Sweet 15 parties big as ever in region

Claudia is a shy, stout adolescent, but today she looks like a princess in a fluorescent fairy tale as she dances in her electric-blue gown and jewel-encrusted sneakers for the 250 guests at her 15th birthday party in Mexico City.

More than 4,000 kilometers away in Colombia, Catalina is also wearing bright blue for her 15th birthday, though she has opted for the traditional high heels - which her grandmother knelt to slip on her feet in a symbolic welcome to womanhood.

This is the quinceanera, or Sweet 15, when Latin American families traditionally pull out all the stops to celebrate their daughters' birthdays with a lavish rite of passage.