Speaker 1: Hi folks, Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend.
Speaker 1: I hope you're with your friends, your family, your loved one.
Speaker 1: If you don't like anybody at all, hope you're by
Speaker 1: yourself and you're having a good time. I just hope
Speaker 1: you're well in general. This episode is from May fifteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and it's called What's a Kintanira? Anyway, I
Speaker 1: didn't know until we did this episode, so listen and
Speaker 1: find out.
Speaker 2: If you don't know, Welcome to stuff you should know.
Speaker 2: A production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and
Speaker 3: there's Charles w. Ch'bryant. There's Jerry, and this is a
Speaker 3: very special day for us.
Speaker 1: It's a very special day for Jerry because she's celebrating
Speaker 1: her her very special day because today Jerry turns sweet fifteen.
Speaker 3: Right, well, technically it's her chiple Kintigne.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Jerry started producing the show when she was five. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he was wonderin.
Speaker 3: She's a child prodigy three, A lot of temper tantrums. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but we got through that time, we did the Terrible fives.
Speaker 1: And now she's just a pretty little lady in her pink, lacy,
Speaker 1: satiny dress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that dress is a lot, even for a King
Speaker 3: Signora dress. Jerry agreed. I can I go ahead and
Speaker 3: say I don't do the R role very well, So
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna say Keen Sognia okay instead of Kingsanna.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that wasn't very good either, right. I used to
Speaker 1: do a good R role because of German, but I
Speaker 1: feel like I've lost it a bit.
Speaker 3: And I guess it's actually an n roll King Signetta.
Speaker 3: It's those good right, yeah, but if I try to
Speaker 3: keep it up, it's it's I think it's gonna fatigue
Speaker 3: everybody pretty quick. So Keen Sannira.
Speaker 1: Well, and the last thing we want to be here
Speaker 1: to jackass white dudes. Well, that's how we do it,
Speaker 1: laying it on too thick, too forty something white dudes
Speaker 1: are about to talk about. Keintignertis like, we know what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Well, we did the research, and I
Speaker 1: think it's uh. I think it's good to cover stuff
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 3: I did too. I had very little understanding about this,
Speaker 3: just from what I've seen on like MTV or whatever,
Speaker 3: you know, did they have a show they have one
Speaker 3: called like my sweet sixteen or whatever that I might
Speaker 3: be conflating with. But I swear I've seen Keinton like
Speaker 3: I knew some of this stuff somewhere. I don't know where, though,
Speaker 3: somewhere just in the just being plugged into culture, I
Speaker 3: knew it, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I lived in Los Angeles, as you know, and
Speaker 1: they have obviously quite a Latin population, and I looked
Speaker 1: up Hispanic and Latino.
Speaker 3: I wanted to get it all right, good, good, let's
Speaker 3: hear what you got.
Speaker 1: Well, it says that they can generally be used interchangeably
Speaker 1: these days. But I think Latino can like I think
Speaker 1: Hispanic refers to whether or not you actually have Spanish
Speaker 1: speaking roots.
Speaker 3: Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: But Latino can be like Brazil and places in South
Speaker 1: America as well, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3: I heard once that Ronald Reagan was the person who
Speaker 3: coined the term Hispanic, or at least popularized it.
Speaker 1: Really Yeah, well it was that tattoo across his upper
Speaker 1: back Hispanic for life.
Speaker 3: For life, yep, with the number four.
Speaker 1: But at any rate, you know, lived in LA and
Speaker 1: there's you know, a large Mexican population, So I would
Speaker 1: see kingtonettas going on all the time. When you're just
Speaker 1: driving around on a weekend. I would see stuff and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, it's not prom it's summer,
Speaker 1: Like what's going on.
Speaker 3: It's like Prom times ten.
Speaker 1: And then some somebody hit me in the head and
Speaker 1: they're like, you dummy, dumb white guy from the South.
Speaker 1: It's a king signettas right, And so I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, one day, I'm gonna do a podcast
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 3: They said, what is a podcast to make up for
Speaker 3: all this? You said, just watch that's right. So one
Speaker 3: thing I saw was with Latin, you know, like with
Speaker 3: Latino or Latina, there's that ingrained masculine. But something I
Speaker 3: saw pop up in a couple of sites is they
Speaker 3: would replace the O or the A with an X
Speaker 3: just to make it the word gender neutral, like Latin X.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I don't know how you pronounced it. I
Speaker 3: didn't get that far, but I saw it imprinting a
Speaker 3: couple of different sites, so where they were trying to
Speaker 3: remove the gender from you know, Latino or Latina and
Speaker 3: just make it gen gender neutral. Because there's there's a
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it, but there's an HBO documentary about
Speaker 3: KINGTONIERZ and one of them is for a trans girl. Okay,
Speaker 3: would it be pronounced LATINX? Maybe? I mean I have
Speaker 3: to see it written down. How is the X in
Speaker 3: like wahaka? Isn't it like hot? Whaha? So maybe Latin woa?
Speaker 3: I have no idea. That's where I'm going with here
Speaker 3: we go.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be too dumb dumbs and we're
Speaker 1: so far down dumb dumb lane.
Speaker 3: It's not even funny. No, so let's try to get
Speaker 3: this back on the rail, shall we. I think what
Speaker 3: we just did was great because we explored some questions
Speaker 3: we had. But now we can talk about everything we
Speaker 3: know about kingsing gartis.
Speaker 1: Right, which is we've been dancing around this thing. This
Speaker 1: is the fifteenth birthday celebration for young ladies young women
Speaker 1: in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States
Speaker 1: kind of all.
Speaker 3: Over the world. This can take place. Yeah, and it
Speaker 3: seems to be so it's a it's actually a very
Speaker 3: traditional thing to where Catholic, like the catholicness of the
Speaker 3: girl and her even pre Catholic origins fine together with
Speaker 3: what I guess you would call like is a universal
Speaker 3: coming of age celebration that also focuses on the individuality
Speaker 3: and tastes of the girl. You put all those things together,
Speaker 3: you have a King Signeta, which is a fifteenth birthday party,
Speaker 3: which is a coming out party for a girl as
Speaker 3: she transitions from girlhood into womanhood. It happens on this
Speaker 3: day and they throw a huge celebration, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of really cool traditions that you're going to find
Speaker 3: at like every King Singetta that have some a neat
Speaker 3: origin story to them or a neat symbolism to them.
Speaker 1: And also some great music, some delicious food, and family
Speaker 1: coming together for an important day.
Speaker 3: It's really great. Not just family, the whole community is
Speaker 3: meant to, you know, like extended family, people in the
Speaker 3: community that have had an impact on the girl's life,
Speaker 3: like a teacher, people been for the expense of this.
Speaker 3: It's like a real communal thing. Should we go back
Speaker 3: in time? Okay, let's or did you want to go
Speaker 3: to the future? No, No, we'll go back in time
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: So the origins of this they date back all the
Speaker 1: way to the Aztec Indians. Obviously in the fourteen hundreds
Speaker 1: and fifteen hundreds they were performing these festivals because girls
Speaker 1: back then were marriage ready at the age of fifteen.
Speaker 3: That's kind of what it symbolized, right, And like it
Speaker 3: wasn't just the Aztecs, like around the world and cultures
Speaker 3: around the world, like you would find some sort of
Speaker 3: coming of age or rights of passage into womanhood. And yeah,
Speaker 3: when you came out the other end, it was like
Speaker 3: you were on the market then from that point on,
Speaker 3: that's right.
Speaker 1: And they had ceremonies, they had speeches talking about how
Speaker 1: important it is to become a wise, upstanding member of
Speaker 1: society as a young woman. Then the Spanish come along.
Speaker 1: Of course, they invade what we now call Mexico over
Speaker 1: through the Aztecs, and that brought in a European influence
Speaker 1: to this whole experience. And this is where things got
Speaker 1: a little more, a little more like debutante.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually I looked into this a little further, Chuck.
Speaker 3: And they can't say for certain where keinsignetaz came from,
Speaker 3: but they think the Aztecs. But their source comes from
Speaker 3: a single nun working in Mexico who wrote an account
Speaker 3: that had been given to a priest forty years earlier. Wow,
Speaker 3: from another priest who had supposedly in the fifteen twenties
Speaker 3: interviewed some Aztec high priests about their culture. So that's
Speaker 3: where the whole idea that there was a rite of
Speaker 3: passage at age fifteen comes from kind of shaky. And
Speaker 3: then other people say, well, no, this is obviously a
Speaker 3: Spanish colonial influence, like being presented at court. But the
Speaker 3: idea that it's a rite of passage in womanhood is
Speaker 3: so universal that it probably is a combination of the
Speaker 3: two of them. No one can just say for certain though,
Speaker 3: what the origin is specifically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and apparently until the nineteen sixties it was really
Speaker 1: kind of an upper class thing. But then in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, as Latinos immigrated to the United States and
Speaker 1: they became more part of American fabric, they really kind
Speaker 1: of really kind of spread throughout the US and Latin
Speaker 1: America as becoming across all socioeconomic classes. And we'll get
Speaker 1: to this a little more later. But wonderfully, like you said,
Speaker 1: in poorer communities, you see entire communities chipping in some
Speaker 1: money many times, or the godmothers and godfathers of padernos
Speaker 1: and madarinas like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good to help pay for this stuff.
Speaker 1: I saw this photographer did a really great photos series
Speaker 1: of Quintinetas celebrations in poor neighborhoods in Mexico and photograph
Speaker 1: these really beautiful photographs of these these young women in
Speaker 1: their dresses sort of in the middle of a very
Speaker 1: depressed neighborhood and just showing how important it was that
Speaker 1: they still had this celebration.
Speaker 3: Even though they it was a burden financially on their families. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think Mexico City got together in two thousand and
Speaker 3: seven and some of the businesses, some of the some
Speaker 3: nonprofit groups held like a big mass kinsingerra and now
Speaker 3: they do it every year for girls who wouldn't otherwise
Speaker 3: be able to have one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I also read a New York Times article where there's
Speaker 1: a lot of bias, like when it comes to things
Speaker 1: like this and bar and bought Mitzvah's and debutante balls,
Speaker 1: where it's very easy for someone to say, like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're poor living in Mexico City, why are you
Speaker 1: wasting And that's an air quo quotes your money on
Speaker 1: this celebration when your family doesn't have much money, and
Speaker 1: they say, you know, you never hear this kind of
Speaker 1: criticism for bar mitzvahs and bot mitzvahs or debutantes, regardless
Speaker 1: of socioeconomic status. So it's just a very important, important
Speaker 1: part of their culture that should be shouldn't be looked
Speaker 1: down upon just because they may not have the kind
Speaker 1: of money to throw a big one, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'm sure. One of the things, though,
Speaker 3: you just kind of hit on the head is that
Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's a part of latinix culture,
Speaker 3: which is one reason why it's become so big in America.
Speaker 3: It's a way of people of Latino heritage to say,
Speaker 3: you know, this is my heritage too, and this is
Speaker 3: how I'm going to come of age in America. But
Speaker 3: because it's also in America and these are American born
Speaker 3: girls of Latina heritage, they they have come over time
Speaker 3: to kind of meld together with what Americans look at
Speaker 3: and say, that's just one enormous sweet sixteen party, right,
Speaker 3: But there's there's some details in there that you'll find
Speaker 3: out at Kinsonnira that you won't at a sweet sixteen party,
Speaker 3: and we'll talk about those right after this. Well done,
Speaker 3: all right, Charles, So we are going to start the day.
Speaker 3: It's a frantic day, It's a hectic day. From everything
Speaker 3: I understand from what I've read, this is a and
Speaker 3: actually like a cool day for a girl, but also
Speaker 3: very stressful. All right.
Speaker 1: It's like a it's like a wedding or a prom
Speaker 1: or anything where there's a lot of pressure on this one,
Speaker 1: you know, six hour experience.
Speaker 3: But think about this. With a wedding, you've got your
Speaker 3: s O to plan the wedding with. With prom, you've
Speaker 3: got a handful of other girls to plan. You know
Speaker 3: what you're doing with prom, and plus proms already being
Speaker 3: planned for you by your school or whatever. This is
Speaker 3: like your day, and part of your responsibility is the
Speaker 3: King Signeta, which by the way, King Signeta literally translates
Speaker 3: to the girl who is fifteen. Yeah, so this is
Speaker 3: technically your Fiesta de kin Signetta or something like that. Right.
Speaker 3: Part of your responsibility as King Signetta is to show
Speaker 3: that you can take part in this planning. On the
Speaker 3: one hand, it's to allow it to reflect your personality
Speaker 3: and your taste, so you're the one who needs to
Speaker 3: choose all this stuff. But it also shows that you
Speaker 3: can be a grown up too, and undertake months of
Speaker 3: planning leading up to this thing and basically pull it off. Correct,
Speaker 3: you are right, Okay, So the whole thing starts with
Speaker 3: a trip to church, which is not right, which is
Speaker 3: not what you're going to find a normal American like
Speaker 3: say sweet sixteen party.
Speaker 1: No, And it depends on the church where you're going
Speaker 1: to have and you know, sometimes the celebration also occurs
Speaker 1: at the church. Sometimes that occurs at a different spot,
Speaker 1: kind of like a wedding, you know, sometimes you'll have
Speaker 1: the reception somewhere else.
Speaker 3: Right, that's not how it started, which we'll talk about
Speaker 3: that in a minute, but go ahead.
Speaker 1: But it depends on the church where you're a member
Speaker 1: or where you're having this initial ceremony. But the girl
Speaker 1: before this all happens for weeks ahead of time, may
Speaker 1: actually be required to attend classes in advance of this,
Speaker 1: so they're prepared.
Speaker 3: They know what to expect, right they well, yeah, that's
Speaker 3: about it, as far as the weeks ahead part, well
Speaker 3: as far as the church and all the planning, yeah,
Speaker 3: of course. Right. So on the day they arrive at
Speaker 3: the church, and you were saying, like, you know, now
Speaker 3: it's kind of evolved to where you have like like
Speaker 3: a wedding, you have the ceremony of the church and
Speaker 3: then the event elsewhere, well you can, right, and that's
Speaker 3: becoming more and more the way. But one of the
Speaker 3: reasons that is becoming the way is because in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued like
Speaker 3: a set of guidelines that basically put the kibosh on
Speaker 3: this idea of the kingsonira as a big lavish affair,
Speaker 3: and it really dampened this burgeoning I guess industry or
Speaker 3: tradition or whatever. It put a damper on it for
Speaker 3: a little while because families didn't want to go against
Speaker 3: the Church, so they kind of toned down the kings andiras.
Speaker 3: But the reason the Church was doing this is because
Speaker 3: there were too many kingsoniras, not enough Spanish speaking priests.
Speaker 3: And then also the Catholic Church has always had an
Speaker 3: awkward position in this tradition. It's not a Catholic tradition.
Speaker 3: It's a cultural tradition by a group of people who
Speaker 3: are predominantly Catholic and involve the Church as part of
Speaker 3: this tradition. But this tradition, if anything, is a syncretized tradition,
Speaker 3: remember when we were in Guatemala. The melding of Catholic
Speaker 3: beliefs and pagan pre colonial beliefs indigenous beliefs is syncretism.
Speaker 3: This is an example of that. There's like as tech
Speaker 3: rituals supposedly mixed with this. The whole thing starts at
Speaker 3: a Catholic church with a mass, so the church has
Speaker 3: kind of had alternately hands on and hands off view
Speaker 3: of this whole thing, and in nineteen ninety the almost
Speaker 3: put a complete damper on it. But since then it's
Speaker 3: just kind of said, Okay, we'll just start off at
Speaker 3: the church and we'll have the party afterward elsewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I've also seen that a lot of churches now
Speaker 1: are straying away from me is because they feel like
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of disrespectful behavior, like you know,
Speaker 1: people partying on the pews and taking pictures with their
Speaker 1: phone and texting, and.
Speaker 3: Like they kind of forget that they're in a church, right,
Speaker 3: which I mean if you step back and think about it,
Speaker 3: having a girl's fifteen year birthday party in an actual church, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a terrible idea to begin with, probably about yes,
Speaker 3: so it makes sense to do this kind of solemn
Speaker 3: ceremony at the church and then party elsewhere, which I
Speaker 3: think is pretty much par for the course these days.
Speaker 1: All right, so before the mass takes place, this young
Speaker 1: woman has and Kristen Conger, remember Kristen.
Speaker 3: Of course, what's the name of their podcast, Unladylike, unlady Like?
Speaker 1: That's right, yeah, Kristen Caroline formerly of stuff Mom never
Speaker 1: told you Now with Unladylike, she wrote this article and
Speaker 1: she said that custom calls for fourteen damas or maiden attendance,
Speaker 1: to represent the fourteen years of her life up into
Speaker 1: that point. I saw elsewhere seven. That's what I saw too,
Speaker 1: to be paired with seven young men. You want to
Speaker 1: pronounce that shambalons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how I took it, shambalans, but chambalon.
Speaker 1: I read in another place. I was like, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, which is it? And it apparently can be
Speaker 1: seven to fifteen. So yeah, depending on I guess how
Speaker 1: many really close friends you have, kind of like picking
Speaker 1: out your bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I saw plenty of videos of kinsigners where
Speaker 3: like there were three girls, there's a four. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: I think under strict tradition of the King Signetta. You
Speaker 3: would have fourteen girls and fifteen dudes. You got fourteen damas,
Speaker 3: fifteen Chambalains and then one I got it, and then
Speaker 3: one Chambalaine day on air, which I totally missed up.
Speaker 3: But it's it's basically the escort of honor. Who is
Speaker 3: the King Signetta's date? That's right.
Speaker 1: And again I'm sure that there's some leeway. The Kingsiannetta
Speaker 1: cops aren't gonna come by because you don't have enough
Speaker 1: friends helping you. They have larger fish to fry on
Speaker 1: Kingsannetta Day.
Speaker 3: Right, although the whoever is helping you plan this, it
Speaker 3: would probably love it if you had fourteen guys and
Speaker 3: fourteen girls because they all have to be outfitted. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: in exactly what you want them to wear, because it's
Speaker 3: your party. That's right.
Speaker 1: And I don't think we mentioned, but the dress is
Speaker 1: a very big part of the celebration. Traditionally it's either
Speaker 1: pink or white, very satane. I mean it looks kind
Speaker 1: of like a prom dress, a big frilly, floor length gown.
Speaker 3: But that also is eight feet wide, yeah, exactly at
Speaker 3: the waist like out it's extraordinary. It's like a princess dress. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like I want to Kenzannira, Well we can throw you on, buddy, Okay,
Speaker 3: don't do that. Sure you don't get all pretty for
Speaker 3: the camera. I definitely would find a nice stress, all right.
Speaker 1: So the first stop, though, like you said, is the church,
Speaker 1: and this is where a lot of the ceremony takes place.
Speaker 1: They receive a blessing from a priest, the young woman
Speaker 1: commits herself to her, protecting her virginity and her spiritual devotion,
Speaker 1: and then they leave a bouquet of flowers near the
Speaker 1: Virgin Mary statue. And then traditionally they would give away
Speaker 1: a porcelain doll, one of their childhood dolls, or again,
Speaker 1: tradition varies. These days, it might be a step teddy
Speaker 1: bear or something else that just meant something to the girl.
Speaker 3: One thing I saw was a ki Signetta barbie.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all right, Well they'll pass that along to
Speaker 1: a younger sister or another relative, another female relative, to
Speaker 1: basically say again symbolic of I'm entering young adulthood and
Speaker 1: I'm passing on this silly barbie to you.
Speaker 3: What's the name of that the ultima Muneka? Oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know. I didn't see that ultima muneka. It means
Speaker 3: the last doll, and it shows that she's leaving girlhood behind.
Speaker 3: And you can guess which which one of those, the
Speaker 3: ceramic doll or the old toy or the brand new
Speaker 3: barbie the younger female relative wants these days. Sure, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So so that may or may not happen at the church.
Speaker 3: The thing that seems to be what definitely happens at
Speaker 3: the church is the girl is presented with a rosary,
Speaker 3: a prayer book or a Bible and leaves flowers at
Speaker 3: the altar and or the statue of the Virgin Mary,
Speaker 3: and then receives a blessing. Right, so let's say that
Speaker 3: all that happened at the church and the girl has
Speaker 3: been blessed. Sometimes it's part of a regular mass, like
Speaker 3: she may stand up and come up to the altar
Speaker 3: and get a special blessing. If her parents are pulling
Speaker 3: all the right strings, maybe she can get her own
Speaker 3: mass for it. But she may also be sharing that
Speaker 3: mask with other quin sigietas. There's a bunch of different
Speaker 3: ways to do it. But once the mass is done,
Speaker 3: once she said like I am committing myself to the
Speaker 3: Catholic Church and I'm a very spiritual girl, and thanks
Speaker 3: for the blessing. I'm out e five thousand. She's heading
Speaker 3: off to the party. That's right. Get that just like
Speaker 3: a good wedding.
Speaker 1: Get that part over with quickly so you can get
Speaker 1: your party on right.
Speaker 3: So whilst she's getting into the limo, we'll take another break. Okay,
Speaker 3: all right, look at her trying to stuff that dressing.
Speaker 3: Then okay, chuck. So she has gotten in the limo,
Speaker 3: she's driven off, and now they're going to the venue,
Speaker 3: which is basically anywhere that you would also hold like
Speaker 3: a wedding reception, you could hold a King Signira party.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it could be. It really depends on
Speaker 1: the budget of the family involved. They could rent out
Speaker 1: a large hall, or they could it could be in
Speaker 1: the backyard of their own home or at a friend's house.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And again this is not just on the parents shoulders.
Speaker 3: It's very customary and very traditional for the girl to
Speaker 3: approach family members. Yeah, members of the business community, just
Speaker 3: anybody she can think of to say, hey, costs are
Speaker 3: really adding up and can you, you know, chip in
Speaker 3: a little bit. And like the King Signira will be
Speaker 3: sponsored by multiple people besides just her parents. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: I also read in that article on that really great
Speaker 1: photo spread the guy did he interviewed the family members
Speaker 1: and one of the families he said how long have
Speaker 1: you you know, they didn't have much money, and he said,
Speaker 1: how long have you been saving for this?
Speaker 3: And they said for fifteen years? Oh.
Speaker 1: Man, Like they started socking away money every year because
Speaker 1: they knew this was coming. That it is so great
Speaker 1: and it was important. It was very sweet story.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think the aspect that, you know, the community
Speaker 3: chips in and also comes to like witness this girl's
Speaker 3: transition to adulthood. I just really appreciate that. I think
Speaker 3: it's really cool that that's part of it, you know,
Speaker 3: it makes it rather than it's just the parents are
Speaker 3: footing the bill for everything. I just think that's cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, and it's a culture where family and community is
Speaker 1: such a important revered thing and it's something I'm envious of,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. So when the girl gets there, the
Speaker 3: first thing that's going to happen is the music's going
Speaker 3: to be starting, and her court's going to come in
Speaker 3: and get introduced. Those are the Damas and the Shamblains.
Speaker 3: Why is that not sounding right because it sounds French, right, Okay,
Speaker 3: So that's but am I am I pronouncing it French?
Speaker 1: I don't know that's what I'm saying it. It's I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I don't know the origins of that word.
Speaker 3: Okay. So those two her court, they're going to come
Speaker 3: in one by one and get announced virtually, just like
Speaker 3: a wedding when the bride and grooms show up. The
Speaker 3: grooms maids, no, the bride grooms maids, the grooms men's
Speaker 3: and the bride'smaids. Yes, come on, man, hanging in there.
Speaker 3: They get introduced, you know, one by one as they're
Speaker 3: coming in, and then finally the shambala and the honorary
Speaker 3: escort is introduced. And then you finally have the Kinti
Speaker 3: era come in and the music changes and she's like
Speaker 3: you like raising the roof, you know, and the parties
Speaker 3: just everyone erupts into just craziness from that moment on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, it could be a DJ. It could
Speaker 1: be a mariachi band, It could be a rock band.
Speaker 3: It could be a DJ playing Mary.
Speaker 1: It could be it could be like with my wedding,
Speaker 1: I had an iPod loaded up with my mix and
Speaker 1: just hit play nice.
Speaker 3: So this is probably a DJ with a light system
Speaker 3: and a dance floor. All the videos I saw are
Speaker 3: very much like that. Yeah, So the court's been introduced,
Speaker 3: and then one of the first things that happens is
Speaker 3: the girl is presented with a crown tiara. She's presented
Speaker 3: with a scepter, so for the killing, right for the bashing, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that comes later, and then right the ritual, the ritual
Speaker 3: killing of the chipmunk. And she's seated, probably on a
Speaker 3: throne of some sort or a central chair, maybe one
Speaker 3: of those like Wicker remember the Wicker like seventies chair. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like flared out and up. It looked kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 3: maybe she's sitting on one of those. But she's she's
Speaker 3: basically the center of attention right then, and something kind
Speaker 3: of cool happens. The shoe shoe was wearing that she
Speaker 3: came in with flat soled sandals or slippers or something
Speaker 3: like that. Her dad comes over and takes those off,
Speaker 3: and then he puts on high heels and snaps his fingers,
Speaker 3: twirls and goes she's a woman.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I bet you anything, this young lady has
Speaker 1: practiced walking in those before, right, I don't think she
Speaker 1: would want her first experience in high heels to be
Speaker 1: in that dress on the big day. This is just
Speaker 1: logical chuck talking.
Speaker 3: Although it would be fun to watch, No, come on,
Speaker 3: you don't think it would be.
Speaker 1: No one wants to see what do they? Kristen said,
Speaker 1: they call her Keen's Girls. Sometimes, Yeah, some one wants
Speaker 1: to see a Keen skirl fall over.
Speaker 3: That's true except you. But you got laughed at while
Speaker 3: you did the backstroke, so I get it. Yeah, mocked.
Speaker 1: They may also get gifts, but not always a lot
Speaker 1: of times there are symbolic gifts. A lot of times
Speaker 1: other people will bring gifts, but from the parents. The
Speaker 1: festival and ceremony itself is the gift. But sometimes if
Speaker 1: the parents have some dough and a big budget, they
Speaker 1: may get what's called regalo soorpressa, which is a surprise
Speaker 1: gift on top of everything else. And this of course
Speaker 1: is including like you mentioned, the prayer book and the
Speaker 1: Rosary and the Bible and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Right, and those were probably given to her at the
Speaker 3: church before. I'm thinking that, depending on the position of
Speaker 3: her parents socioeconomically, the girls probably getting other presents too. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but yes, supposedly just the kin Senira party is like
Speaker 3: this is plenty, don't you think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I think the gifts too also are always
Speaker 1: represent that transition into adulthood. So she's not getting the
Speaker 1: dolls anymore. She gets maybe some jewelry or ear rings
Speaker 1: and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Right, and deliver her into womanhood. And then guests are
Speaker 3: also giving gifts as well, and your party favors the
Speaker 3: way that the whole thing's set up, even though the
Speaker 3: community like might have people that chip in or family
Speaker 3: members or whatever. The parents are saying like come help
Speaker 3: celebrate our daughter's transition into womanhood. Right, So the party
Speaker 3: is men is like a gift for the guests, right,
Speaker 3: and so the thing is kind of meant to be
Speaker 3: like come and get your eat on and your drink
Speaker 3: on and just have a lot of fun. The thing
Speaker 3: is part of that welcomeness and that inclusiveness and that
Speaker 3: you know, please come and be a part of this.
Speaker 3: That backfired really hard for this one couple. Have you
Speaker 3: heard about Ruby Obara Garcia? No? Oh my, so Ruby
Speaker 3: Abara Garcia turned fifteen on December twenty sixth, nineteen year
Speaker 3: twoenty sixteen. Okay, okay, just like a year or so ago,
Speaker 3: and she is from La Joya, which is in San Luis, Potosi, Mexico,
Speaker 3: and it's a little tiny town two hundred, and her
Speaker 3: parents decided to get with the times and make like
Speaker 3: a YouTube invitation, a video invitation to come to Ruby's Kinsenera.
Speaker 3: But they posted on on YouTube and they didn't put
Speaker 3: any privacy settings on and it went viral and twenty
Speaker 3: thousand people from around the world showed up to Ruby's
Speaker 3: Kinsigneta party in this little town of two hundred. That's
Speaker 3: kind of great, though, right, it was great on the
Speaker 3: one hand, but if you look at the photos from it,
Speaker 3: she was very much overwhelming the entire time. Was not
Speaker 3: expecting it. Apparently, like like on Facebook, like over a
Speaker 3: million people said they were coming, but even still twenty thousand,
Speaker 3: and if you look, there's like all these stands set up,
Speaker 3: and like people from all over the country and the
Speaker 3: world shipped in to like fee everybody and make sure
Speaker 3: everybody had teas or whatever. So the parents said, okay,
Speaker 3: we're we're doing this, and they they did it. They
Speaker 3: they stepped up and met there there there, or they
Speaker 3: kept their welcome to everybody. I guess there is a
Speaker 3: way to put it. That's kind of great.
Speaker 1: But I can definitely see on the day that the
Speaker 1: girl might have been overwhelmed. But I bet she also
Speaker 1: in retrospect, is like, hey, I've got one cool story
Speaker 1: for my life now.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she's got a big old story and she
Speaker 3: got a Chevy Vault.
Speaker 1: Oh serious, Yeah, I couldn't tell. I literally couldn't tell
Speaker 1: if you were just being joky, Josh.
Speaker 3: There, No, that was I didn't even need to be
Speaker 3: that time. So Chevy got involved, of course. I think
Speaker 3: her parents gave her that. Oh I figured Chevy was like, hey, no,
Speaker 3: I think that was I think that was her regalo,
Speaker 3: her surprise gift. Yes. Wow. And speaking of so praises,
Speaker 3: the uh that was uman Spanish name, by the way,
Speaker 3: But speaking of so Praises, there's also Chuck. Go on
Speaker 3: to YouTube and type in bay A s Praisa b
Speaker 3: A I l E sor Praiser and just start watching
Speaker 3: these videos because the bay A sor Praisa is one
Speaker 3: of the hallmarks of the Kings and Era party and
Speaker 3: they are about as adorable and embarrassing as you can imagine.
Speaker 3: What does that mean though? What is it? Oh? It's
Speaker 3: a surprise dance. So it's like for months ahead of time,
Speaker 3: the King Signia and her court will practice a dance
Speaker 3: that they make up or that they hire like a choreographer,
Speaker 3: and they will like perform this dance for the guests.
Speaker 3: It's a surprise dance. It's like part of the Kingsenira
Speaker 3: and they're they're very cute to watch, especially they do,
Speaker 3: but they also are really they're very earnest about it too,
Speaker 3: like they like they practice this dance and they they're
Speaker 3: doing it and it's it's very cute. You can also
Speaker 3: hire am Balayne's professional ones. They're all like dancers by trade,
Speaker 3: so they'll like really knock your socks off of your guests.
Speaker 3: But it's, you know, it's lacking that heart of something
Speaker 3: you and your friends came up with yourself.
Speaker 1: Or you could if you had a lot of dough,
Speaker 1: you could hire a choreographer like Paula Abdul or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, like her, she's.
Speaker 1: Still choreographing, right, yeah, choreographing, choreographing.
Speaker 3: Something bad wrong with us today? I know, man, you
Speaker 3: got anything else I do? This is a little suppressive
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 1: My friend there was a father in Texas a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago that spent six million dollars on his
Speaker 1: fifteen year old daughter. Oh my, he uh, what's his
Speaker 1: name here? He's an attorney named Thomas J. Henry of
Speaker 1: San Antonio. They're very kind of well known family. His
Speaker 1: daughter Maya is big on Instagram and social media, and
Speaker 1: she's big into activism. So she's like, you know, she's
Speaker 1: not just your ordinary teen.
Speaker 3: Although that is kind of ordinary these days, thankfully.
Speaker 1: To be a well known teen activist, well to be active, sure.
Speaker 1: But at her Kintanetta, she had Nick Jonas perform, Pitbull performed.
Speaker 3: Sure. Let me see what else here?
Speaker 1: A fifty five thousand square foot space.
Speaker 3: That they built.
Speaker 1: I don't think they built it from scratch, but it
Speaker 1: does say that it was built purpose built venue.
Speaker 3: How many guests? Six hundred guests?
Speaker 1: Man a thirty foot tall cherry trees, a thirty foot
Speaker 1: tall cherry cheese in full blossom, walls of roses, a
Speaker 1: garden room, the ballroom with butterflies suspended from the ceiling.
Speaker 1: She wore a Rolando Santana dress, which means nothing to
Speaker 1: me either, but I assume that means it's something. She
Speaker 1: had her makeup done by Patrick Ta who does the Kardashians.
Speaker 1: Her photographer was Michelle Obamas photographer, and Thomas Henry and
Speaker 1: his wife whose name is Azteca, beautiful name. They hired
Speaker 1: a New York social event planner named David Monne. He
Speaker 1: had one hundred and fifty person team to plan out
Speaker 1: this party and finally they arrived by police escort in
Speaker 1: nine rolls Royces.
Speaker 3: Well, because why not, why not get the police involved.
Speaker 1: And not to feel too bad for her little brother
Speaker 1: or I guess maybe it was a big brother. He
Speaker 1: spent four million dollars on that kid's eighteenth birthday. I
Speaker 1: believe case a praisa, So they have they dropped ten
Speaker 1: million bucks on a couple of parties for their kids.
Speaker 3: Man, and those the girls in Mexico City are happy
Speaker 3: to be part of the city wide annual one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wonder what Pitbull got paid for that? A mill Maybe?
Speaker 3: I bet Nick Jonas got more than Pipple, did you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And of course she had her pictures with both of them, and.
Speaker 3: Well I'm sure that was part of it. It's like
Speaker 3: uh yeah, man, all right, well that is something. What's
Speaker 3: her name? Maya? Yeah? Wait, Henry, Oh, I got to
Speaker 3: look that up. If you want to know more about
Speaker 3: Kinsgieta as well, just show up to one uninvited. Yeah,
Speaker 3: see how that goes. You know what, you'd probably be
Speaker 3: welcomed probably chuck probably, And since I said probably a
Speaker 3: couple of times, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, A long time listener, A card carrying member
Speaker 1: of the Stuff you should know Army. I've always want
Speaker 1: to write in but just hadn't found the right topic
Speaker 1: until the It Stranger Things script retooling debate those during emojis.
Speaker 1: Stephen King is by far my favorite author, and it
Speaker 1: is my absolute favorite of his novels. Highly recommend. Also
Speaker 1: a huge Stranger Things fan. Though I have no media experience,
Speaker 1: I do have an MBA and know a thing or
Speaker 1: two about marketing. But it's worth I sided with Josh,
Speaker 1: with the studio definitely retooling the script to create synergies
Speaker 1: between It and Stranger Things. Aside from casting the Stranger
Speaker 1: Things kid, which to me is a smoking gun, they
Speaker 1: changed the setting in the film to take place in
Speaker 1: the eighties.
Speaker 3: Like Stranger Things.
Speaker 1: The novel the story follows the main characters is in
Speaker 1: the fifties, and then again as adults in the eighties.
Speaker 1: There are elements of the story that didn't translate as
Speaker 1: well into the eighties in my opinion, but it was
Speaker 1: a small price to pay in order to captivate that
Speaker 1: Stranger Things audience. Just one guy's opinion, but I'd like
Speaker 1: to say one guy's informed opinion.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Chuck, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1: As a movie crush or as a movie buff, I
Speaker 1: always catch movie crush. Keep it up, Mike Sanders and Mike.
Speaker 1: I did a very simple Google search and found that
Speaker 1: Stranger Things was released in July twenty sixteen, and principal
Speaker 1: photography of it began about a week before that. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's therefore rendering that impossible.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing. Movies have been known to change horses
Speaker 3: mid stream, right. I don't think that that settles it
Speaker 3: if you ask me, so.
Speaker 1: You think they shot a bunch of the movie in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties and said, wait a minute, this TV
Speaker 1: show we're here doing.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, no, let's go make it the eighties.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I don't think let's recast this kid that we've already cast.
Speaker 3: I think I think that they're I think that they
Speaker 3: did retool I do. I don't think. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: think they did. They. I don't think they were shooting
Speaker 3: in the fifties. I think they were probably shooting in
Speaker 3: the eighties. I think they really. My whole point has
Speaker 3: been that they played up the same things that Stranger
Speaker 3: Things was known for and that you wouldn't find in
Speaker 3: in the book it that, and that they plumped up
Speaker 3: that stuff because of Stranger Things. That's my assertion.
Speaker 1: So as they are shooting the film it they're doing rewrites.
Speaker 1: The rewrites, yes, because they're like, man, we gotta walk
Speaker 1: into this TV show.
Speaker 3: Yes. And you can also do that in the editing
Speaker 3: booth as you know as well, which would have happened
Speaker 3: long after Stranger Things was already a smash cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 3: All right. That's I don't think it's settled, man, Okay,
Speaker 3: And it never will be all right until the editor
Speaker 3: tells me himself or herself that I'm just dead wrong. Okay.
Speaker 3: If you want to settle a bet, you can send
Speaker 3: us an email to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com
Speaker 3: and is always joined us at our home on the web.
Speaker 3: Stuff Youshould Know dot Com.
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