When Mexican girls turned fifteen they often were given a special party and a birthday mass as in this photograph taken outside a church in Guadalajara. The custom was observed in Utah, too. USHS collections, courtesy of Maria Munoz.
The Evolution of Culture and Tradition in Utah's Mexican-American Community BY EDWARD H . MAYER
the early Spanish and Mexican history of Utah — particularly the Dominguez-Escalante expedition of 1776-77 — the establishment of an energetic Mexican-American culture has been a twentieth-century phenomenon. That culture varies from those developed in other states of the Southwest, perhaps because of population D E S P I T E LOCAL EMPHASIS ON
Dr. Mayer is director of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah.
