Birthday customs more customary
Cuba sees boom of girls returning for 15th-year ritual
Quinceanera business booming in Cuba
More teens are finding that returning to the island to mark the milestone is both appealing and economical.
HAVANA — Up a flight of stairs at a beachside Havana home, Camila Lopez Rivas stretches out on the tile floor, smiling mischievously into a video camera circling overhead.
Tossed around her are layers of a blue and aqua taffeta dress, the first of nine outfits the 14-year-old will pose in, from ball gowns to a neon green bikini.
Camila lives in Miami, the daughter of a truck driver who left Cuba when she was a baby. She doesn’t remember the island, but wanted to return for the photographs and videos that Latin American girls typically take for their 15th birthdays.
“I left very young,” Camila said. “But I’m from here.”
Voyages back to Cuba are becoming increasingly common for girls who find that marking the milestone on the island is both appealing and economical. Cuban reforms permitting smallscale, private businesses and the re-establishment of U.S.Cuban diplomatic relations have encouraged new photo and event planning businesses for events such as girls’ 15th birthdays.
The complicated networks connecting Cubans in Miami and Havana feed the growth: Camila learned about Marbella Studio, the business she hired, from another girl in Florida who had her photos taken there.
Marbella Studios in Guanabo, a 30-minute drive from Havana, is located in an Art Deco-style home and employs 12 photographers, stylists and videographers. There are more than 500 outfits to choose from in three dressing rooms and a calendar full of appointments with clients. Owner Sarah Medina Vigor said about 60 percent of the 500 or so girls her studio photographs each year travel here from other countries, with July and December the peak months.
Celebrations known as quinceaneras, marking a girl’s 15th birthday and recognizing her transition to womanhood, date back centuries in Latin America. Some vestiges of the older celebrations remain, with Latin American girls performing traditional waltzes. But in Cuba, photographs are the main focus.
Signs for new photo businesses that document 15th birthdays line the doorways of decrepit Havana buildings and advertisements abound on websites such as Revolico.com, an underground Cuban Craigslist. Many studios are run by former state sector professionals who purchased cameras with the help of U.S. relatives and have found taking pictures far more profitable than the average monthly government salary of $20.
Alberto Gonzalez, owner of Aladino photo studio, said he saw an equal number of clients from Cuba and abroad over the summer. “This year, more came than any other,” he said of the visitors.
Quinceanera packages at most studios start around $150 and include professional hair and makeup artists, scenic Havana backdrops and multiple wardrobe changes — a bargain compared to similar services in the U.S. that typically start at about $1,000.
While many CubanAmericans who left the island shortly after the 1959 revolution remain reluctant to visit, those who left for primarily economic reasons over the past decade rarely hesitate to return.