""QuinceaAera"" is a gentle but stirring coming of age story, an insight into the Mexican-Catholic culture and the gentrification of a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
The neighborhood is Echo Park, home to a Mexican-American community where old men sell hot beverages in shopping carts and girls celebrate their QuinceaAera—the 15th birthday and traditional induction into womanhood. Fourteen-year-old good girl Magdalena awaits her QuinceaAera with worries such as having to borrow her cousin's dress, fighting with her boyfriend and convincing her father to let her rent a Hummer limo (no doubt this will bring back memories to anyone who has gone through a Bar/Bat Mitzvah or confirmation).
These are the worst of Magdalena's worries—until she finds out she is pregnant. When she insists that she is still a virgin and her religious father doesn't believe her, she goes to live with her old Uncle Tomas, who is also housing Magdalena's bad boy cousin Carlos, also exiled by the community for being gay.
The three of them form a unique family, blending Tomas' old-world Mexico with Carlos' new-world gang culture. In this new environment, Magdalena finds her independence, especially when her boyfriend abandons her to pursue college and travel. Tomas, Carlos and Magdalena are affected by the gentrification of their neighborhood when Carlos' affair with one member of a white gay couple leads the threesome to be evicted. Carlos' encounter with the gay couple and ensuing relationship provides a nice compliment to Magdalena's pregnancy story.
In addition, Uncle Tomas—who keeps a religious memorabilia garden shrine—gives the movie a sense of a innocence as he gives Carlos and Magdalena the unconditional love that no one else will.
On a grander scale, the film cleverly intertwines the old traditions of the community with the modern-day culture of Mexican-American teen life. The QuinceaAera celebration has some wonderful images of old members of the community watching in horror as the teens juke and grind to the DJ's music. The film itself intertwines the adults speaking Spanish with English subtitles and the teens speaking English.
The plot refuses to take a single narrative route by focusing on the pregnancy. Instead, we get a look at a whole community, with a cast of characters that are both compassionate and cruel. The strength of the movie lies in the simple narrative as well as simple technical direction. The patience of the camera allows us to take in the characters and get a great sense of atmosphere through shots of the wild foliage and hot city streets of Echo Park.
""QuinceaAera"" may not be the only movie of its kind, but it has heart without being sappy. It doesn't skirt around or build up the issues of gentrification, religion and pregnancy—it merely lets us get a taste of a community and drastically different personalities who still come together through tradition.
