Magdalena, a fourteen-year-old girl from a working-class Mexican American family in Echo Park, Los Angeles, attends her cousin Eileen's ''quinceañera'', an extravagant coming-of-age ceremony to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. Eileen's older brother Carlos—who has been disowned by his family due to his homosexuality and now lives with his great-uncle Tomas—arrives at the celebrations but is forced to leave by his father. Magdalena herself is about to turn fifteen but her parents cannot afford to host a ''quinceañera'' as lavish as Eileen's, and they deny her repeated requests to hire a Hummer limousine for the occasion. While preparing for her ''quinceañera'', Magdalena learns that she is pregnant by her friend Herman although they had only once engaged in non-penetrative intercourse. Her Christian father is furious, believing that Magdalena has had premarital sex despite her protestations that she is still a virgin. She leaves her family to move in with Tomas and Carlos and continues to see Herman until she discovers that his mother has sent him away to live with relatives to prevent him from seeing Magdalena.
No lists.
No lists.
No lists.
Please log in to view notes.