"Quinceanera", starring Emily Rios (Magdalena), Jesse Garcia (Carlos) and Chalo Conzalez (Uncle Tomas), is a feature film directed by Richard Glazter and Wash Westmoreland and released in 2006 getting awards at the Sundance Film Festival shortly afterwards.

The film tells a story of a fourteen-year-old Hispanic girl named Magdalena who is anticipating her fifteenth birthday, which is called "quinceanera" and celebrates the girl's passage into womanhood.

Presenting a new insight into the issue, the directors introduce this old tradition of the quinceanera in Mexican-American families with a twist, thereby arguing that the celebration is still relevant but has undergone some revisions in order to remain pertinent to the lives of contemporary Latinas. So let us consider the initial implications of this rite in Latina culture and the significance of the quinceanera in modern Mexican-American families depicted in the film.

If we get back to the film "Quinceanera" Magdalena, the fourteen-year-old girl faces lack of understanding and her family's rejection when they know that their daughter is pregnant, although she is making vain efforts to prove that she is innocent and pure.

In the contemporary society the quinceanera has undergone some revision if compared to the role it played earlier. The focus of young girls has shifted from marriage and motherhood to education and self-development. At the same time, commitment to religion and spiritual side of the ritual is less emphasized in the contemporary American-Mexican community.

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