November 9, 2024 • 39 mins
A quinceañera is the celebration of a girl of Hispanic heritage becoming a young woman on her 15th birthday. It involves family, friends, music and a lot of great food. Join Josh and Chuck in this classic episode as they don their favorite pink dresses and go over this wonderful tradition.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi folks, Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend.
I hope you're with your friends, your family, your loved one.
If you don't like anybody at all, hope you're by
yourself and you're having a good time. I just hope
you're well in general. This episode is from May fifteenth,
twenty eighteen, and it's called What's a Kintanira? Anyway, I
(00:22):
didn't know until we did this episode, so listen and
find out.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
If you don't know, Welcome to stuff you should know.
A production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and
there's Charles w. Ch'bryant. There's Jerry, and this is a
very special day for us.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's a very special day for Jerry because she's celebrating
her her very special day because today Jerry turns sweet fifteen.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right, well, technically it's her chiple Kintigne.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Jerry started producing the show when she was five. Oh yeah,
he was wonderin.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
She's a child prodigy three, A lot of temper tantrums. Yeah,
but we got through that time, we did the Terrible fives.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And now she's just a pretty little lady in her pink, lacy,
satiny dress.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, that dress is a lot, even for a King
Signora dress. Jerry agreed. I can I go ahead and
say I don't do the R role very well, So
I'm just gonna say Keen Sognia okay instead of Kingsanna.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that wasn't very good either, right. I used to
do a good R role because of German, but I
feel like I've lost it a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And I guess it's actually an n roll King Signetta.
It's those good right, yeah, but if I try to
keep it up, it's it's I think it's gonna fatigue
everybody pretty quick. So Keen Sannira.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well, and the last thing we want to be here
to jackass white dudes. Well, that's how we do it,
laying it on too thick, too forty something white dudes
are about to talk about. Keintignertis like, we know what
we're talking about. Well, we did the research, and I
think it's uh. I think it's good to cover stuff
like this.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I did too. I had very little understanding about this,
just from what I've seen on like MTV or whatever,
you know, did they have a show they have one
called like my sweet sixteen or whatever that I might
be conflating with. But I swear I've seen Keinton like
I knew some of this stuff somewhere. I don't know where, though,
(02:30):
somewhere just in the just being plugged into culture, I
knew it, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, I lived in Los Angeles, as you know, and
they have obviously quite a Latin population, and I looked
up Hispanic and Latino.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I wanted to get it all right, good, good, let's
hear what you got.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, it says that they can generally be used interchangeably
these days. But I think Latino can like I think
Hispanic refers to whether or not you actually have Spanish
speaking roots.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
But Latino can be like Brazil and places in South
America as well, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I heard once that Ronald Reagan was the person who
coined the term Hispanic, or at least popularized it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Really Yeah, well it was that tattoo across his upper
back Hispanic for life.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
For life, yep, with the number four.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But at any rate, you know, lived in LA and
there's you know, a large Mexican population, So I would
see kingtonettas going on all the time. When you're just
driving around on a weekend. I would see stuff and
I was like, wait a minute, it's not prom it's summer,
Like what's going on.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It's like Prom times ten.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And then some somebody hit me in the head and
they're like, you dummy, dumb white guy from the South.
It's a king signettas right, And so I was like, well,
you know what, one day, I'm gonna do a podcast
about that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They said, what is a podcast to make up for
all this? You said, just watch that's right. So one
thing I saw was with Latin, you know, like with
Latino or Latina, there's that ingrained masculine. But something I
saw pop up in a couple of sites is they
would replace the O or the A with an X
(04:14):
just to make it the word gender neutral, like Latin X.
Oh yeah, I don't know how you pronounced it. I
didn't get that far, but I saw it imprinting a
couple of different sites, so where they were trying to
remove the gender from you know, Latino or Latina and
just make it gen gender neutral. Because there's there's a
(04:34):
I haven't seen it, but there's an HBO documentary about
KINGTONIERZ and one of them is for a trans girl. Okay,
would it be pronounced LATINX? Maybe? I mean I have
to see it written down. How is the X in
like wahaka? Isn't it like hot? Whaha? So maybe Latin woa?
(04:56):
I have no idea. That's where I'm going with here
we go.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I didn't want to be too dumb dumbs and we're
so far down dumb dumb lane.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's not even funny. No, so let's try to get
this back on the rail, shall we. I think what
we just did was great because we explored some questions
we had. But now we can talk about everything we
know about kingsing gartis.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Right, which is we've been dancing around this thing. This
is the fifteenth birthday celebration for young ladies young women
in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States
kind of all.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Over the world. This can take place. Yeah, and it
seems to be so it's a it's actually a very
traditional thing to where Catholic, like the catholicness of the
girl and her even pre Catholic origins fine together with
(06:02):
what I guess you would call like is a universal
coming of age celebration that also focuses on the individuality
and tastes of the girl. You put all those things together,
you have a King Signeta, which is a fifteenth birthday party,
which is a coming out party for a girl as
(06:24):
she transitions from girlhood into womanhood. It happens on this
day and they throw a huge celebration, and there's a
lot of really cool traditions that you're going to find
at like every King Singetta that have some a neat
origin story to them or a neat symbolism to them.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And also some great music, some delicious food, and family
coming together for an important day.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's really great. Not just family, the whole community is
meant to, you know, like extended family, people in the
community that have had an impact on the girl's life,
like a teacher, people been for the expense of this.
It's like a real communal thing. Should we go back
in time? Okay, let's or did you want to go
to the future? No, No, we'll go back in time
(07:11):
all right.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
So the origins of this they date back all the
way to the Aztec Indians. Obviously in the fourteen hundreds
and fifteen hundreds they were performing these festivals because girls
back then were marriage ready at the age of fifteen.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That's kind of what it symbolized, right, And like it
wasn't just the Aztecs, like around the world and cultures
around the world, like you would find some sort of
coming of age or rights of passage into womanhood. And yeah,
when you came out the other end, it was like
you were on the market then from that point on,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And they had ceremonies, they had speeches talking about how
important it is to become a wise, upstanding member of
society as a young woman. Then the Spanish come along.
Of course, they invade what we now call Mexico over
through the Aztecs, and that brought in a European influence
to this whole experience. And this is where things got
(08:10):
a little more, a little more like debutante.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, it's actually I looked into this a little further, Chuck.
And they can't say for certain where keinsignetaz came from,
but they think the Aztecs. But their source comes from
a single nun working in Mexico who wrote an account
that had been given to a priest forty years earlier. Wow,
(08:36):
from another priest who had supposedly in the fifteen twenties
interviewed some Aztec high priests about their culture. So that's
where the whole idea that there was a rite of
passage at age fifteen comes from kind of shaky. And
then other people say, well, no, this is obviously a
Spanish colonial influence, like being presented at court. But the
(08:58):
idea that it's a rite of passage in womanhood is
so universal that it probably is a combination of the
two of them. No one can just say for certain though,
what the origin is specifically.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, and apparently until the nineteen sixties it was really
kind of an upper class thing. But then in the
nineteen sixties, as Latinos immigrated to the United States and
they became more part of American fabric, they really kind
of really kind of spread throughout the US and Latin
(09:30):
America as becoming across all socioeconomic classes. And we'll get
to this a little more later. But wonderfully, like you said,
in poorer communities, you see entire communities chipping in some
money many times, or the godmothers and godfathers of padernos
and madarinas like that.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, that's good to help pay for this stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I saw this photographer did a really great photos series
of Quintinetas celebrations in poor neighborhoods in Mexico and photograph
these really beautiful photographs of these these young women in
their dresses sort of in the middle of a very
depressed neighborhood and just showing how important it was that
(10:15):
they still had this celebration.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Even though they it was a burden financially on their families. Right. Yeah,
I think Mexico City got together in two thousand and
seven and some of the businesses, some of the some
nonprofit groups held like a big mass kinsingerra and now
they do it every year for girls who wouldn't otherwise
(10:39):
be able to have one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I also read a New York Times article where there's
a lot of bias, like when it comes to things
like this and bar and bought Mitzvah's and debutante balls,
where it's very easy for someone to say, like, you know,
if you're poor living in Mexico City, why are you
wasting And that's an air quo quotes your money on
(11:01):
this celebration when your family doesn't have much money, and
they say, you know, you never hear this kind of
criticism for bar mitzvahs and bot mitzvahs or debutantes, regardless
of socioeconomic status. So it's just a very important, important
part of their culture that should be shouldn't be looked
(11:21):
down upon just because they may not have the kind
of money to throw a big one, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm sure. One of the things, though,
you just kind of hit on the head is that
it's a it's a it's a part of latinix culture,
which is one reason why it's become so big in America.
It's a way of people of Latino heritage to say,
you know, this is my heritage too, and this is
(11:50):
how I'm going to come of age in America. But
because it's also in America and these are American born
girls of Latina heritage, they they have come over time
to kind of meld together with what Americans look at
and say, that's just one enormous sweet sixteen party, right,
But there's there's some details in there that you'll find
(12:12):
out at Kinsonnira that you won't at a sweet sixteen party,
and we'll talk about those right after this. Well done,
(12:42):
all right, Charles, So we are going to start the day.
It's a frantic day, It's a hectic day. From everything
I understand from what I've read, this is a and
actually like a cool day for a girl, but also
very stressful. All right.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's like a it's like a wedding or a prom
or anything where there's a lot of pressure on this one,
you know, six hour experience.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
But think about this. With a wedding, you've got your
s O to plan the wedding with. With prom, you've
got a handful of other girls to plan. You know
what you're doing with prom, and plus proms already being
planned for you by your school or whatever. This is
like your day, and part of your responsibility is the
King Signeta, which by the way, King Signeta literally translates
(13:31):
to the girl who is fifteen. Yeah, so this is
technically your Fiesta de kin Signetta or something like that. Right.
Part of your responsibility as King Signetta is to show
that you can take part in this planning. On the
one hand, it's to allow it to reflect your personality
and your taste, so you're the one who needs to
choose all this stuff. But it also shows that you
(13:53):
can be a grown up too, and undertake months of
planning leading up to this thing and basically pull it off. Correct,
you are right, Okay, So the whole thing starts with
a trip to church, which is not right, which is
not what you're going to find a normal American like
say sweet sixteen party.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
No, And it depends on the church where you're going
to have and you know, sometimes the celebration also occurs
at the church. Sometimes that occurs at a different spot,
kind of like a wedding, you know, sometimes you'll have
the reception somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Right, that's not how it started, which we'll talk about
that in a minute, but go ahead.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But it depends on the church where you're a member
or where you're having this initial ceremony. But the girl
before this all happens for weeks ahead of time, may
actually be required to attend classes in advance of this,
so they're prepared.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
They know what to expect, right they well, yeah, that's
about it, as far as the weeks ahead part, well
as far as the church and all the planning, yeah,
of course. Right. So on the day they arrive at
the church, and you were saying, like, you know, now
it's kind of evolved to where you have like like
a wedding, you have the ceremony of the church and
(15:05):
then the event elsewhere, well you can, right, and that's
becoming more and more the way. But one of the
reasons that is becoming the way is because in nineteen
ninety in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued like
a set of guidelines that basically put the kibosh on
this idea of the kingsonira as a big lavish affair,
(15:28):
and it really dampened this burgeoning I guess industry or
tradition or whatever. It put a damper on it for
a little while because families didn't want to go against
the Church, so they kind of toned down the kings andiras.
But the reason the Church was doing this is because
there were too many kingsoniras, not enough Spanish speaking priests.
(15:50):
And then also the Catholic Church has always had an
awkward position in this tradition. It's not a Catholic tradition.
It's a cultural tradition by a group of people who
are predominantly Catholic and involve the Church as part of
this tradition. But this tradition, if anything, is a syncretized tradition,
(16:11):
remember when we were in Guatemala. The melding of Catholic
beliefs and pagan pre colonial beliefs indigenous beliefs is syncretism.
This is an example of that. There's like as tech
rituals supposedly mixed with this. The whole thing starts at
a Catholic church with a mass, so the church has
(16:34):
kind of had alternately hands on and hands off view
of this whole thing, and in nineteen ninety the almost
put a complete damper on it. But since then it's
just kind of said, Okay, we'll just start off at
the church and we'll have the party afterward elsewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And I've also seen that a lot of churches now
are straying away from me is because they feel like
there's just a lot of disrespectful behavior, like you know,
people partying on the pews and taking pictures with their
phone and texting, and.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Like they kind of forget that they're in a church, right,
which I mean if you step back and think about it,
having a girl's fifteen year birthday party in an actual church, Yeah,
that's a terrible idea to begin with, probably about yes,
so it makes sense to do this kind of solemn
ceremony at the church and then party elsewhere, which I
(17:27):
think is pretty much par for the course these days.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
All right, so before the mass takes place, this young
woman has and Kristen Conger, remember Kristen.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Of course, what's the name of their podcast, Unladylike, unlady Like?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
That's right, yeah, Kristen Caroline formerly of stuff Mom never
told you Now with Unladylike, she wrote this article and
she said that custom calls for fourteen damas or maiden attendance,
to represent the fourteen years of her life up into
that point. I saw elsewhere seven. That's what I saw too,
to be paired with seven young men. You want to
(18:06):
pronounce that shambalons.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, that's how I took it, shambalans, but chambalon.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I read in another place. I was like, well, wait
a minute, which is it? And it apparently can be
seven to fifteen. So yeah, depending on I guess how
many really close friends you have, kind of like picking
out your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, and I saw plenty of videos of kinsigners where
like there were three girls, there's a four. Yeah, but
I think under strict tradition of the King Signetta. You
would have fourteen girls and fifteen dudes. You got fourteen damas,
fifteen Chambalains and then one I got it, and then
(18:49):
one Chambalaine day on air, which I totally missed up.
But it's it's basically the escort of honor. Who is
the King Signetta's date? That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And again I'm sure that there's some leeway. The Kingsiannetta
cops aren't gonna come by because you don't have enough
friends helping you. They have larger fish to fry on
Kingsannetta Day.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Right, although the whoever is helping you plan this, it
would probably love it if you had fourteen guys and
fourteen girls because they all have to be outfitted. Oh yeah,
in exactly what you want them to wear, because it's
your party. That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And I don't think we mentioned, but the dress is
a very big part of the celebration. Traditionally it's either
pink or white, very satane. I mean it looks kind
of like a prom dress, a big frilly, floor length gown.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
But that also is eight feet wide, yeah, exactly at
the waist like out it's extraordinary. It's like a princess dress. Yeah,
like I want to Kenzannira, Well we can throw you on, buddy, Okay,
don't do that. Sure you don't get all pretty for
the camera. I definitely would find a nice stress, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So the first stop, though, like you said, is the church,
and this is where a lot of the ceremony takes place.
They receive a blessing from a priest, the young woman
commits herself to her, protecting her virginity and her spiritual devotion,
and then they leave a bouquet of flowers near the
(20:24):
Virgin Mary statue. And then traditionally they would give away
a porcelain doll, one of their childhood dolls, or again,
tradition varies. These days, it might be a step teddy
bear or something else that just meant something to the girl.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
One thing I saw was a ki Signetta barbie.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh yeah, all right, Well they'll pass that along to
a younger sister or another relative, another female relative, to
basically say again symbolic of I'm entering young adulthood and
I'm passing on this silly barbie to you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
What's the name of that the ultima Muneka? Oh, I
don't know. I didn't see that ultima muneka. It means
the last doll, and it shows that she's leaving girlhood behind.
And you can guess which which one of those, the
ceramic doll or the old toy or the brand new
barbie the younger female relative wants these days. Sure, yeah, yeah,
(21:22):
So so that may or may not happen at the church.
The thing that seems to be what definitely happens at
the church is the girl is presented with a rosary,
a prayer book or a Bible and leaves flowers at
the altar and or the statue of the Virgin Mary,
and then receives a blessing. Right, so let's say that
(21:42):
all that happened at the church and the girl has
been blessed. Sometimes it's part of a regular mass, like
she may stand up and come up to the altar
and get a special blessing. If her parents are pulling
all the right strings, maybe she can get her own
mass for it. But she may also be sharing that
mask with other quin sigietas. There's a bunch of different
(22:02):
ways to do it. But once the mass is done,
once she said like I am committing myself to the
Catholic Church and I'm a very spiritual girl, and thanks
for the blessing. I'm out e five thousand. She's heading
off to the party. That's right. Get that just like
a good wedding.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Get that part over with quickly so you can get
your party on right.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So whilst she's getting into the limo, we'll take another break. Okay,
all right, look at her trying to stuff that dressing.
Then okay, chuck. So she has gotten in the limo,
(22:58):
she's driven off, and now they're going to the venue,
which is basically anywhere that you would also hold like
a wedding reception, you could hold a King Signira party.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean it could be. It really depends on
the budget of the family involved. They could rent out
a large hall, or they could it could be in
the backyard of their own home or at a friend's house.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah. And again this is not just on the parents shoulders.
It's very customary and very traditional for the girl to
approach family members. Yeah, members of the business community, just
anybody she can think of to say, hey, costs are
really adding up and can you, you know, chip in
(23:41):
a little bit. And like the King Signira will be
sponsored by multiple people besides just her parents. Yeah, and
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I also read in that article on that really great
photo spread the guy did he interviewed the family members
and one of the families he said how long have
you you know, they didn't have much money, and he said,
how long have you been saving for this?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And they said for fifteen years? Oh.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Man, Like they started socking away money every year because
they knew this was coming. That it is so great
and it was important. It was very sweet story.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah. I think the aspect that, you know, the community
chips in and also comes to like witness this girl's
transition to adulthood. I just really appreciate that. I think
it's really cool that that's part of it, you know,
it makes it rather than it's just the parents are
footing the bill for everything. I just think that's cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, and it's a culture where family and community is
such a important revered thing and it's something I'm envious of,
you know.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, for sure. So when the girl gets there, the
first thing that's going to happen is the music's going
to be starting, and her court's going to come in
and get introduced. Those are the Damas and the Shamblains.
Why is that not sounding right because it sounds French, right, Okay,
(25:00):
So that's but am I am I pronouncing it French?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know that's what I'm saying it. It's I'm
not sure. I don't know the origins of that word.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Okay. So those two her court, they're going to come
in one by one and get announced virtually, just like
a wedding when the bride and grooms show up. The
grooms maids, no, the bride grooms maids, the grooms men's
and the bride'smaids. Yes, come on, man, hanging in there.
(25:29):
They get introduced, you know, one by one as they're
coming in, and then finally the shambala and the honorary
escort is introduced. And then you finally have the Kinti
era come in and the music changes and she's like
you like raising the roof, you know, and the parties
just everyone erupts into just craziness from that moment on.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, and again, it could be a DJ. It could
be a mariachi band, It could be a rock band.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It could be a DJ playing Mary.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It could be it could be like with my wedding,
I had an iPod loaded up with my mix and
just hit play nice.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
So this is probably a DJ with a light system
and a dance floor. All the videos I saw are
very much like that. Yeah, So the court's been introduced,
and then one of the first things that happens is
the girl is presented with a crown tiara. She's presented
(26:31):
with a scepter, so for the killing, right for the bashing, Yeah,
that comes later, and then right the ritual, the ritual
killing of the chipmunk. And she's seated, probably on a
throne of some sort or a central chair, maybe one
of those like Wicker remember the Wicker like seventies chair. Yeah,
(26:51):
like flared out and up. It looked kind of like, yeah,
maybe she's sitting on one of those. But she's she's
basically the center of attention right then, and something kind
of cool happens. The shoe shoe was wearing that she
came in with flat soled sandals or slippers or something
like that. Her dad comes over and takes those off,
(27:12):
and then he puts on high heels and snaps his fingers,
twirls and goes she's a woman.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yes, And I bet you anything, this young lady has
practiced walking in those before, right, I don't think she
would want her first experience in high heels to be
in that dress on the big day. This is just
logical chuck talking.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Although it would be fun to watch, No, come on,
you don't think it would be.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
No one wants to see what do they? Kristen said,
they call her Keen's Girls. Sometimes, Yeah, some one wants
to see a Keen skirl fall over.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
That's true except you. But you got laughed at while
you did the backstroke, so I get it. Yeah, mocked.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
They may also get gifts, but not always a lot
of times there are symbolic gifts. A lot of times
other people will bring gifts, but from the parents. The
festival and ceremony itself is the gift. But sometimes if
the parents have some dough and a big budget, they
may get what's called regalo soorpressa, which is a surprise
(28:19):
gift on top of everything else. And this of course
is including like you mentioned, the prayer book and the
Rosary and the Bible and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right, and those were probably given to her at the
church before. I'm thinking that, depending on the position of
her parents socioeconomically, the girls probably getting other presents too. Yeah,
but yes, supposedly just the kin Senira party is like
this is plenty, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, But I think the gifts too also are always
represent that transition into adulthood. So she's not getting the
dolls anymore. She gets maybe some jewelry or ear rings
and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Right, and deliver her into womanhood. And then guests are
also giving gifts as well, and your party favors the
way that the whole thing's set up, even though the
community like might have people that chip in or family
members or whatever. The parents are saying like come help
celebrate our daughter's transition into womanhood. Right, So the party
(29:24):
is men is like a gift for the guests, right,
and so the thing is kind of meant to be
like come and get your eat on and your drink
on and just have a lot of fun. The thing
is part of that welcomeness and that inclusiveness and that
you know, please come and be a part of this.
(29:45):
That backfired really hard for this one couple. Have you
heard about Ruby Obara Garcia? No? Oh my, so Ruby
Abara Garcia turned fifteen on December twenty sixth, nineteen year
twoenty sixteen. Okay, okay, just like a year or so ago,
and she is from La Joya, which is in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico,
(30:10):
and it's a little tiny town two hundred, and her
parents decided to get with the times and make like
a YouTube invitation, a video invitation to come to Ruby's Kinsenera.
But they posted on on YouTube and they didn't put
any privacy settings on and it went viral and twenty
thousand people from around the world showed up to Ruby's
(30:34):
Kinsigneta party in this little town of two hundred. That's
kind of great, though, right, it was great on the
one hand, but if you look at the photos from it,
she was very much overwhelming the entire time. Was not
expecting it. Apparently, like like on Facebook, like over a
million people said they were coming, but even still twenty thousand,
and if you look, there's like all these stands set up,
(30:56):
and like people from all over the country and the
world shipped in to like fee everybody and make sure
everybody had teas or whatever. So the parents said, okay,
we're we're doing this, and they they did it. They
they stepped up and met there there there, or they
kept their welcome to everybody. I guess there is a
way to put it. That's kind of great.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But I can definitely see on the day that the
girl might have been overwhelmed. But I bet she also
in retrospect, is like, hey, I've got one cool story
for my life now.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Oh yeah, she's got a big old story and she
got a Chevy Vault.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Oh serious, Yeah, I couldn't tell. I literally couldn't tell
if you were just being joky, Josh.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
There, No, that was I didn't even need to be
that time. So Chevy got involved, of course. I think
her parents gave her that. Oh I figured Chevy was like, hey, no,
I think that was I think that was her regalo,
her surprise gift. Yes. Wow. And speaking of so praises,
the uh that was uman Spanish name, by the way,
(31:56):
But speaking of so Praises, there's also Chuck. Go on
to YouTube and type in bay A s Praisa b
A I l E sor Praiser and just start watching
these videos because the bay A sor Praisa is one
of the hallmarks of the Kings and Era party and
they are about as adorable and embarrassing as you can imagine.
(32:21):
What does that mean though? What is it? Oh? It's
a surprise dance. So it's like for months ahead of time,
the King Signia and her court will practice a dance
that they make up or that they hire like a choreographer,
and they will like perform this dance for the guests.
It's a surprise dance. It's like part of the Kingsenira
(32:43):
and they're they're very cute to watch, especially they do,
but they also are really they're very earnest about it too,
like they like they practice this dance and they they're
doing it and it's it's very cute. You can also
hire am Balayne's professional ones. They're all like dancers by trade,
(33:05):
so they'll like really knock your socks off of your guests.
But it's, you know, it's lacking that heart of something
you and your friends came up with yourself.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Or you could if you had a lot of dough,
you could hire a choreographer like Paula Abdul or something.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah. Yeah, like her, she's.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Still choreographing, right, yeah, choreographing, choreographing.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Something bad wrong with us today? I know, man, you
got anything else I do? This is a little suppressive
for you.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
My friend there was a father in Texas a couple
of years ago that spent six million dollars on his
fifteen year old daughter. Oh my, he uh, what's his
name here? He's an attorney named Thomas J. Henry of
San Antonio. They're very kind of well known family. His
daughter Maya is big on Instagram and social media, and
(33:56):
she's big into activism. So she's like, you know, she's
not just your ordinary teen.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Although that is kind of ordinary these days, thankfully.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
To be a well known teen activist, well to be active, sure.
But at her Kintanetta, she had Nick Jonas perform, Pitbull performed.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Sure. Let me see what else here?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
A fifty five thousand square foot space.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
That they built.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I don't think they built it from scratch, but it
does say that it was built purpose built venue.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
How many guests? Six hundred guests?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Man a thirty foot tall cherry trees, a thirty foot
tall cherry cheese in full blossom, walls of roses, a
garden room, the ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling.
She wore a Rolando Santana dress, which means nothing to
me either, but I assume that means it's something. She
(34:56):
had her makeup done by Patrick Ta who does the Kardashians.
Her photographer was Michelle Obamas photographer, and Thomas Henry and
his wife whose name is Azteca, beautiful name. They hired
a New York social event planner named David Monne. He
had one hundred and fifty person team to plan out
(35:18):
this party and finally they arrived by police escort in
nine rolls Royces.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Well, because why not, why not get the police involved.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And not to feel too bad for her little brother
or I guess maybe it was a big brother. He
spent four million dollars on that kid's eighteenth birthday. I
believe case a praisa, So they have they dropped ten
million bucks on a couple of parties for their kids.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Man, and those the girls in Mexico City are happy
to be part of the city wide annual one.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I wonder what Pitbull got paid for that? A mill Maybe?
I bet Nick Jonas got more than Pipple, did you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And of course she had her pictures with both of them, and.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Well I'm sure that was part of it. It's like
uh yeah, man, all right, well that is something. What's
her name? Maya? Yeah? Wait, Henry, Oh, I got to
look that up. If you want to know more about
Kinsgieta as well, just show up to one uninvited. Yeah,
see how that goes. You know what, you'd probably be
(36:29):
welcomed probably chuck probably, And since I said probably a
couple of times, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Hey guys, A long time listener, A card carrying member
of the Stuff you should know Army. I've always want
to write in but just hadn't found the right topic
until the It Stranger Things script retooling debate those during emojis.
Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and it
is my absolute favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Also
a huge Stranger Things fan. Though I have no media experience,
(36:59):
I do have an MBA and know a thing or
two about marketing. But it's worth I sided with Josh,
with the studio definitely retooling the script to create synergies
between It and Stranger Things. Aside from casting the Stranger
Things kid, which to me is a smoking gun, they
changed the setting in the film to take place in
the eighties.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Like Stranger Things.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
The novel the story follows the main characters is in
the fifties, and then again as adults in the eighties.
There are elements of the story that didn't translate as
well into the eighties in my opinion, but it was
a small price to pay in order to captivate that
Stranger Things audience. Just one guy's opinion, but I'd like
to say one guy's informed opinion.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Sorry, Chuck, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
As a movie crush or as a movie buff, I
always catch movie crush. Keep it up, Mike Sanders and Mike.
I did a very simple Google search and found that
Stranger Things was released in July twenty sixteen, and principal
photography of it began about a week before that. Okay,
(37:59):
so that's therefore rendering that impossible.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Here's the thing. Movies have been known to change horses
mid stream, right. I don't think that that settles it
if you ask me, so.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You think they shot a bunch of the movie in
the nineteen fifties and said, wait a minute, this TV
show we're here doing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
No, no, no, no, no, no, let's go make it the eighties.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
No.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I don't think let's recast this kid that we've already cast.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I think I think that they're I think that they
did retool I do. I don't think. Yeah, I don't
think they did. They. I don't think they were shooting
in the fifties. I think they were probably shooting in
the eighties. I think they really. My whole point has
been that they played up the same things that Stranger
Things was known for and that you wouldn't find in
(38:47):
in the book it that, and that they plumped up
that stuff because of Stranger Things. That's my assertion.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
So as they are shooting the film it they're doing rewrites.
The rewrites, yes, because they're like, man, we gotta walk
into this TV show.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yes. And you can also do that in the editing
booth as you know as well, which would have happened
long after Stranger Things was already a smash cultural phenomenon.
All right. That's I don't think it's settled, man, Okay,
And it never will be all right until the editor
tells me himself or herself that I'm just dead wrong. Okay.
(39:25):
If you want to settle a bet, you can send
us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com
and is always joined us at our home on the web.
Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi folks, Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend.
I hope you're with your friends, your family, your loved one.
If you don't like anybody at all, hope you're by
yourself and you're having a good time. I just hope
you're well in general. This episode is from May fifteenth,
twenty eighteen, and it's called What's a Kintanira? Anyway, I
(00:22):
didn't know until we did this episode, so listen and
find out.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
If you don't know, Welcome to stuff you should know.
A production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and
there's Charles w. Ch'bryant. There's Jerry, and this is a
very special day for us.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's a very special day for Jerry because she's celebrating
her her very special day because today Jerry turns sweet fifteen.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Right, well, technically it's her chiple Kintigne.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Jerry started producing the show when she was five. Oh yeah,
he was wonderin.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
She's a child prodigy three, A lot of temper tantrums. Yeah,
but we got through that time, we did the Terrible fives.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And now she's just a pretty little lady in her pink, lacy,
satiny dress.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, that dress is a lot, even for a King
Signora dress. Jerry agreed. I can I go ahead and
say I don't do the R role very well, So
I'm just gonna say Keen Sognia okay instead of Kingsanna.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that wasn't very good either, right. I used to
do a good R role because of German, but I
feel like I've lost it a bit.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And I guess it's actually an n roll King Signetta.
It's those good right, yeah, but if I try to
keep it up, it's it's I think it's gonna fatigue
everybody pretty quick. So Keen Sannira.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Well, and the last thing we want to be here
to jackass white dudes. Well, that's how we do it,
laying it on too thick, too forty something white dudes
are about to talk about. Keintignertis like, we know what
we're talking about. Well, we did the research, and I
think it's uh. I think it's good to cover stuff
like this.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I did too. I had very little understanding about this,
just from what I've seen on like MTV or whatever,
you know, did they have a show they have one
called like my sweet sixteen or whatever that I might
be conflating with. But I swear I've seen Keinton like
I knew some of this stuff somewhere. I don't know where, though,
(02:30):
somewhere just in the just being plugged into culture, I
knew it, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, I lived in Los Angeles, as you know, and
they have obviously quite a Latin population, and I looked
up Hispanic and Latino.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I wanted to get it all right, good, good, let's
hear what you got.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, it says that they can generally be used interchangeably
these days. But I think Latino can like I think
Hispanic refers to whether or not you actually have Spanish
speaking roots.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
But Latino can be like Brazil and places in South
America as well, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I heard once that Ronald Reagan was the person who
coined the term Hispanic, or at least popularized it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Really Yeah, well it was that tattoo across his upper
back Hispanic for life.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
For life, yep, with the number four.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
But at any rate, you know, lived in LA and
there's you know, a large Mexican population, So I would
see kingtonettas going on all the time. When you're just
driving around on a weekend. I would see stuff and
I was like, wait a minute, it's not prom it's summer,
Like what's going on.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It's like Prom times ten.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
And then some somebody hit me in the head and
they're like, you dummy, dumb white guy from the South.
It's a king signettas right, And so I was like, well,
you know what, one day, I'm gonna do a podcast
about that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
They said, what is a podcast to make up for
all this? You said, just watch that's right. So one
thing I saw was with Latin, you know, like with
Latino or Latina, there's that ingrained masculine. But something I
saw pop up in a couple of sites is they
would replace the O or the A with an X
(04:14):
just to make it the word gender neutral, like Latin X.
Oh yeah, I don't know how you pronounced it. I
didn't get that far, but I saw it imprinting a
couple of different sites, so where they were trying to
remove the gender from you know, Latino or Latina and
just make it gen gender neutral. Because there's there's a
(04:34):
I haven't seen it, but there's an HBO documentary about
KINGTONIERZ and one of them is for a trans girl. Okay,
would it be pronounced LATINX? Maybe? I mean I have
to see it written down. How is the X in
like wahaka? Isn't it like hot? Whaha? So maybe Latin woa?
(04:56):
I have no idea. That's where I'm going with here
we go.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I didn't want to be too dumb dumbs and we're
so far down dumb dumb lane.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's not even funny. No, so let's try to get
this back on the rail, shall we. I think what
we just did was great because we explored some questions
we had. But now we can talk about everything we
know about kingsing gartis.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Right, which is we've been dancing around this thing. This
is the fifteenth birthday celebration for young ladies young women
in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States
kind of all.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Over the world. This can take place. Yeah, and it
seems to be so it's a it's actually a very
traditional thing to where Catholic, like the catholicness of the
girl and her even pre Catholic origins fine together with
(06:02):
what I guess you would call like is a universal
coming of age celebration that also focuses on the individuality
and tastes of the girl. You put all those things together,
you have a King Signeta, which is a fifteenth birthday party,
which is a coming out party for a girl as
(06:24):
she transitions from girlhood into womanhood. It happens on this
day and they throw a huge celebration, and there's a
lot of really cool traditions that you're going to find
at like every King Singetta that have some a neat
origin story to them or a neat symbolism to them.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And also some great music, some delicious food, and family
coming together for an important day.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
It's really great. Not just family, the whole community is
meant to, you know, like extended family, people in the
community that have had an impact on the girl's life,
like a teacher, people been for the expense of this.
It's like a real communal thing. Should we go back
in time? Okay, let's or did you want to go
to the future? No, No, we'll go back in time
(07:11):
all right.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
So the origins of this they date back all the
way to the Aztec Indians. Obviously in the fourteen hundreds
and fifteen hundreds they were performing these festivals because girls
back then were marriage ready at the age of fifteen.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That's kind of what it symbolized, right, And like it
wasn't just the Aztecs, like around the world and cultures
around the world, like you would find some sort of
coming of age or rights of passage into womanhood. And yeah,
when you came out the other end, it was like
you were on the market then from that point on,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And they had ceremonies, they had speeches talking about how
important it is to become a wise, upstanding member of
society as a young woman. Then the Spanish come along.
Of course, they invade what we now call Mexico over
through the Aztecs, and that brought in a European influence
to this whole experience. And this is where things got
(08:10):
a little more, a little more like debutante.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, it's actually I looked into this a little further, Chuck.
And they can't say for certain where keinsignetaz came from,
but they think the Aztecs. But their source comes from
a single nun working in Mexico who wrote an account
that had been given to a priest forty years earlier. Wow,
(08:36):
from another priest who had supposedly in the fifteen twenties
interviewed some Aztec high priests about their culture. So that's
where the whole idea that there was a rite of
passage at age fifteen comes from kind of shaky. And
then other people say, well, no, this is obviously a
Spanish colonial influence, like being presented at court. But the
(08:58):
idea that it's a rite of passage in womanhood is
so universal that it probably is a combination of the
two of them. No one can just say for certain though,
what the origin is specifically.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, and apparently until the nineteen sixties it was really
kind of an upper class thing. But then in the
nineteen sixties, as Latinos immigrated to the United States and
they became more part of American fabric, they really kind
of really kind of spread throughout the US and Latin
(09:30):
America as becoming across all socioeconomic classes. And we'll get
to this a little more later. But wonderfully, like you said,
in poorer communities, you see entire communities chipping in some
money many times, or the godmothers and godfathers of padernos
and madarinas like that.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, that's good to help pay for this stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I saw this photographer did a really great photos series
of Quintinetas celebrations in poor neighborhoods in Mexico and photograph
these really beautiful photographs of these these young women in
their dresses sort of in the middle of a very
depressed neighborhood and just showing how important it was that
(10:15):
they still had this celebration.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Even though they it was a burden financially on their families. Right. Yeah,
I think Mexico City got together in two thousand and
seven and some of the businesses, some of the some
nonprofit groups held like a big mass kinsingerra and now
they do it every year for girls who wouldn't otherwise
(10:39):
be able to have one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I also read a New York Times article where there's
a lot of bias, like when it comes to things
like this and bar and bought Mitzvah's and debutante balls,
where it's very easy for someone to say, like, you know,
if you're poor living in Mexico City, why are you
wasting And that's an air quo quotes your money on
(11:01):
this celebration when your family doesn't have much money, and
they say, you know, you never hear this kind of
criticism for bar mitzvahs and bot mitzvahs or debutantes, regardless
of socioeconomic status. So it's just a very important, important
part of their culture that should be shouldn't be looked
(11:21):
down upon just because they may not have the kind
of money to throw a big one, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm sure. One of the things, though,
you just kind of hit on the head is that
it's a it's a it's a part of latinix culture,
which is one reason why it's become so big in America.
It's a way of people of Latino heritage to say,
you know, this is my heritage too, and this is
(11:50):
how I'm going to come of age in America. But
because it's also in America and these are American born
girls of Latina heritage, they they have come over time
to kind of meld together with what Americans look at
and say, that's just one enormous sweet sixteen party, right,
But there's there's some details in there that you'll find
(12:12):
out at Kinsonnira that you won't at a sweet sixteen party,
and we'll talk about those right after this. Well done,
(12:42):
all right, Charles, So we are going to start the day.
It's a frantic day, It's a hectic day. From everything
I understand from what I've read, this is a and
actually like a cool day for a girl, but also
very stressful. All right.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's like a it's like a wedding or a prom
or anything where there's a lot of pressure on this one,
you know, six hour experience.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
But think about this. With a wedding, you've got your
s O to plan the wedding with. With prom, you've
got a handful of other girls to plan. You know
what you're doing with prom, and plus proms already being
planned for you by your school or whatever. This is
like your day, and part of your responsibility is the
King Signeta, which by the way, King Signeta literally translates
(13:31):
to the girl who is fifteen. Yeah, so this is
technically your Fiesta de kin Signetta or something like that. Right.
Part of your responsibility as King Signetta is to show
that you can take part in this planning. On the
one hand, it's to allow it to reflect your personality
and your taste, so you're the one who needs to
choose all this stuff. But it also shows that you
(13:53):
can be a grown up too, and undertake months of
planning leading up to this thing and basically pull it off. Correct,
you are right, Okay, So the whole thing starts with
a trip to church, which is not right, which is
not what you're going to find a normal American like
say sweet sixteen party.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
No, And it depends on the church where you're going
to have and you know, sometimes the celebration also occurs
at the church. Sometimes that occurs at a different spot,
kind of like a wedding, you know, sometimes you'll have
the reception somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Right, that's not how it started, which we'll talk about
that in a minute, but go ahead.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But it depends on the church where you're a member
or where you're having this initial ceremony. But the girl
before this all happens for weeks ahead of time, may
actually be required to attend classes in advance of this,
so they're prepared.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
They know what to expect, right they well, yeah, that's
about it, as far as the weeks ahead part, well
as far as the church and all the planning, yeah,
of course. Right. So on the day they arrive at
the church, and you were saying, like, you know, now
it's kind of evolved to where you have like like
a wedding, you have the ceremony of the church and
(15:05):
then the event elsewhere, well you can, right, and that's
becoming more and more the way. But one of the
reasons that is becoming the way is because in nineteen
ninety in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued like
a set of guidelines that basically put the kibosh on
this idea of the kingsonira as a big lavish affair,
(15:28):
and it really dampened this burgeoning I guess industry or
tradition or whatever. It put a damper on it for
a little while because families didn't want to go against
the Church, so they kind of toned down the kings andiras.
But the reason the Church was doing this is because
there were too many kingsoniras, not enough Spanish speaking priests.
(15:50):
And then also the Catholic Church has always had an
awkward position in this tradition. It's not a Catholic tradition.
It's a cultural tradition by a group of people who
are predominantly Catholic and involve the Church as part of
this tradition. But this tradition, if anything, is a syncretized tradition,
(16:11):
remember when we were in Guatemala. The melding of Catholic
beliefs and pagan pre colonial beliefs indigenous beliefs is syncretism.
This is an example of that. There's like as tech
rituals supposedly mixed with this. The whole thing starts at
a Catholic church with a mass, so the church has
(16:34):
kind of had alternately hands on and hands off view
of this whole thing, and in nineteen ninety the almost
put a complete damper on it. But since then it's
just kind of said, Okay, we'll just start off at
the church and we'll have the party afterward elsewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And I've also seen that a lot of churches now
are straying away from me is because they feel like
there's just a lot of disrespectful behavior, like you know,
people partying on the pews and taking pictures with their
phone and texting, and.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Like they kind of forget that they're in a church, right,
which I mean if you step back and think about it,
having a girl's fifteen year birthday party in an actual church, Yeah,
that's a terrible idea to begin with, probably about yes,
so it makes sense to do this kind of solemn
ceremony at the church and then party elsewhere, which I
(17:27):
think is pretty much par for the course these days.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
All right, so before the mass takes place, this young
woman has and Kristen Conger, remember Kristen.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Of course, what's the name of their podcast, Unladylike, unlady Like?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
That's right, yeah, Kristen Caroline formerly of stuff Mom never
told you Now with Unladylike, she wrote this article and
she said that custom calls for fourteen damas or maiden attendance,
to represent the fourteen years of her life up into
that point. I saw elsewhere seven. That's what I saw too,
to be paired with seven young men. You want to
(18:06):
pronounce that shambalons.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, that's how I took it, shambalans, but chambalon.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I read in another place. I was like, well, wait
a minute, which is it? And it apparently can be
seven to fifteen. So yeah, depending on I guess how
many really close friends you have, kind of like picking
out your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, and I saw plenty of videos of kinsigners where
like there were three girls, there's a four. Yeah, but
I think under strict tradition of the King Signetta. You
would have fourteen girls and fifteen dudes. You got fourteen damas,
fifteen Chambalains and then one I got it, and then
(18:49):
one Chambalaine day on air, which I totally missed up.
But it's it's basically the escort of honor. Who is
the King Signetta's date? That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And again I'm sure that there's some leeway. The Kingsiannetta
cops aren't gonna come by because you don't have enough
friends helping you. They have larger fish to fry on
Kingsannetta Day.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Right, although the whoever is helping you plan this, it
would probably love it if you had fourteen guys and
fourteen girls because they all have to be outfitted. Oh yeah,
in exactly what you want them to wear, because it's
your party. That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And I don't think we mentioned, but the dress is
a very big part of the celebration. Traditionally it's either
pink or white, very satane. I mean it looks kind
of like a prom dress, a big frilly, floor length gown.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
But that also is eight feet wide, yeah, exactly at
the waist like out it's extraordinary. It's like a princess dress. Yeah,
like I want to Kenzannira, Well we can throw you on, buddy, Okay,
don't do that. Sure you don't get all pretty for
the camera. I definitely would find a nice stress, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So the first stop, though, like you said, is the church,
and this is where a lot of the ceremony takes place.
They receive a blessing from a priest, the young woman
commits herself to her, protecting her virginity and her spiritual devotion,
and then they leave a bouquet of flowers near the
(20:24):
Virgin Mary statue. And then traditionally they would give away
a porcelain doll, one of their childhood dolls, or again,
tradition varies. These days, it might be a step teddy
bear or something else that just meant something to the girl.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
One thing I saw was a ki Signetta barbie.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh yeah, all right, Well they'll pass that along to
a younger sister or another relative, another female relative, to
basically say again symbolic of I'm entering young adulthood and
I'm passing on this silly barbie to you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
What's the name of that the ultima Muneka? Oh, I
don't know. I didn't see that ultima muneka. It means
the last doll, and it shows that she's leaving girlhood behind.
And you can guess which which one of those, the
ceramic doll or the old toy or the brand new
barbie the younger female relative wants these days. Sure, yeah, yeah,
(21:22):
So so that may or may not happen at the church.
The thing that seems to be what definitely happens at
the church is the girl is presented with a rosary,
a prayer book or a Bible and leaves flowers at
the altar and or the statue of the Virgin Mary,
and then receives a blessing. Right, so let's say that
(21:42):
all that happened at the church and the girl has
been blessed. Sometimes it's part of a regular mass, like
she may stand up and come up to the altar
and get a special blessing. If her parents are pulling
all the right strings, maybe she can get her own
mass for it. But she may also be sharing that
mask with other quin sigietas. There's a bunch of different
(22:02):
ways to do it. But once the mass is done,
once she said like I am committing myself to the
Catholic Church and I'm a very spiritual girl, and thanks
for the blessing. I'm out e five thousand. She's heading
off to the party. That's right. Get that just like
a good wedding.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Get that part over with quickly so you can get
your party on right.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So whilst she's getting into the limo, we'll take another break. Okay,
all right, look at her trying to stuff that dressing.
Then okay, chuck. So she has gotten in the limo,
(22:58):
she's driven off, and now they're going to the venue,
which is basically anywhere that you would also hold like
a wedding reception, you could hold a King Signira party.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean it could be. It really depends on
the budget of the family involved. They could rent out
a large hall, or they could it could be in
the backyard of their own home or at a friend's house.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah. And again this is not just on the parents shoulders.
It's very customary and very traditional for the girl to
approach family members. Yeah, members of the business community, just
anybody she can think of to say, hey, costs are
really adding up and can you, you know, chip in
(23:41):
a little bit. And like the King Signira will be
sponsored by multiple people besides just her parents. Yeah, and
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I also read in that article on that really great
photo spread the guy did he interviewed the family members
and one of the families he said how long have
you you know, they didn't have much money, and he said,
how long have you been saving for this?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And they said for fifteen years? Oh.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Man, Like they started socking away money every year because
they knew this was coming. That it is so great
and it was important. It was very sweet story.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah. I think the aspect that, you know, the community
chips in and also comes to like witness this girl's
transition to adulthood. I just really appreciate that. I think
it's really cool that that's part of it, you know,
it makes it rather than it's just the parents are
footing the bill for everything. I just think that's cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Well, and it's a culture where family and community is
such a important revered thing and it's something I'm envious of,
you know.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, for sure. So when the girl gets there, the
first thing that's going to happen is the music's going
to be starting, and her court's going to come in
and get introduced. Those are the Damas and the Shamblains.
Why is that not sounding right because it sounds French, right, Okay,
(25:00):
So that's but am I am I pronouncing it French?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know that's what I'm saying it. It's I'm
not sure. I don't know the origins of that word.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Okay. So those two her court, they're going to come
in one by one and get announced virtually, just like
a wedding when the bride and grooms show up. The
grooms maids, no, the bride grooms maids, the grooms men's
and the bride'smaids. Yes, come on, man, hanging in there.
(25:29):
They get introduced, you know, one by one as they're
coming in, and then finally the shambala and the honorary
escort is introduced. And then you finally have the Kinti
era come in and the music changes and she's like
you like raising the roof, you know, and the parties
just everyone erupts into just craziness from that moment on.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah, and again, it could be a DJ. It could
be a mariachi band, It could be a rock band.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It could be a DJ playing Mary.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It could be it could be like with my wedding,
I had an iPod loaded up with my mix and
just hit play nice.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
So this is probably a DJ with a light system
and a dance floor. All the videos I saw are
very much like that. Yeah, So the court's been introduced,
and then one of the first things that happens is
the girl is presented with a crown tiara. She's presented
(26:31):
with a scepter, so for the killing, right for the bashing, Yeah,
that comes later, and then right the ritual, the ritual
killing of the chipmunk. And she's seated, probably on a
throne of some sort or a central chair, maybe one
of those like Wicker remember the Wicker like seventies chair. Yeah,
(26:51):
like flared out and up. It looked kind of like, yeah,
maybe she's sitting on one of those. But she's she's
basically the center of attention right then, and something kind
of cool happens. The shoe shoe was wearing that she
came in with flat soled sandals or slippers or something
like that. Her dad comes over and takes those off,
(27:12):
and then he puts on high heels and snaps his fingers,
twirls and goes she's a woman.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yes, And I bet you anything, this young lady has
practiced walking in those before, right, I don't think she
would want her first experience in high heels to be
in that dress on the big day. This is just
logical chuck talking.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Although it would be fun to watch, No, come on,
you don't think it would be.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
No one wants to see what do they? Kristen said,
they call her Keen's Girls. Sometimes, Yeah, some one wants
to see a Keen skirl fall over.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
That's true except you. But you got laughed at while
you did the backstroke, so I get it. Yeah, mocked.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
They may also get gifts, but not always a lot
of times there are symbolic gifts. A lot of times
other people will bring gifts, but from the parents. The
festival and ceremony itself is the gift. But sometimes if
the parents have some dough and a big budget, they
may get what's called regalo soorpressa, which is a surprise
(28:19):
gift on top of everything else. And this of course
is including like you mentioned, the prayer book and the
Rosary and the Bible and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Right, and those were probably given to her at the
church before. I'm thinking that, depending on the position of
her parents socioeconomically, the girls probably getting other presents too. Yeah,
but yes, supposedly just the kin Senira party is like
this is plenty, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, But I think the gifts too also are always
represent that transition into adulthood. So she's not getting the
dolls anymore. She gets maybe some jewelry or ear rings
and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Right, and deliver her into womanhood. And then guests are
also giving gifts as well, and your party favors the
way that the whole thing's set up, even though the
community like might have people that chip in or family
members or whatever. The parents are saying like come help
celebrate our daughter's transition into womanhood. Right, So the party
(29:24):
is men is like a gift for the guests, right,
and so the thing is kind of meant to be
like come and get your eat on and your drink
on and just have a lot of fun. The thing
is part of that welcomeness and that inclusiveness and that
you know, please come and be a part of this.
(29:45):
That backfired really hard for this one couple. Have you
heard about Ruby Obara Garcia? No? Oh my, so Ruby
Abara Garcia turned fifteen on December twenty sixth, nineteen year
twoenty sixteen. Okay, okay, just like a year or so ago,
and she is from La Joya, which is in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico,
(30:10):
and it's a little tiny town two hundred, and her
parents decided to get with the times and make like
a YouTube invitation, a video invitation to come to Ruby's Kinsenera.
But they posted on on YouTube and they didn't put
any privacy settings on and it went viral and twenty
thousand people from around the world showed up to Ruby's
(30:34):
Kinsigneta party in this little town of two hundred. That's
kind of great, though, right, it was great on the
one hand, but if you look at the photos from it,
she was very much overwhelming the entire time. Was not
expecting it. Apparently, like like on Facebook, like over a
million people said they were coming, but even still twenty thousand,
and if you look, there's like all these stands set up,
(30:56):
and like people from all over the country and the
world shipped in to like fee everybody and make sure
everybody had teas or whatever. So the parents said, okay,
we're we're doing this, and they they did it. They
they stepped up and met there there there, or they
kept their welcome to everybody. I guess there is a
way to put it. That's kind of great.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But I can definitely see on the day that the
girl might have been overwhelmed. But I bet she also
in retrospect, is like, hey, I've got one cool story
for my life now.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Oh yeah, she's got a big old story and she
got a Chevy Vault.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Oh serious, Yeah, I couldn't tell. I literally couldn't tell
if you were just being joky, Josh.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
There, No, that was I didn't even need to be
that time. So Chevy got involved, of course. I think
her parents gave her that. Oh I figured Chevy was like, hey, no,
I think that was I think that was her regalo,
her surprise gift. Yes. Wow. And speaking of so praises,
the uh that was uman Spanish name, by the way,
(31:56):
But speaking of so Praises, there's also Chuck. Go on
to YouTube and type in bay A s Praisa b
A I l E sor Praiser and just start watching
these videos because the bay A sor Praisa is one
of the hallmarks of the Kings and Era party and
they are about as adorable and embarrassing as you can imagine.
(32:21):
What does that mean though? What is it? Oh? It's
a surprise dance. So it's like for months ahead of time,
the King Signia and her court will practice a dance
that they make up or that they hire like a choreographer,
and they will like perform this dance for the guests.
It's a surprise dance. It's like part of the Kingsenira
(32:43):
and they're they're very cute to watch, especially they do,
but they also are really they're very earnest about it too,
like they like they practice this dance and they they're
doing it and it's it's very cute. You can also
hire am Balayne's professional ones. They're all like dancers by trade,
(33:05):
so they'll like really knock your socks off of your guests.
But it's, you know, it's lacking that heart of something
you and your friends came up with yourself.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Or you could if you had a lot of dough,
you could hire a choreographer like Paula Abdul or something.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah. Yeah, like her, she's.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Still choreographing, right, yeah, choreographing, choreographing.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Something bad wrong with us today? I know, man, you
got anything else I do? This is a little suppressive
for you.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
My friend there was a father in Texas a couple
of years ago that spent six million dollars on his
fifteen year old daughter. Oh my, he uh, what's his
name here? He's an attorney named Thomas J. Henry of
San Antonio. They're very kind of well known family. His
daughter Maya is big on Instagram and social media, and
(33:56):
she's big into activism. So she's like, you know, she's
not just your ordinary teen.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Although that is kind of ordinary these days, thankfully.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
To be a well known teen activist, well to be active, sure.
But at her Kintanetta, she had Nick Jonas perform, Pitbull performed.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Sure. Let me see what else here?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
A fifty five thousand square foot space.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
That they built.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I don't think they built it from scratch, but it
does say that it was built purpose built venue.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
How many guests? Six hundred guests?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Man a thirty foot tall cherry trees, a thirty foot
tall cherry cheese in full blossom, walls of roses, a
garden room, the ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling.
She wore a Rolando Santana dress, which means nothing to
me either, but I assume that means it's something. She
(34:56):
had her makeup done by Patrick Ta who does the Kardashians.
Her photographer was Michelle Obamas photographer, and Thomas Henry and
his wife whose name is Azteca, beautiful name. They hired
a New York social event planner named David Monne. He
had one hundred and fifty person team to plan out
(35:18):
this party and finally they arrived by police escort in
nine rolls Royces.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Well, because why not, why not get the police involved.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And not to feel too bad for her little brother
or I guess maybe it was a big brother. He
spent four million dollars on that kid's eighteenth birthday. I
believe case a praisa, So they have they dropped ten
million bucks on a couple of parties for their kids.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Man, and those the girls in Mexico City are happy
to be part of the city wide annual one.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
I wonder what Pitbull got paid for that? A mill Maybe?
I bet Nick Jonas got more than Pipple, did you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And of course she had her pictures with both of them, and.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Well I'm sure that was part of it. It's like
uh yeah, man, all right, well that is something. What's
her name? Maya? Yeah? Wait, Henry, Oh, I got to
look that up. If you want to know more about
Kinsgieta as well, just show up to one uninvited. Yeah,
see how that goes. You know what, you'd probably be
(36:29):
welcomed probably chuck probably, And since I said probably a
couple of times, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Hey guys, A long time listener, A card carrying member
of the Stuff you should know Army. I've always want
to write in but just hadn't found the right topic
until the It Stranger Things script retooling debate those during emojis.
Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and it
is my absolute favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Also
a huge Stranger Things fan. Though I have no media experience,
(36:59):
I do have an MBA and know a thing or
two about marketing. But it's worth I sided with Josh,
with the studio definitely retooling the script to create synergies
between It and Stranger Things. Aside from casting the Stranger
Things kid, which to me is a smoking gun, they
changed the setting in the film to take place in
the eighties.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Like Stranger Things.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
The novel the story follows the main characters is in
the fifties, and then again as adults in the eighties.
There are elements of the story that didn't translate as
well into the eighties in my opinion, but it was
a small price to pay in order to captivate that
Stranger Things audience. Just one guy's opinion, but I'd like
to say one guy's informed opinion.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Sorry, Chuck, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
As a movie crush or as a movie buff, I
always catch movie crush. Keep it up, Mike Sanders and Mike.
I did a very simple Google search and found that
Stranger Things was released in July twenty sixteen, and principal
photography of it began about a week before that. Okay,
(37:59):
so that's therefore rendering that impossible.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Here's the thing. Movies have been known to change horses
mid stream, right. I don't think that that settles it
if you ask me, so.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
You think they shot a bunch of the movie in
the nineteen fifties and said, wait a minute, this TV
show we're here doing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
No, no, no, no, no, no, let's go make it the eighties.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
No.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I don't think let's recast this kid that we've already cast.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I think I think that they're I think that they
did retool I do. I don't think. Yeah, I don't
think they did. They. I don't think they were shooting
in the fifties. I think they were probably shooting in
the eighties. I think they really. My whole point has
been that they played up the same things that Stranger
Things was known for and that you wouldn't find in
(38:47):
in the book it that, and that they plumped up
that stuff because of Stranger Things. That's my assertion.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
So as they are shooting the film it they're doing rewrites.
The rewrites, yes, because they're like, man, we gotta walk
into this TV show.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yes. And you can also do that in the editing
booth as you know as well, which would have happened
long after Stranger Things was already a smash cultural phenomenon.
All right. That's I don't think it's settled, man, Okay,
And it never will be all right until the editor
tells me himself or herself that I'm just dead wrong. Okay.
(39:25):
If you want to settle a bet, you can send
us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com
and is always joined us at our home on the web.
Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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