At a Mexican fiesta de quince años, the party for a girl’s fifteenth birthday, separate padrinos and madrinas, godfathers and godmothers, take charge of parts of the celebration. In the UNAM journal Decires, Lorena Favier lists godparents for the religious service, the dress, the medal, the crown, the shoes, the cake, the photographs, the keepsakes and the invitations. They are often chosen among relatives, friends and neighbors.
“Se puede apadrinar prácticamente todo en una fiesta de quince años” (Practically everything at a fifteenth birthday party can be sponsored), she writes. In a 2018 thesis on the quince años in Necaxa, Puebla, the padrinos de velación pay for the Mass and decorate the church. A dress there costs from 8,000 to 15,000 pesos, and sometimes up to 20,000.