every year because
- 24:05Speaker 1: they knew this was coming. That it is so great
- 24:07Speaker 1: and it was important. It was very sweet story.
- 24:09Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the aspect that, you know, the community
- 24:12Speaker 3: chips in and also comes to like witness this girl's
- 24:16Speaker 3: transition to adulthood. I just really appreciate that. I think
- 24:21Speaker 3: it's really cool that that's part of it, you know,
- 24:23Speaker 3: it makes it rather than it's just the parents are
- 24:27Speaker 3: footing the bill for everything. I just think that's cool. Yeah.
- 24:29Speaker 1: Well, and it's a culture where family and community is
- 24:32Speaker 1: such a important revered thing and it's something I'm envious of,
- 24:38Speaker 1: you know.
- 24:39Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. So when the girl gets there, the
- 24:44Speaker 3: first thing that's going to happen is the music's going
- 24:47Speaker 3: to be starting, and her court's going to come in
- 24:50Speaker 3: and get introduced. Those are the Damas and the Shamblains.
- 24:55Speaker 3: Why is that not sounding right because it sounds French, right, Okay,
- 25:00Speaker 3: So that's but am I am I pronouncing it French?
- 25:03Speaker 1: I don't know that's what I'm saying it. It's I'm
- 25:06Speaker 1: not sure. I don't know the origins of that word.
- 25:08Speaker 3: Okay. So those two her court, they're going to come
- 25:12Speaker 3: in one by one and get announced virtually, just like
- 25:15Speaker 3: a wedding when the bride and grooms show up. The
- 25:18Speaker 3: grooms maids, no, the bride grooms maids, the grooms men's
- 25:23Speaker 3: and the bride'smaids. Yes, come on, man, hanging in there.
- 25:29Speaker 3: They get introduced, you know, one by one as they're
- 25:32Speaker 3: coming in, and then finally the shambala and the honorary
- 25:37Speaker 3: escort is introduced. And then you finally have the Kinti
- 25:41Speaker 3: era come in and the music changes and she's like
- 25:44Speaker 3: you like raising the roof, you know, and the parties
- 25:48Speaker 3: just everyone erupts into just craziness from that moment on.
- 25:52Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, it could be a DJ. It could
- 25:55Speaker 1: be a mariachi band, It could be a rock band.
- 25:58Speaker 3: It could be a DJ playing Mary.
- 26:01Speaker 1: It could be it could be like with my wedding,
- 26:05Speaker 1: I had an iPod loaded up with my mix and
- 26:08Speaker 1: just hit play nice.
- 26:10Speaker 3: So this is probably a DJ with a light system
- 26:14Speaker 3: and a dance floor. All the videos I saw are
- 26:17Speaker 3: very much like that. Yeah, So the court's been introduced,
- 26:22Speaker 3: and then one of the first things that happens is
- 26:25Speaker 3: the girl is presented with a crown tiara. She's presented
- 26:31Speaker 3: with a scepter, so for the killing, right for the bashing, Yeah,
- 26:36Speaker 3: that comes later, and then right the ritual, the ritual
- 26:39Speaker 3: killing of the chipmunk. And she's seated, probably on a
- 26:44Speaker 3: throne of some sort or a central chair, maybe one
- 26:46Speaker 3: of those like Wicker remember the Wicker like seventies chair. Yeah,
- 26:51Speaker 3: like flared out and up. It looked kind of like, yeah,
- 26:55Speaker 3: maybe she's sitting on one of those. But she's she's
- 26:58Speaker 3: basically the center of attention right then, and something kind
- 27:01Speaker 3: of cool happens. The shoe shoe was wearing that she
- 27:03Speaker 3: came in with flat soled sandals or slippers or something
- 27:08Speaker 3: like that. Her dad comes over and takes those off,
- 27:12Speaker 3: and then he puts on high heels and snaps his fingers,
- 27:16Speaker 3: twirls and goes she's a woman.
- 27:20Speaker 1: Yes, And I bet you anything, this young lady has
- 27:23Speaker 1: practiced walking in those before, right, I don't think she
- 27:27Speaker 1: would want her first experience in high heels to be
- 27:29Speaker 1: in that dress on the big day. This is just
- 27:33Speaker 1: logical chuck talking.
- 27:34Speaker 3: Although it would be fun to watch, No, come on,
- 27:38Speaker 3: you don't think it would be.
- 27:40Speaker 1: No one wants to see what do they? Kristen said,
- 27:42Speaker 1: they call her Keen's Girls. Sometimes, Yeah, some one wants
- 27:46Speaker 1: to see a Keen skirl fall over.
- 27:48Speaker 3: That's true except you. But you got laughed at while
- 27:51Speaker 3: you did the backstroke, so I get it. Yeah, mocked.
- 27:56Speaker 1: They may also get gifts, but not always a lot
- 28:00Speaker 1: of times there are symbolic gifts. A lot of times
- 28:04Speaker 1: other people will bring gifts, but from the parents. The
- 28:07Speaker 1: festival and ceremony itself is the gift. But sometimes if
- 28:12Speaker 1: the parents have some dough and a big budget, they
- 28:14Speaker 1: may get what's called regalo soorpressa, which is a surprise
- 28:19Speaker 1: gift on top of everything else. And this of course
- 28:23Speaker 1: is including like you mentioned, the prayer book and the
- 28:27Speaker 1: Rosary and the Bible and stuff like that.
- 28:29Speaker 3: Right, and those were probably given to her at the
- 28:31Speaker 3: church before. I'm thinking that, depending on the position of
- 28:36Speaker 3: her parents socioeconomically, the girls probably getting other presents too. Yeah,
- 28:44Speaker 3: but yes, supposedly just the kin Senira party is like
- 28:49Speaker 3: this is plenty, don't you think.
- 28:50Speaker 1: Yeah, But I think the gifts too also are always
- 28:54Speaker 1: represent that transition into adulthood. So she's not getting the
- 28:59Speaker 1: dolls anymore. She gets maybe some jewelry or ear rings
- 29:03Speaker 1: and stuff like that.
- 29:04Speaker 3: Right, and deliver her into womanhood. And then guests are
- 29:07Speaker 3: also giving gifts as well, and your party favors the
- 29:11Speaker 3: way that the whole thing's set up, even though the
- 29:12Speaker 3: community like might have people that chip in or family
- 29:16Speaker 3: members or whatever. The parents are saying like come help
- 29:19Speaker 3: celebrate our daughter's transition into womanhood. Right, So the party
- 29:24Speaker 3: is men is like a gift for the guests, right,
- 29:28Speaker 3: and so the thing is kind of meant to be
- 29:31Speaker 3: like come and get your eat on and your drink
- 29:33Speaker 3: on and just have a lot of fun. The thing
- 29:37Speaker 3: is part of that welcomeness and that inclusiveness and that
- 29:42Speaker 3: you know, please come and be a part of this.
- 29:45Speaker 3: That backfired really hard for this one couple. Have you
- 29:49Speaker 3: heard about Ruby Obara Garcia? No? Oh my, so Ruby
- 29:54Speaker 3: Abara Garcia turned fifteen on December twenty sixth, nineteen year
- 29:59Speaker 3: twoenty sixteen. Okay, okay, just like a year or so ago,
- 30:03Speaker 3: and she is from La Joya, which is in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico,
- 30:10Speaker 3: and it's a little tiny town two hundred, and her
- 30:13Speaker 3: parents decided to get with the times and make like
- 30:16Speaker 3: a YouTube invitation, a video invitation to come to Ruby's Kinsenera.
- 30:23Speaker 3: But they posted on on YouTube and they didn't put
- 30:25Speaker 3: any privacy settings on and it went viral and twenty
- 30:30Speaker 3: thousand people from around the world showed up to Ruby's
- 30:34Speaker 3: Kinsigneta party in this little town of two hundred. That's
- 30:37Speaker 3: kind of great, though, right, it was great on the
- 30:39Speaker 3: one hand, but if you look at the photos from it,
- 30:42Speaker 3: she was very much overwhelming the entire time. Was not
- 30:47Speaker 3: expecting it. Apparently, like like on Facebook, like over a
- 30:50Speaker 3: million people said they were coming, but even still twenty thousand,
- 30:53Speaker 3: and if you look, there's like all these stands set up,
- 30:56Speaker 3: and like people from all over the country and the
- 30:58Speaker 3: world shipped in to like fee everybody and make sure
- 31:01Speaker 3: everybody had teas or whatever. So the parents said, okay,
- 31:04Speaker 3: we're we're doing this, and they they did it. They
- 31:08Speaker 3: they stepped up and met there there there, or they
- 31:12Speaker 3: kept their welcome to everybody. I guess there is a
- 31:14Speaker 3: way to put it. That's kind of great.
- 31:15Speaker 1: But I can definitely see on the day that the
- 31:18Speaker 1: girl might have been overwhelmed. But I bet she also
- 31:21Speaker 1: in retrospect, is like, hey, I've got one cool story
- 31:24Speaker 1: for my life now.
- 31:25Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she's got a big old story and she
- 31:27Speaker 3: got a Chevy Vault.
- 31:28Speaker 1: Oh serious, Yeah, I couldn't tell. I literally couldn't tell
- 31:33Speaker 1: if you were just being joky, Josh.
- 31:34Speaker 3: There, No, that was I didn't even need to be
- 31:36Speaker 3: that time. So Chevy got involved, of course. I think
- 31:40Speaker 3: her parents gave her that. Oh I figured Chevy was like, hey, no,
- 31:44Speaker 3: I think that was I think that was her regalo,
- 31:48Speaker 3: her surprise gift. Yes. Wow. And speaking of so praises,
- 31:54Speaker 3: the uh that was uman Spanish name, by the way,
- 31:56Speaker 3: But speaking of so Praises, there's also Chuck. Go on
- 32:00Speaker 3: to YouTube and type in bay A s Praisa b
- 32:05Speaker 3: A I l E sor Praiser and just start watching
- 32:10Speaker 3: these videos because the bay A sor Praisa is one
- 32:12Speaker 3: of the hallmarks of the Kings and Era party and
- 32:16Speaker 3: they are about as adorable and embarrassing as you can imagine.
- 32:21Speaker 3: What does that mean though? What is it? Oh? It's
- 32:23Speaker 3: a surprise dance. So it's like for months ahead of time,
- 32:27Speaker 3: the King Signia and her court will practice a dance
- 32:32Speaker 3: that they make up or that they hire like a choreographer,
- 32:36Speaker 3: and they will like perform this dance for the guests.
- 32:40Speaker 3: It's a surprise dance. It's like part of the Kingsenira
- 32:43Speaker 3: and they're they're very cute to watch, especially they do,
- 32:49Speaker 3: but they also are really they're very earnest about it too,
- 32:52Speaker 3: like they like they practice this dance and they they're
- 32:55Speaker 3: doing it and it's it's very cute. You can also
- 32:59Speaker 3: hire am Balayne's professional ones. They're all like dancers by trade,
- 33:05Speaker 3: so they'll like really knock your socks off of your guests.
- 33:08Speaker 3: But it's, you know, it's lacking that heart of something
- 33:11Speaker 3: you and your friends came up with yourself.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Or you could if you had a lot of dough,
- 33:14Speaker 1: you could hire a choreographer like Paula Abdul or something.
- 33:17Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, like her, she's.
- 33:20Speaker 1: Still choreographing, right, yeah, choreographing, choreographing.
- 33:25Speaker 3: Something bad wrong with us today? I know, man, you
- 33:28Speaker 3: got anything else I do? This is a little suppressive
- 33:32Speaker 3: for you.
- 33:33Speaker 1: My friend there was a father in Texas a couple
- 33:38Speaker 1: of years ago that spent six million dollars on his
- 33:41Speaker 1: fifteen year old daughter. Oh my, he uh, what's his
- 33:45Speaker 1: name here? He's an attorney named Thomas J. Henry of
- 33:49Speaker 1: San Antonio. They're very kind of well known family. His
- 33:52Speaker 1: daughter Maya is big on Instagram and social media, and
- 33:56Speaker 1: she's big into activism. So she's like, you know, she's
- 34:01Speaker 1: not just your ordinary teen.
- 34:04Speaker 3: Although that is kind of ordinary these days, thankfully.
- 34:07Speaker 1: To be a well known teen activist, well to be active, sure.
- 34:11Speaker 1: But at her Kintanetta, she had Nick Jonas perform, Pitbull performed.
- 34:17Speaker 3: Sure. Let me see what else here?
- 34:19Speaker 1: A fifty five thousand square foot space.
- 34:23Speaker 3: That they built.
- 34:24Speaker 1: I don't think they built it from scratch, but it
- 34:28Speaker 1: does say that it was built purpose built venue.
- 34:33Speaker 3: How many guests? Six hundred guests?
- 34:36Speaker 1: Man a thirty foot tall cherry trees, a thirty foot
- 34:40Speaker 1: tall cherry cheese in full blossom, walls of roses, a
- 34:44Speaker 1: garden room, the ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling.
- 34:49Speaker 1: She wore a Rolando Santana dress, which means nothing to
- 34:52Speaker 1: me either, but I assume that means it's something. She
- 34:56Speaker 1: had her makeup done by Patrick Ta who does the Kardashians.
- 35:00Speaker 1: Her photographer was Michelle Obamas photographer, and Thomas Henry and
- 35:08Speaker 1: his wife whose name is Azteca, beautiful name. They hired
- 35:12Speaker 1: a New York social event planner named David Monne. He
- 35:14Speaker 1: had one hundred and fifty person team to plan out
- 35:18Speaker 1: this party and finally they arrived by police escort in
- 35:22Speaker 1: nine rolls Royces.
- 35:24Speaker 3: Well, because why not, why not get the police involved.
- 35:27Speaker 1: And not to feel too bad for her little brother
- 35:30Speaker 1: or I guess maybe it was a big brother. He
- 35:33Speaker 1: spent four million dollars on that kid's eighteenth birthday. I
- 35:37Speaker 1: believe case a praisa, So they have they dropped ten
- 35:42Speaker 1: million bucks on a couple of parties for their kids.
- 35:46Speaker 3: Man, and those the girls in Mexico City are happy
- 35:50Speaker 3: to be part of the city wide annual one.
- 35:53Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 35:54Speaker 3: I wonder what Pitbull got paid for that? A mill Maybe?
- 36:00Speaker 3: I bet Nick Jonas got more than Pipple, did you think? Yeah?
- 36:04Speaker 1: And of course she had her pictures with both of them, and.
- 36:07Speaker 3: Well I'm sure that was part of it. It's like
- 36:10Speaker 3: uh yeah, man, all right, well that is something. What's
- 36:13Speaker 3: her name? Maya? Yeah? Wait, Henry, Oh, I got to
- 36:17Speaker 3: look that up. If you want to know more about
- 36:21Speaker 3: Kinsgieta as well, just show up to one uninvited. Yeah,
- 36:26Speaker 3: see how that goes. You know what, you'd probably be
- 36:29Speaker 3: welcomed probably chuck probably, And since I said probably a
- 36:33Speaker 3: couple of times, it's time for listener mail.
- 36:38Speaker 1: Hey guys, A long time listener, A card carrying member
- 36:40Speaker 1: of the Stuff you should know Army. I've always want
- 36:42Speaker 1: to write in but just hadn't found the right topic
- 36:44Speaker 1: until the It Stranger Things script retooling debate those during emojis.
- 36:50Speaker 1: Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and it
- 36:52Speaker 1: is my absolute favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Also
- 36:55Speaker 1: a huge Stranger Things fan. Though I have no media experience,
- 36:59Speaker 1: I do have an MBA and know a thing or
- 37:00Speaker 1: two about marketing. But it's worth I sided with Josh,
- 37:03Speaker 1: with the studio definitely retooling the script to create synergies
- 37:07Speaker 1: between It and Stranger Things. Aside from casting the Stranger
- 37:10Speaker 1: Things kid, which to me is a smoking gun, they
- 37:13Speaker 1: changed the setting in the film to take place in
- 37:14Speaker 1: the eighties.
- 37:15Speaker 3: Like Stranger Things.
- 37:16Speaker 1: The novel the story follows the main characters is in
- 37:20Speaker 1: the fifties, and then again as adults in the eighties.
- 37:23Speaker 1: There are elements of the story that didn't translate as
- 37:25Speaker 1: well into the eighties in my opinion, but it was
- 37:27Speaker 1: a small price to pay in order to captivate that
- 37:30Speaker 1: Stranger Things audience. Just one guy's opinion, but I'd like
- 37:33Speaker 1: to say one guy's informed opinion.
- 37:36Speaker 3: Sorry, Chuck, for what it's worth.
- 37:37Speaker 1: As a movie crush or as a movie buff, I
- 37:39Speaker 1: always catch movie crush. Keep it up, Mike Sanders and Mike.
- 37:46Speaker 1: I did a very simple Google search and found that
- 37:51Speaker 1: Stranger Things was released in July twenty sixteen, and principal
- 37:55Speaker 1: photography of it began about a week before that. Okay,
- 37:59Speaker 1: so that's therefore rendering that impossible.
- 38:02Speaker 3: Here's the thing. Movies have been known to change horses
- 38:07Speaker 3: mid stream, right. I don't think that that settles it
- 38:11Speaker 3: if you ask me, so.
- 38:12Speaker 1: You think they shot a bunch of the movie in
- 38:15Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties and said, wait a minute, this TV
- 38:17Speaker 1: show we're here doing.
- 38:18Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, no, let's go make it the eighties.
- 38:21Speaker 2: No.
- 38:21Speaker 1: I don't think let's recast this kid that we've already cast.
- 38:24Speaker 3: I think I think that they're I think that they
- 38:28Speaker 3: did retool I do. I don't think. Yeah, I don't
- 38:32Speaker 3: think they did. They. I don't think they were shooting
- 38:34Speaker 3: in the fifties. I think they were probably shooting in
- 38:35Speaker 3: the eighties. I think they really. My whole point has
- 38:38Speaker 3: been that they played up the same things that Stranger
- 38:43Speaker 3: Things was known for and that you wouldn't find in
- 38:47Speaker 3: in the book it that, and that they plumped up
- 38:51Speaker 3: that stuff because of Stranger Things. That's my assertion.
- 38:56Speaker 1: So as they are shooting the film it they're doing rewrites.
- 38:59Speaker 1: The rewrites, yes, because they're like, man, we gotta walk
- 39:02Speaker 1: into this TV show.
- 39:03Speaker 3: Yes. And you can also do that in the editing
- 39:06Speaker 3: booth as you know as well, which would have happened
- 39:09Speaker 3: long after Stranger Things was already a smash cultural phenomenon.
- 39:13Speaker 3: All right. That's I don't think it's settled, man, Okay,
- 39:17Speaker 3: And it never will be all right until the editor
- 39:21Speaker 3: tells me himself or herself that I'm just dead wrong. Okay.
- 39:25Speaker 3: If you want to settle a bet, you can send
- 39:28Speaker 3: us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com
- 39:30Speaker 3: and is always joined us at our home on the web.
- 39:32Speaker 3: Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.
- 39:37Speaker 2: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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