THE POWER OF RITUAL IN A CHICANO COMMUNITY - A YOUNG WOMANS STATUS AND EXPANDING FAMILY TIES

This paper explores the meaning of the symbols embedded within die qui nceanera, a fifteen-year-old Chicana's birthday party. The ceremony in Chicago includes both a religious and secular component and has becom e more extensive in the urban U.S. than it has been in rural Mexico. T hree positions are advanced: (1) The ceremony is an adaptation to the economic and social marginality of Chicanos in a U.S. city, (2) the ce remony is a transitional cultural phenomenon as it implied the need to maintain ''Mexicanness'' when they are becoming more Anglo, and (3) t he ceremony represents urbanized traditionalism emphasizing continuiti es with the past despite social changes. It is argued that the third h ypothesis has more validity. The ceremony serves to promote the separa te identity of Chicanos in an increasingly complex society and the ric hness and power of the symbols permit the construction of different me anings by the different audiences: the adult men, the adult women, and the youth.