Quinceañera padrinos: where the tradition comes from and how it has changed

By Rosa Medina Garza, Su Quince's planning guide

Rosa Medina Garza is Su Quince's planning guide. Su Quince researches every guide and lists its sources at the bottom.

Quince padrinos grew out of Catholic godparents and compadrazgo, the Mexican custom of families binding themselves together by sponsoring a child's milestones. In 1962 they were close family who gave religious items and jewelry. By the 1990s they covered the hall, the music and the cake, and today they often give cash.

Where do quinceañera padrinos come from?

Quinceañera padrinos grew out of Catholic godparents and compadrazgo, the Mexican and Latin American custom of families binding themselves together by sponsoring a child's milestones. At first they were close family who gave her religious items and jewelry. Over the last 60 years the list grew to cover the hall, the music, the cake and almost anything else. Today the gift is often cash.

The root is baptism. Church law allows a child one or two baptismal sponsors, who must be at least 16 and confirmed Catholics. In Mexico and Latin America that bond grew into compadrazgo, the tie between a child's parents and the godparents.

Over time, families found more and more occasions for it. Roland Armando Alum, an anthropologist, wrote in Anthropology News in 2024 that the occasions "grew exponentially." He cites the researchers Hugo and Jean Nutini, who found more than 30 of them in one town in Tlaxcala, a state in central Mexico. School graduations and quinceañeras are among them.

When did the quinceañera get padrinos?

Nobody has dated it, and the quince's own origin is unclear. Evelyn Ibatan Rodriguez, a sociologist who studies quinceañeras, told NPR in 2016 that the history is "pretty fuzzy." She described a mix of Aztec coming-of-age rites and European court balls. Those balls came to Mexico in the 1860s with Maximilian and Carlota, the European emperor and empress who ruled Mexico then.

México Desconocido, a Mexican magazine about the country's culture, says the parties reached Mexico's working-class neighborhoods in the mid 20th century. That's when they picked up the tiara, the princess dress and the waltz.

The best record I found of how padrinos changed comes from Norma Cantú. She's a folklorist who had her own quince in Laredo, Texas, in 1962, and she wrote about Laredo quinces in 1995. At her quince, "only family were padrinos and madrinas," for the medal, the prayer book and rosary, the church and her jewelry. Her medal madrina was her grandmother, who had also been her baptism sponsor.

By the 1990s, Cantú found, Laredo families had padrinos for the hall, the music, the limo and the cake. Others covered the napkins, the album and video, the souvenirs, the cushion and the doll. The roster was often printed in the invitation.

What does the Church say about padrinos?

Very little, which surprised me. The US Catholic bishops approved a quinceañera rite in 2004, and the Vatican confirmed it in 2007. The rite gives sponsors one role, and only "if convenient." The priest invites her baptismal godparents and other sponsoring couples to bring the blessed religious items, such as a medal, a Bible and a rosary.

The cake padrino, the DJ padrino and the rest are family custom, not Church rule. Each parish sets its own rules for who takes part in the Mass, and my Mass guide covers what parishes ask for.

How have padrinos changed?

• They cover bigger things. At Norma Cantú's 1962 quince in Laredo, padrinos gave religious items and jewelry. News stories since then describe padrinos paying for the dress, the limo, the music and the drinks.
• Money replaces the item. When Cantú, the Laredo folklorist, was asked to be a madrina in the 1990s, she was given "a choice of either $25 or $50." In 2023, Mexico News Daily, an English-language news site in Mexico, described a quince where the godfather bought the gown. The other contributions were made in cash.
• The list went public. In Laredo, rosters were printed in invitations. Mexican newspapers printed them by role, too. In 2009, the society page of El Siglo de Torreón, a newspaper in Torreón, Coahuila, named padrinos for the album, the bouquet, the medal and the ring.
• The numbers swing. Cantú's 1962 quince had family only. A 2008 quince on a farming ejido in Sonora had about two dozen, and a 2025 quince in San Luis Potosí had more than 70.

Today the four small padrino items are the tiara, the last doll, the Bible and rosary and the brindis glasses. Together they come to about $440 in Su Quince's national price data. If you're starting a padrino list today, I'd start with those four.

Do families still have padrinos?

Yes. Every account I read describes padrinos at quinces in Mexico and the US. The oldest is the folklorist Norma Cantú's writing on Laredo from 1995, and the newest is a 2026 story by KPBS, the public radio station in San Diego. Lorena Favier, an anthropologist who studied 14 Mexico City families in 2011, found that in many cases the party would be impossible without them.

But nothing counts them, and that frustrated me. I found no survey of how many quinces have padrinos, how many they have or what they give.

The most-quoted quince cost figure is an average of $21,781. It comes from a 2019 report by Mi Padrino, a padrino-gifting company, which doesn't publish its method.

What do people criticize about padrinos?

The pressure. The Archdiocese of San Antonio, in its written guidance for quinceañeras, warns against "competitive consumerism" at quinces. It also says padrinos are how many families who save for years afford the day. Often a relative gives their own trade as a seamstress, a baker or a musician.

Promises can fall through, too. In 2024, Marketplace, the public radio show about money, talked to a Houston party-bus owner. He said he'd seen dozens of families put in a financial bind when padrinos didn't pay. Norma Cantú, the Laredo folklorist, wrote about a cake madrina who couldn't pay the full amount and was left off the printed roster.

The mistake I see most

Treating a padrino's yes as money in the bank. A yes at a family dinner is a promise, and the deposit for the cake or the DJ is due on a date. Write down every padrino's item, the amount and the date you need it, and check in a month before. That way a padrino who can't come through tells you in March, not the week of the party.

Rosa's tip: thank padrinos the ways families have for decades. The baile de padrinos, a dance with each padrino, shows up in accounts from Mexico City, Sonora and California. In Laredo, the folklorist Norma Cantú saw families print the padrino roster in the invitation. This week, decide which you'll do, and add it to the run of show.

How Su Quince helps

• The free padrino board already lists the tiara, the last doll, the cake, the brindis and the rest, and each item shows asked, said yes or covered.
• Each padrino gets a personal link with only their own item, and answers from their phone with no account.
• What a padrino covers comes off your budget total, so you always know what the family still pays.