Latino bouquet

“Quinceanera” may be the most insightful film about Latino culture in a long while. Never mind that it was made by two white men who don’t even speak Spanish.

“Quinceanera” was made for $500,000 and won the top drama and audience awards at Sundance. It explores a culture in the midst of change through a custom that started with the Aztecs, the Latino celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday — a cross between bat mitzvah and sweet 16.

Magdalena, played by Emily Rios in an impressive debut, is a typical Mexican-American teenager. She spends her time planning her upcoming quinceanera and hanging out with boyfriend Herman (J.R. Cruz). Then she discovers she’s pregnant.

Her preacher father kicks her out of the family home though she denies she’s had sex. “A girl who hasn’t been with a man doesn’t end up with a baby. Period,” he responds.

Cut to great-great-uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and his necklace with the face of the Virgin Mary. Tomas collects outcasts. Magdalena moves in with him and her cousin, Carlos (Jesse Garcia, a perfect mixture of toughness and vulnerability), ejected from his home because he’s homosexual.

“Quinceanera,” opening today, could hardly be more timely. “This is the year of the big immigration issue,” notes co-writer-director (with partner Richard Glatzer) Wash Westmoreland, himself an immigrant from Great Britain.

This surprising film reminds us of an oft-overlooked facet of American social reality: Many recent Hispanic immigrants tend to embrace a more traditional view of morality — particularly sexual morality — than most Americans. Thus, there’s a certain irony — one not lost on the filmmakers — in the anti-immigration stance of some conservatives.

“Most reaction from the Latino press has been positive,” says Mr. Glatzer. “But we’ve had people say, ‘How dare you have two men with their shirts off in a movie called ‘Quinceanera.’ Our distributors were nervous.” The adults in the film can barely bring themselves to speak about Magdalena’s pregnancy, instead referring to her “state.”

In “Quinceanera,” Mexican-American culture faces change from both inside and outside the community. From within, Americanized children question their parents’ long-held values. There’s a sexual charge throughout. In the opening scene, girls on the way to a quinceanera wrap themselves suggestively around a pole in a Hummer limo.

“Both problems of the main characters are sexual,” explains Mr. Westmoreland. “Hers is centuries-old. His became one in recent years.”

The external conflict comes when Gary (David W. Ross) and James (Jason L. Wood), an affluent homosexual couple, buy the property on which Tomas’ carriage house is situated. The older white men see Carlos as a plaything until one develops feelings for him.

Don’t confuse this couple with the filmmakers. The characters on screen have no qualms about forcing from their homes people who have been there for decades. The filmmakers, on the other hand, are clearly in love with Latino culture. The repeated sensual shots of Mexican-American cuisine are just one manifestation.

“Quinceanera” refuses to stack the moral deck; there are no villains here — not the stubborn father, not the gentrifying yuppies. Mr. Glatzer and Mr. Westmoreland can empathize with almost anyone. Mr. Garcia jokes, “I didn’t know they were white until someone pointed it out.”

“Quinceanera” could have been an agenda-heavy film making a point in an election year. Instead, it’s a warmly human story about culture and change that reminds us that both sides in any such conflict have values they hold dear.

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