Latino coming of age tale wows US

By Peter Bowes
Los Angeles

Carlos and Magdalena both face rejection from their families

A low budget independent film about a Mexican girl's 15th birthday celebration has become a box office success in the US.

Quinceanera, which also focuses on teenage pregnancy, sexuality and urban gentrification, is set in Echo Park, a poor, mainly Latino suburb of Los Angeles.

The story revolves around Magdalena's coming-of-age celebration, known as a quinceanera. It is an occasion that marks a girl's transition into womanhood and one that many Mexican American families celebrate for their daughter with a lavish party.

"It is very realistic," says Emily Rios, who plays Magdalena.

"It portrays Latin culture and the traditions that we have in everyday life and I thought the directors approached it with respect."

Magdalena suffers rejection when it is discovered that she is pregnant, before her quinceanera.

'Poignant comedy'

"I grew up in a similar city to Echo Park, El Monte, where teenage pregnancy is nothing new. It's pretty much an epidemic," says Rios.

Writing and directing partners Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, neither of whom is Latino, made the movie for $430,000 (£226,000).

In a gentrifying neighbourhood you get very different communities butting right up against one another Wash Westmoreland, co-director (pictured right)

They filmed in neighbours' homes and used inexperienced actors.

On limited release, for a month, the film has already grossed more than twice its budget at the US box office.

Quinceanera won both the Dramatic Grand Jury prize and the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film festival.

Critics have praised the film as a "heartfelt" and "poignant comedy."

As real-life residents of Echo Park since 2001, the idea for the movie came after the film-makers were asked to be the official photographers for a local quinceanera.

"The day arrived and we saw the church service and the limo ride and the big reception," says Mr Glatzer.

"We were just very impressed by the idea that a 15th birthday can mean so much to a community."

The star of the film is the neighbourhood itself. Echo Park is a rapidly changing area where immigrant residents are being forced out of their rented homes by rising property prices and an influx of more affluent Americans.

Sexual plaything

"We wanted to make a film about that gentrification process - what it's like for the people who were here first and are being excluded by the process," says Mr Glatzer.

Mr Westmoreland, originally from Leeds, in the UK, adds: "In a gentrifying neighbourhood you get very different communities butting right up against one another.

"You get big class differences from one house to the next, you get racial differences and differences of sexuality."

As well as gently stirring the political sensitivities aroused by the gentrification process, the film focuses on teenage sexuality in the Latino community.

An outwardly macho cholo (Mexican gangster), played by Jesse Garcia, is struggling with rejection after being kicked out of the family home for being homosexual.

His gay and affluent landlords, who live in the apartment above, befriend the Latino teenage and make him their sexual plaything.

Jesse Garcia plays Carlos, shunned by his family for being gay

"Latinos often get cast as gangsters or criminals or maids or garden workers," says Garcia.

"A lot of stereotypical gay characters on TV are over the top and flamboyant - that's how you know they're gay. So I wanted to make it that you would forget what this kid is on the outside."

The landlords, eager to expand their home, eventually evict Carlos and his grandfather, who has lived in the property for several years.

David Ross, a former member of the early 90s British boy band, Bad Boys Inc, plays one half of the gay power couple.

"The story was something I got very excited about because I had experienced gentrification in New York," says Ross.

"I was living Harlem and I had seen this very unconscious approach to flipping houses and kicking people out of their apartments who've been there for years because the rent's cheap and I wanted to tell that story.

"I didn't really care about the fact that I'm a bit dastardly in this movie," adds the actor.

"It was a very small neighbourhood project that could have just gone under everybody's radar, and we feel really lucky that it's getting out into the world," says Mr Westmoreland.

Quinceanera will be released in the UK as Echo Park L.A. on 29 September.