美国国家公共电台 NPR Family Is The Life Of The Party In HBO Doc 'A Quincea?era Story'

 

LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:

When you hear the Spanish word quinceanera, you might think of poufy, pink dresses, big, boisterous¹ family parties and a traditional rite² of passage for 15-year-old Latina girls. A new HBO documentary series takes us inside the modern quinceanera. There are profiles of an East LA teen boxer³. OK, so she does wear a pink, poufy dress, albeit⁴ with boxing gloves. There's also a rodeo duo and a transgender coming-of-age story. One of the girls whose quince was featured in the HBO series, "15: A Quinceanera Story," joins us now from Fort Myers, Fla. She's Rosi Alvarez.

Welcome.

ROSI ALVAREZ: Hi.

FRAYER: Hi. And we also have the filmmaker and director Matthew O'Neill on the line from New York.

Welcome to you.

MATTHEW O'NEILL: Thanks for having us.

FRAYER: So Rosi, let me start with you. Planning the quince for you was a huge family project, and it involved a lot of sacrifice. Tell us about that.

ALVAREZ: Oh, I came from planning my quince since I was 11 years old, so we started early because we wanted everything to work out perfectly⁵. But the thing is, it was always the, where are we going to have the party? Are we going to be able to have a big party? Is it going to be a little party? Because renting a ballroom⁶ or, like, a party hall is, like, really expensive, and that was, like, our main concern.

FRAYER: Speaking of planning and the economic decisions, you helped your parents work and earned money to save for this.

ALVAREZ: Yes, I - my mom has a cleaning company, and she cleans for a lawyer here locally. And once she started working there, it just turned into, like, a really big place. Like, it was not easy for her to do by herself, so...

FRAYER: You pitch in after school or on weekends or...

ALVAREZ: We took Sundays and sometimes Fridays to clean up the office, which was probably the best days for us because after church, we'd just head towards the office and clean.

FRAYER: And that all went to your quince fund.

ALVAREZ: Yeah, it did.

FRAYER: Yeah. You have a very typical American story. What is your heritage? You have parents from different places - immigrants?

ALVAREZ: Yeah, I am bicultural. And my mom is guatemalteca - she's Guatemalan. And my dad is Cuban. My mom, she was able to cross the border at a very young age and still be someone who was top of her class, had a high GPA and was able to become a citizen. And my dad was a little bit more fortunate because he won the loteria, or a visa pass in Cuba to - and he was able to travel.

FRAYER: So you celebrated⁷ your quinceanera in Cuba, your dad's home country. Your party was pretty opulent. We think of Cuba as a communist and poor country. Was the fancy party out of the ordinary there?

ALVAREZ: For a lot of people, they were kind of surprised. It was, like, eye-opening for them. They were just, like, in shock. They were like, wow, this is huge, this is crazy. Because a lot of people, what they do is they close up the streets of their barrio, or their town, and they have, like, a street party. And when they saw that it was a fancy place and that it was closed and reserved, they were like, wow, this is a whole new thing. It's really cool.

FRAYER: Yeah. I want to turn to filmmaker Matt O'Neil. One of the girls that you feature in this film, her mother is a DREAMer who came to the U.S. illegally as a child. Her father had been deported⁸. Zoey, the transgender teen, sues her school district for discrimination. This film is really topical. Is this a lighthearted series about teenagers or is this about politics and at - this moment in America?

O'NEILL: When we set out to make these films, we set out to find the most dynamic, diverse group of young women who were celebrating their quinceaneras. And I think we found an incredible group of young women. What wound up happening over the course of our filming, and especially since the election last year, is these stories felt more and more politically relevant, not because we set out to make a political film, but because the reality of so many of these young women's lives are directly affected⁹ by this political moment.

So Ashley, the boxer in Los Angeles, yes, you know, her mother's a DREAMer, her dad's been deported, and her boxing coach is undergoing deportation¹⁰ procedures while he's training her for her debut¹¹ match. And I think you see that that's the context of her world. That's the way this young American woman is living. And so is it political? On some level, yes. But the political is personal, and I think a lot of the things that you hear debated right now in Washington - we have to remember the real-world effects that they have on young Americans' lives.

FRAYER: Rosi, the feeling I came away with after watching your story is, one, of your gratitude¹² to your parents. Here you are, a princess at the center of this huge party, and yet you seem just really grateful to your mom and dad. How did your quince serve to honor their story and the family effort at getting you there?

ALVAREZ: I think everything that I do and I try to do in my life is to thank them because they do so much for me on a daily. And I just want to show them how grateful I am because I truly am grateful. It's, like, a lot of sacrifices going to my quince. A lot of things had to get put on hold. And to be able to, like, have that quince and to be able to do all that - I just wanted to be as thankful as I could during the whole process. And I live for them, basically. Everything I do for them is, like, a hundred percent, kind of.

FRAYER: Matt, this topic was new to you. What did you learn about Latino culture?

O'NEILL: There's so many different facets¹³ of a quinceanera, from the baile sorpresa, the surprise dance, to the last doll, to the replacing of the heels - you know, the - giving the first gift of heels. And all those details I hadn't known about quinceaneras or this aspect of Latino culture. But I think the thing that became most clear is that at the core of these ceremonies is familial love, and that's what you see celebrated in each of the four films. And it's a universal aspect of human life. And Latino, Irish, every culture pours so much into their children, and that's what you see through these quinceaneras.

FRAYER: Rosi Alvarez is featured in the new HBO series "A Quinceanera Story" directed by filmmaker Matt O'Neil. Thanks to you both for sharing this project.

ALVAREZ: Thank you.

O'NEILL: Thanks for having us.

1 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

2 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

3 boxer   

n.制箱者，拳击手

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

4 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

7 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

8 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

11 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

12 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

13 facets   

n.（宝石或首饰的）小平面( facet的名词复数 )；（事物的）面；方面

参考例句：

• The question had many facets. 这个问题是多方面的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A fully cut brilliant diamond has 68 facets. 经过充分切刻的光彩夺目的钻石有68个小平面。 来自《简明英汉词典》