{"id":173,"date":"2015-03-12T20:28:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T00:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/?p=173"},"modified":"2015-03-12T20:28:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T00:28:17","slug":"fifteen-candles-by-alisha-rivera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/2015\/03\/12\/fifteen-candles-by-alisha-rivera\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifteen Candles by Alisha Rivera"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our group discussions on Wednesday, a lot of us discussed that Maureen Schwarz\u2019s article \u201cThe Marketing of Euro-American Desires\u201d opened our eyes. I hadn\u2019t realized how the ethnic Barbies, like the Native American Barbie, were packaged. In our discussion, Deja explained this best. She said that we weren\u2019t so much concerned with how <\/i>ethnic groups are being represented because we were just glad to see that there are other groups being represented. \u00a0Which makes sense. We become so excited to see ourselves represented, but it isn\u2019t until someone points it out that we realize something is wrong. One major issue Schwarz points out is the descriptions on the back of the Native American Barbie boxes. These descriptions only show up on ethnic Barbie boxes and they try, but fail, to teach kids about a certain type of even, tradition, or custom. She explains that most of the descriptions on the back of the boxes were representations of \u201cgeneric Indian identit[ies]\u201d and traditions (Schwarz 302).\"\"<\/p>\n

One that caught my eye was the 1994 Teresa Quincea\u00f1era doll. On the back of the box, it \u201cdescribes\u201d what a Quincea\u00f1era is:<\/p>\n

\u201cQuincea\u00f1era \u2018A Day to Remember Forever!\u2019 On her 15th birthday her family gives her a big party in the evening with many presents.\u00a0 The birthday girl chooses a beautiful pink gown, carries a bouquet and has attendants too.\u00a0 During the festivities, her father proudly presents her to all the guests.\u00a0 With a specular cake and lots of music and dancing, it’s a wonderful celebration that every girl looks forward to and never forgets.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The description of a Quincea\u00f1era devalues what is probably one of the most significant moments in the life of a young Latina. What is the difference, then, between a Quincea\u00f1era and a Sweet Sixteen? According to the box, there is no difference. But the Quincea\u00f1era is not only a birthday party; it’s also a religious observance.\"yhst-42845564182199_2267_175104032\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Quincea\u00f1era is a coming of age party where the birthday girl gets a male escort and a \u201ccourt\u201d of ladies and gentlemen. There are also two major parts: the church service and the actual party. The Quincea\u00f1era starts off with a church service in which the birthday girl receives a bible to help her walk as a young woman of God, a tiara because she is a \u201cprincess of God\u201d, and scepter as a symbol of her receiving her \u201cduties as a woman\u201d. With a quick word and a prayer, the church ceremony is over.<\/p>\n

At the party, the birthday girl goes through various other traditions. First, the father of the birthday girl will remove her low shoes and replace them with her \u201cfirst high heels\u201d as a young woman. Then they will have their first father\/daughter dance. Dolls are also very important. During the party, the birthday girl will give her younger sister or a close (young) female relative her \u201clast doll\u201d. It symbolizes her leaving her childhood behind.<\/p>\n

\"ac267dbe64151c72c0441e250fb49be6\"<\/a>Almost all of this is missing in, not only the description on Teresa\u2019s box, but also Teresa herself. She has almost none of these representations of a young girl turning into a young woman. M.G. Lord said that, \u201cToys have always said a lot about the culture that produce them\u201d (Lord 16). From the look of it, our culture isn\u2019t too concerned about getting things right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our group discussions on Wednesday, a lot of us discussed that Maureen Schwarz\u2019s article \u201cThe Marketing of Euro-American Desires\u201d opened our eyes. I hadn\u2019t realized how the ethnic Barbies, like the Native American Barbie, were packaged. In our discussion, Deja explained this best. She said that we weren\u2019t so much concerned with how ethnic …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,76,101,102,103],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1994-teresa-quinceanera-barbie","tag-barbie","tag-ethnic-barbie","tag-quinceanera","tag-teresa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}