Cincuentañeras, or 50th birthday parties, are the new trend for Latinas

My mom, who lives in Mexico, recently told me about the 50th birthday party that her cleaning lady, Dioni, organized for herself in June.

Dioni rented a party venue where she celebrated with about 100 friends and family. She also held a quinceañera-style Mass in a Catholic church, hired photographers, and wore a beautiful floor-length pink gown.

Indeed, it was like a quinceañera celebration, the traditional coming-of-age lavish party for young girls when they turn 15 that is celebrated all over Latin America. Dioni didn’t have a quinceañera because her family didn’t have money; in fact, she started working when she was 9. But she had always wanted the party. So she saved for a year to throw herself a cincuentañera, or a fiesta de 50 años.

It struck me as an empowering moment, particularly for a Mexican woman who grew up poor in a culture with deeply rooted beauty standards, social pressures, and negative stereotypes about femininity and aging. Little did I know that the cincuentañera has become an emerging trend, at least here in the United States. It’s a new tradition that’s allowing Latinas to redefine aging while partying in a culturally significant way.

The cincuentañera “is a chance for women to celebrate a second coming-of-age, this time as the grown adults that they could only dream of being when they were 15,” Valerie Trapp wrote this week in The Atlantic in an article titled “ The Quinceañera’s Midlife Remix” about the new tradition, which of course is being properly documented on social media. (Just look up #cincuentañera on TikTok.)

According to Trapp, many women are choosing to incorporate elements of the quinceañera in their cincuentañera, such as ball gowns and father-daughter waltzes, while adapting others to suit their preferences. Trapp also highlights the lack of meaningful celebrations in the latter half of life, despite increased life expectancy and changing lifestyles for women.

Unlike other adult celebrations that focus on marriage or child-rearing, the cincuentañera celebrates a woman’s individual achievements. “This wasn’t coming of age, because I’m entering adulthood,” a woman who had a cincuentañera party told Trapp. “This was coming into a phase of my life where I’m finally living for myself.” That’s exactly what Dioni did.

I can relate to this because I am four months away from turning 50 and have been thinking about how to celebrate. When I was younger, I would feel extremely self-conscious about telling people my age. Given the Hispanic cultural focus on beauty and youth, I felt more confident keeping an air of mystery about my age.

I realize now that’s ridiculous. Now I couldn’t care less about telling people how old I am. And I want to go big celebrating 50.

For my 15th birthday, growing up in Mexico, I didn’t want a quinceañera party — instead, I asked to go to the Super Bowl that year, something I knew my family couldn’t afford. (I was really into football when I was a teenager, but that’s a topic for another newsletter.) I also wanted a motorcycle, which is so unlike 49-year-old me — motorcycles terrify me now.

Alas, I didn’t get either of those presents and no quinceañera. Maybe I’ll throw myself a cincuentañera, maybe I won’t. But as I approach such a milestone, I’m inspired by people like Dioni who clearly have mastered the art of aging and finding beauty and joy in growing old.

This is an excerpt from ¡Mira!a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Marcela García. Sign up to get ¡Mira! in your inbox every week.

Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on @marcela_elisa and on Instagram @marcela_elisa.