Grandmothers in Colombia get the quinceañera they never had

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — At age 72, Rosalba Casas finally celebrated her 15th birthday on Friday, donning a flowing pink dress and a tiara for the quinceañera she dreamed of as a teenager.

“This is the happiest day because I’m celebrating my 15th birthday,” Casas said, adding that she'd stayed up all night thinking about the big day.

It was the first time she wore professional makeup or a formal gown, or rode in a limousine, where she joined 28 other older women chosen by the Sueños Hechos (Dreams Come True) Foundation for belated birthday celebrations.

Quinceañeras are a time-honored tradition in Latin America, a often lavish celebration that marks a girl's passage into adulthood when she turns 15. But for the 29 women — mostly grandmothers — honored at this party, childhood hardships put any kind of celebration out of reach.

They rode in a limousine through the streets of northwestern Bogotá in to lively music, leaning out the car's open roof to wave excitedly at passersby who recorded them on their phones.

“I never rode in anything like that. I’d only seen them in pictures, but I never imagined I’d be in one,” Casas said. “I blew kisses to everyone,” she added with a laugh.

Deep inequality means many Colombians miss a rite of passage

Casas said that on her 15th birthday, she didn’t receive a single greeting. It was just another workday for her as a domestic employee in a wealthy Bogotá home, where her mother also worked.

María Isabel Carmona, 71, had a similar story. She recalled her 15th birthday party as a special breakfast of hot chocolate and fried eggs.

“My mother was very poor. There were a lot of us kids, and we lived in a small town. There was no way to celebrate,” Carmona said while getting her makeup done at a beauty academy that donated its services to the belated quinceañeras.

Even though it’s a very common tradition in Colombia, not all households can afford such a party in a country where the government estimates 31% of the population lives in poverty. The World Bank ranks the country as one of the most unequal in Latin America.

The 29 women stepped out of the limousine onto a red carpet leading into a community hall, where uniformed police officers raised their sabers to form an honor guard for the quinceañeras.

An emotional quinceañera song played in the background: “So fast — already 15 years, it can’t be … please, don’t grow up anymore.”

The women then swapped their shoes for sneakers — a bit more comfortable at their age — and were invited to dance the waltz, first with police officers, then with their husbands, sons and grandsons.

The project began with underprivileged girls

Freddy Alfonso Páez, director of the Sueños Hechos Foundation and a retired police officer, founded the organization five years ago with his two brothers, though they had started offering 15th birthday parties to underprivileged girls a couple of years earlier.

The project expanded to older women when organizers thought of others — like Páez’s own mother — who never had the traditional celebration in their youth.

Páez said the group has held quinceañera parties for older women for the past five years, providing the celebrations to 128 so far.

The Sueños Hechos Foundation holds the annual event with help from sponsors who donate the limousine, food and dresses. The police also lend support, with officers serving as escorts for the guests of honor.

The 29 women at Friday’s celebration, ages 60 to 85, were selected through an open call on social media.

“Many have different health conditions — diabetes, heart issues, leg or hip pain — but when the party begins, they forget all that and just enjoy themselves,” Páez said.