ABSTRACT
I was thirteen years old and much too short to be dancing with a fifteen-yearold, but the occasion was her debut, she was fifteen (Tenia quince afios), and it was her quinceafiera party. This was the midforties, in Mercedes in the Rio Grande Valley, where quinceafiera parties were not to be missed. I was a chambelan (attendant), and my date and I were one of the fourteen couples in the quinceafiera's court of honor. The quinceafiera and her escort made the fifteenth pair-one couple for every year.
