Once Upon a Quinceañera book cover In her debut YA novel, Once Upon a Quinceañera, Monica Gomez-Hira takes on coming of age, tradition, Latinidad, and patriarchal family structures through the lens of the quince. Her protagonist, Carmen Aguilar, ends up working as a hired performer at the quinceañera of her cousin Ariana, the same cousin who robbed Carmen of her own quince three years earlier. Against a vibrant Miami backdrop, Carmen navigates intergenerational family dynamic

This comic is a tribute: to her, to the borderlands, and to the mestiza consciousness that takes shape in the messy, meaningful rituals of becoming.