The philosopher Plato once claimed that the purpose of education is “to ensure that the habit and aspirations of the old generation are transmitted to the younger- and then presumably to the next one after that” (Plochmann). In “Reporting Live from Tomorrow,” from his book Stumbling On Happiness, Daniel Gilbert likens this transmission of beliefs to the process of genetic replication, arguing that like bad genes, false beliefs—those which do not, in fact, contribute to an individual’s happiness—can easily become “super-replicators,” within a culture (Gilbert 171). In Julia Alvarez’s Once Upon a Quinceañera, the author further exposes an example of a false belief in the titular Latin-American tradition (Alvarez 46). Alvarez’s description of the quinceañera and its function in Latin American culture reveals the ways in which Gilbert’s notion of false beliefs are blindly accepted and perpetuated in communities.
The focus of Gilbert’s book is the achievement of human happiness, and in the chapter titled “Reporting Live from Tomorrow,” he addresses the notion of false beliefs, or values to which happiness is attributed, but that may not actually increase—and may potentially decrease—individual happiness overall. “Accurate beliefs,” he claims, “give us power,” and therefore it makes sense that they are so easily transmitted from one generation or person to another (Gilbert 171). However, humans also have a tendency to proliferate false beliefs just as easily. The only criteria needed for false beliefs to be spread effectively from generation to generation is that “they compensate for [potential] costs by promoting their own means of transmission” (171). The beliefs which are passed on universally become known as “super-replicators.” As an example, Gilbert states that the belief “‘Children bring happiness’ is a super-replicator.” He claims that “every human culture tells its members that having children will make them happy” (Gilbert 175). According to the author, however, “if we measure the actual satisfaction of people who have children, a very different story emerges” (175). He cites a dramatic decrease in material satisfaction amongst new parents and an increase in the same measure once the children have left home. In other words, even though all cultures hold, and pass on to younger generations, the belief that parenthood will provide individual happiness, statistics show this to be a false belief (176). In Alvarez’s Once Upon a Quinceañera, the traditional rite of passage for Latin-American teenage girls, is shown to be a super-replicator, and a false belief. A celebration taking place on a Latina girl’s fifteenth birthday, in the most general terms, “the desired result of the ritual is to make a girl ready and willing to assume the traditional place of a woman as defined within a given culture” (Alvarez 50) Historically, a quinceañera served as “a rehearsal wedding without a groom,” a “ritual [which] enacts an old paradigm of the patriarchy” (49). However, as a Latina girl in America, the author’s own celebration, and those of many American girls today, are framed more as a transition from girlhood into being “smart, resourceful, independent women” (49). In both instances, the “quince,” as Alvarez calls it, is the function of “a community grooming a young lady for her entry into womanhood” (49), even if their definitions of a woman’s role in the community varied.
This particular belief in the ritual perpetuates throughout the generations, making it a super-replicator. The quinceañera is replicated implicitly with Latin-American communities. In other words, it is something that is universally assumed will happen when a young Latina girl reaches her fifteenth birthday. Furthermore, it is fueled by “a greedy market,” as the events are known for being extravagant and expensive (Alvarez, 49). The author illustrates the universality of the ritual by describing her acquaintance Isabella’s experience:
“When I turned fifteen, everybody started having quinceañeras. I mean everybody. Quinceañeras know no social or class boundaries. You might not have the money but you have a quinceañera for your daughter. The family is making that statement. We may not be rich but we value our daughter.” (Alvarez 47).
This passage is significant because it expresses the implicit belief in Latin-American cultures that, for whatever reason, the daughter is a valuable member of the family and he community at large.
The examples above are just two instances of times when “some of our cultural wisdom about happiness looks suspiciously like a false belief” (Gilbert 172). The belief mentioned above (that having children leads to happiness) is perpetuated from one generation to another without critical examination. It allows for humans to adapt, thrive, and ensure the continuation of the species in their given environments. Like bad genes that are passed on to offspring because they do not immediately threaten the survival of the species, “false beliefscan and do become super-replicators,” (171) that serve to perpetuate certain values regardless of their negative consequences. And even though it is a super-replicator, the belief in the quinceañera does not appear on the surface to be a false belief because it has some positive benefits within the community. According to Alvarez’s friend Isabella, “Quinceañeras are about creating strong women” (Alvarez 47), and she spreads this message to as many young girls as she can. The alleged social benefit of proliferating this particular belief is that girls who participated in the ritual, she found, “didn’t drop out of school, didn’t get pregnant, didn’t get in trouble” (46). Isabella argued that not only were young girls given an experience which helped to engender a sense of self-worth, but they were also granted initiation into a social support network that would better ensure material success in the girl’s future. However, another interpretation of the quinceañera, specifically that of academic Bruce Lincoln, reveals the ritual to be a proverbial “bad gene”—a false belief that has no impact on a young girl’s actual future material happiness. Lincoln’s argument draws from theorist Arnold van Gennep’s observation that in contrast to male rites of passage, female coming-of-age rites do not involve the transfer of actual power within the community, only mythical power. As Lincoln states:
“Women’s initiation offers a religious compensation for a sociopolitical deprivation. Or to put it differently, it is an opiate for an oppressed class It is rare that a ritual can alter the basic ways in which a society is organized.” (Alvarez 50).
When applied to the subject of the quinceañera, the argument is that the daughter’s value, the central focus of the ritual, is only an illusion created by the ceremony itself. The rite of passage instills no actual power on the young girl at age fifteen, but merely creates a false belief, or a narrative of value, that fails to provide for material happiness in the end. “Even if she is at the bottom of the American heap,” Alvarez observes, “if the young Latina girl can believe the fantasy” of being a princess for a day, or even a lifetime, “then she can bear the burden of her disadvantage” long enough to pass the same dreams on to her daughters (Alvarez 50). Furthermore, the high cost of a quinceañera—the average price of the event has been estimated at about $5000—can have a negative impact on the young girl’s immediate economic circumstances (55).
In other words, the belief that a quinceañera has a real impact on the future happiness of a young Latina girl is simply a false belief, super-replicated without critical analysis by a culture with a means of transmitting the value efficiently from one generation to another. Though the belief holds some apparent value—lower rates of drop-outs, teen pregnancy, and crime—the positive result of its replication within the culture is, at best, temporary, and at its worst, merely an illusion.
Works Cited
Alvarez, Julia. “Selections from Once Upon A Quinceañera.” Emerging: Contemporary Reading for Writers, 2nd ed., 45-63. New York: Bedford/St Martins (2013).
Gilbert, Daniel. “Reporting Live from Tomorrow.” Emerging: Contemporary Reading for Writers, 2nd ed., 167-187. New York: Bedford/St Martins (2013).
Plato, & Plochmann, G. K. Plato. New York: Dell Pub. Co. (1973).
